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brain fart for s-n-g deck
By:Dean Trexel
Date: 9/5/2001, 2:56 am
In Response To: Plywood Walrus deck design help (Ben Staley)

I worked up a sketch of this idea, but unfortunately photopoint.com won't let me link to it anymore, so you'll have to use your imagination on this one:

1) Imagine that you've installed a flat foredeck from the bow to about the front bulkhead, and a flat deck aft of the cockpit.

2) Now imagine sitting in the kayak, holding a piece of plywood for the deck above your legs. You're bending it CLC-like, with one edge of the plywood at either shear, forming a cylindrical shape.

3) Now imagine that that bent deck is intersecting the flat foredeck. It intersects it in a parabola. Cut the bent deck and the flat foredeck with this parabola shape and stitch them together. Attach the sides of the bent deck with shear clamps.

I'll post a picture if someone can recommend a good free site for image hosting.

Getting the deck to go from flat to curved as you suggest requires a compound bending that is very tough to do. It buckles the wood a bit. Betsie Bay Kayak does this, but they have a vacuum mold that draws the plywood into shape while they attach the hull. Trying to get a compound bend without their fancy apparatus will involve much cursing. That's why I thought that making a flat section and a bent section joined at this parabolic joint would make the job easier, and would look better than the 3-panel or peaked deck.

Also do a search on this site for Bobby Curtis and his Sea Spirit. He did some custom bending/forming on that boat and has a website somewhere.

Dean

Messages In This Thread

Plywood Walrus deck design help
Ben Staley -- 9/4/2001, 4:14 pm
Re: Plywood Walrus deck design help *Pic*
Bobby Curtis -- 9/6/2001, 3:00 pm
Re: Thanks Bobby
Ben Staley -- 9/6/2001, 4:17 pm
Re: Plywood Walrus deck design help
Mike Hanks -- 9/5/2001, 3:00 pm
Re: Plywood Walrus deck design help
Shawn Baker -- 9/5/2001, 3:39 pm
Re: HMMMM...more choices.
Ben Staley -- 9/5/2001, 5:15 pm
Re: Plywood Walrus deck design help
Ben Staley -- 9/5/2001, 3:38 pm
Re: Plywood Walrus deck design help
Mike Hanks -- 9/6/2001, 10:53 am
brain fart for s-n-g deck
Dean Trexel -- 9/5/2001, 2:56 am
Re: Deck sketch
Ben Staley -- 9/5/2001, 10:25 am
a modification of dean's approach
mike allen ---> -- 9/5/2001, 5:03 pm
PolaroidDigital.com
Dan Ruff -- 9/5/2001, 9:28 am
if you're curious...
Dean Trexel -- 9/5/2001, 3:23 am
here it is... *Pic*
Dean Trexel -- 9/5/2001, 12:52 pm
the BBK tortured deck *Pic*
Dean Trexel -- 9/5/2001, 1:02 pm
Re: Plywood Walrus deck design help
Don Beale -- 9/4/2001, 4:50 pm
Re: Plywood Walrus deck design help
Ben Staley -- 9/4/2001, 5:14 pm
Re: Plywood Walrus deck design help
Ted Henry -- 9/4/2001, 8:01 pm
Re: Plywood Walrus deck design help
Rehd -- 9/4/2001, 7:15 pm
Re: Plywood Walrus deck design help
Ken Sutherland -- 9/5/2001, 2:32 pm
Re: Plywood Walrus deck design help
Don Beale -- 9/4/2001, 5:27 pm