Shape!

Aloha friends, much has happened and more is about to happen! I have finally put the top deck together, lashing it together with trunnels and all. After much precision work and planing and humming and hawing, I put all the deck beams in one gun'l, and then worked the other gun'l on to it, bending it all into shape and holding it in place with clamps and the end forms before I lashed it all together. Sighting down the center only proved quickly that taking my time had paid off and she seemed as true as true can be!

 It was a very rewarding part of the build, finally being able to see part of the finished product and knowing that it's not going to come undone again. It's only going to get better looking from here on out, hopefully.

It was also a fairly meditative process as well as learning and using some new techniques. I used the Eskimo slipknot (I don't know if that's a racist term here or knot) a two types of lashing that were very similar. Both involve a hole in each piece of wood you're lashing together, be it gun'l to gun'l or gun'l to beam, a series of loops between the two, and hitches to tighten it by compressing the two legs of the loop. Using artifical sinew and clamps to hold the shape, I'm quite confident that the sinew will hold and not stretch for a long time.

Here you can see trunnels, or what's left of them. These are 3/8th dowels that I sawed down the middle of, leaving about 3/8th in the middle, so that it had slotted ends. Put that in a hole through both gunnels, then tap in a wedge of wood to hold shape on each side and boom, you got an old school fastening device working it's magic. The next one is further down so that it goes through different grain and doesn't weaken the first one.

 In this photo you can see that just down from the trunnels is the first lash put in, which held the whole deck together with little strain. The trunnels main purpose I think is to hold the tips together very precisely, because holding the tips perfectly flush is the easiest way to have a symmetrical kayak. I also redid this lash here later, to bring the ends together tighter and make for a quicker craft, hopefully.

Here you can see the lashings on a deck beam. There are ten or twelve of these right now in addition to the end lashings and trunnels which I believe is going to give me plenty of strength and worry-free deck as I move on to the ribs soon.

Shaping up to a real beaut!