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Bass Boats - ������� itBoat Jun 25, �� that is really nice!! unfortunately, i cant weld aluminium i can weld metal, but i have never tried to weld aluminium an di heard it is not easy. besides, i did a quick search today an di couldnt find any aluminium angle, only round or square solid pieces for machining. so i went to Home Depot (we also have it here in mexico) and for less than $30 i got enough material to build all. Feb 5, - Explore Ean's board "Jon boat modification ideas" on Pinterest. See more ideas about jon boat modifications, jon boat, john boats pins. my earlier boats had a shorter cockpit and a longer area covered over behind the cockpit, however my thinking has changed. I now build with a short forward deck with a gama seal hatch and a short rear deck with a gama seal hatch. The rest of the boat is open for the most flexibility.
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Since you do not want to waste all that space in the ends where else are you gonna put your car keys, wallet, camera, lunch, nice cold drink, dry towel, etc. Gama seal lids are designed to snap onto the standard five gallon plastic bucket, making it into a resealable water and air tight storage container.

You can also find them on Amazon. Pack the cargo tanks, then drop the buckets in. We use the buckets instead of expensive dry bags, though dry bags would also work in the holes. Now take the gama seal ring, and use it to trace hole for the deck hatch. Set the completed hatches aside, they will go on after the fabric skin is on. Foam will get small dents in narrow areas like the cockpit rails if the kayak is strapped down to roof top carrier bars with the force on the narrow areas.

The boat does flex when pounding into waves, the wood rails in the cockpit rim are needed to keep the hull from bowing out or splitting. On the original sawfish red, blue and white version I made my rails from scraps of plywood, there is a break in each rail about a foot from the front of the cockpit.

The force of the hull flexing caused the fabric skin to tear and the foam to crack right at each break in the rails. Since then I've replaced these rails with ones that run the full length of the cockpit with no breaks, and no cracks or tears have showed up in the cockpit sides. If you go with sectioned cockpit rails stir sticks, etc , you need to have another layer of wood bridging each break in the rails.

Another section of plywood, stir stick, etc that is 6 inches long three inches on each side of the break will take care of any stresses. If you are going to use the seats that clip into the cockpit rails, plywood rails, at least 1. I noticed that Home Depot now sells wood stir sticks near the paint counter, I wonder if all of you asking made them suspicious. You want to make sure the wood is flush with the upper edge of the rail so it will protect it, I install my strips a bit high and then sand them smooth with the rail for perfect match.

I use some 4 inch PVC pipe cut into 1. Now on to the step that makes all those foam layers into one solid boat. I chose bed sheets to cover the hull as they make a lighter layer as the fabric is thinner.

The bed sheets are not as strong and from time to time rocks punch tears in the fabric and dent the foam. You can just live with the dents, as they don't hurt anything, or use some lightweight spackle to fill the dent, sand the spackle smooth when dry, and sand a few inches around the spackle, then use more exterior paint to glue a patch over the dent.

Or use heavier fabric. Using canvas like the canvas drop cloths from Home Depot will make a tougher skin, it will also end up using more paint and weighing more. I use queen or king sized sheets from the thrift store as they cover the most area. I look for the sheets that are mostly cotton, don't stretch as much, and are thicker. You can use fitted sheets elastic in the corners but flat sheets are the best.

I cut away any seams or edges that are thick, as these leave lumps in the boat hull. If you leave a flat stern on your boats the way I do, start by covering the stern , wrapping fabric around each side of the boat from the stern, and slicing the wrinkles and overlapping the edges to get it all to lay smooth.

I try to use a scrap from a previous job for this, if you don't have any, use an old pillow case, or cut a corner of the big sheet off. You want a piece big enough to completely cover the stern panel and overlap a few inches around each side beyond.

Roll glue onto the panels around the stern, far enough to glue the extra fabric down. Wrinkles will show at the corners, slice the top of each wrinkle with the razor blade, and glue the upper edge boat upper over the lower edge.

Now drape the large sheet over the bottom of the hull , diagonal with a queen or king size sheet will cover the whole bottom of the boat for a 12 footer.

