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Good short read on weave styles: https://netcomposites.com/guide/reinforcements/woven-fabrics/ For the purposes of a kevlar/wood core canoe, I'm not sure fiber orientation matters much for strength/stiffness. The only thing you probably don't want to do is lay a satin weave inside and out...

Here's a video of the technique for using the filleting wax, and spraying the gelcoat.

Thanks, Guys. I put in a good weekend and got quite a bit of work done. I pressed filleting wax into the space where the flange and the parting dam met the plug. Ive never used the soft filleting wax before, but it worked well. It is more fragile than plasticine clay, but easier to smooth...

The plug got 4 coats of Partall paste wax. I found it fairly quick to apply it with the DA sander at low speed using a foam polishing pad. After each coat of wax on the plug, I would wax a sheet of Melamine paneling standing against the wall of the garage. I then cut the panel into 8" strips...

I sanded the second coat of duratec to 400 grit, then gave it a brief compounding with aquaBuff 2000. The surface isn’t perfect, but I plan to polish to the mold itself after it’s released. That should knock down any pinholes that are still there. Now I can start adding coats of release...

I was away on vacation for a week, but am now back at it. I marked all the low spots and holes with a paint pen, then applied body filler (bondo) to each one. Then I block sanded each bondo repair, and sanded the entire thing with 180grit on the DA sander. The duratec primer/surfacer is...

Interesting that 1.5” narrower is enough to justify a redesign. I guess we don’t know all the modifications that were done. Looking at at the photos shows the partial-rib layup very well. Likely full blankets of the spread-tow carbon and Kevlar, with partials of carbon over the foam floor and...

I guess with the joint compound I officially departed from a standard canoe build. I can't put away the woodworking tools quite yet, but I have moved into the composite realm. I put two full coats of joint compound on the plug. I sanded the first one roughly, then dusted some old spray...

I need a better name than that, though. Agreed that the speed difference would not be huge. But over distance, small advantages add up!

Setback: 2 days of thunderstorms and 95% humidity has swelled my wood pattern and even buckled it off the forms in some areas. I could have swore it was getting ‘bubbly’ as I was sanding it but I didn’t realize why until today. Unfortunately, last night I also put a coat of drywall compound on...

Because of the negative draft angles, it has to be a two-part mold. I think it will have a single parting flange along the keel line. Because it'll be 20' long, I'm a little unsure of what I'll do with the mold when I'm finished with it or where I will be able to put it, so I had thought...

I used the paper templates to cut out the bow and stern profiles, then I roughed out a 2x4 for the stem and stern transitions and glued them on. Then shaping with the block plane, and sanded a smooth curve. The strips did get a dab of glue where each met the form. With the different curves...

Okay, I finished the stripping and pulled about 1200 staples. I ran the 10" block plane over it in a few different directions to knockdown the seams and even out thick/thin strips and fair the surface a bit . The convex curves planed well with nice piney curls, but the concave sections in the...

So I've been giving this a couple of hours a night and doing about 12-15 strips at a time. It's coming together well. Some notes: -After 5 strips I realized my stapler was crap. It would jam or misfire every third staple and that just wouldn't do. So I got a new reverse-squeeze stapler and...

I was able to start putting some strips on last night. There’s a pretty good twist from the bow flare to the tumblehome on the hips, but so far things seem to be staying in place. It’s good to see the contour coming out just like the model. With the tight curves, though, I think there is...

I finished sanding each form to the line and measured out the strongback to finally mount them. A very satisfying evening as I see the boat profile in full-size. Having each form marked with a waterline and centerline made alignment easy: a laser level can plumb things perfectly straight-...

I printed out the plans to start cutting forms. Adobe will print large PDFs on multiple sheets as a ‘poster’ and will include alignment marks in the corners. I was worried about whether or not I could tape them together precisely enough, but I think everything came out with good enough...

Clint- some things to consider: If you are wanting to pinch in the gunwales like design2, you have to consider how much room you want to have in the boat (above the water). Hydrostatics aside- That’s a big difference between the two designs that can affect how comfortable the boat is to paddle...

Next, I milled the bead and cove to make the stripping go faster/easier. I used a 1/8 radius bit for the 5/32 strips and it worked fine. I mounted the router table to one end of the strongback and used the length of it as an outfeed ramp. Once I dialed in the router settings it was just a...

Time to get physical. I just returned from a week up around Basswood Lake in the BW, where I napped in my hammock and thought about how I want to make the parting flanges for the canoe mold. But anyway, the build has advanced from the digital realm to the physical world. I re-surfaced the...