Once you have the fabric all smooth, pick up the unglued fabric from the bow end and fold it back over the glued fabric on the stern. Pull back the last inch or two laying in the glue and roll on another two to three feet of glue, lay the fabric into the glue and work from the anchored end of the fabric already in the glue, up the middle of the fabric and out to the edges. If your fabric was to short to cover the whole panel , overlap the next section by two or three inches and start the next section.

Once the bottom is on, start on one side. Due to the curves of the hull the fabric will end up with wrinkles after it is pulled and pressed into the glue.

Avoid having glue seep through the fabric as much as possible, as this will keep the paint from sticking to and filling the weave of the fabric. The one place I used heavy canvas drop cloth on this kayak was the cockpit floor, I wanted the most strength and protection for the floor, and an anti skid treatment as well.

I cut the floor canvas an inch or two wider than the cockpit so it would overlap the bed sheets used to cover the sides of the cockpit. Once the end fabric is in place, glue the sides. I trim the cockpit canvas just at the bottom of the cockpit rails, then use long strips of cotton bed sheets to cover the rails and overlap the canvas on the inside and the edges of the bottom sheet on the outside. I cut slits into the deck to lock the tabs on the rims into the deck.

Using PLp glue the rings into the deck, lay a bead of PLp around the rim near the top, then press the rim into the deck aligning the locking tab in the deck slots. Once you paint the thin fabric, you can change colors, but it won't ever stick as well as the first coat does.

I found Sawfish tended to wander from side to side just a bit when paddling, I needed a way for the kayak to go in a straight line, so I came up with a plastic skeg.

This skeg was a bit undersized, while I could make the kayak go where I needed with a bit of extra muscle, It is just to small for safety. My wife was caught in a strong wind in Sawfish recently and ended up on the downwind shore, she just couldn't get the bow to turn into the wind, no matter how hard she paddled At the same time some friends of ours were also out on the same pond and were able to make it back thanks in part to the long strake I added to their Sawfish kayaks.

In their case this strake runs all the way from under the forward bulkhead, to almost the end of the stern. This seems to be a good length, without causing problems with getting in and out of the boat with the bow just resting on the beach.

However their foam strake caused another problem, the stern of the kayak was out of the water because the extra foam pushed it up. This causes the bow to be down in the water, making them slower. I tried a strake made of foam on sawfish, but found it made the boat slower. You may have noticed the foam strakes on the outer edge that some people have added to replicate the designs found on plastic kayaks. It turns out that those extra edges molded into plastic hulls are not for stability or tracking, but instead to keep the thin plastic hull from deforming in the water.

Look at the way fish are designed, they have smooth bodies and thin fins to reduce drag. Plastic fins recreate this better than any other way. You need a plastic cutting board the longer the better. I found smaller cutting boards at the dollar store. I was able to make three fins from each cutting board, making them cheaper than the harbor freight fins.

Start by measuring 2" from the long Diy Bass Boat Deck Extension Zero edge of the cutting board, this will be your total fin height. Measure 3" from that line and mark another line between the two long lines. Repeat for the opposite end. Now cut along the 2" line and the lines that run through the holes you just bored. Remove the plastic between these holes so that you create "legs" for the fin.

These legs will set the correct depth for the fin in the hull. Bore holes every inch or so in the legs, see pictures these will be the only real way that the fin will be anchored in the hull. Lay out the fins along the center line, you want the stern most one to end where the stern of the boat is two inches across on the bottom.

Set the next fin 2 inches, minimum, forward of the aft most fin, I like to have them 4 inches apart, all the way up the center line you don't want them to be too close together, as the fabric glued to the foam in between each fin keeps the hull strong. Use longer fins toward the back of the boat, and shorter fins from the shorter cutting board toward the front.

You want to have a fin under the bow, with the forward end just where the foam is two inches across the bottom. This fin will be what hits the ground when you beach your boat, and will help you slide off the beach when launching. Set the legs of the fin on the hull and trace around them skeg video.

Using the razor knife cut along the lines, bury the blade all the way into the foam. You want each leg pocket to be 1" deep into the foam. Test that the fin sits flush with the hull, with the legs fully inserted into the hull.

Dig out any foam that blocks them. Dig small pockets off to the side that taper away from the skin, in line with each hole mark. Do this off to both sides. Using the tip of the adhesive tube, pump PLpremium adhesive into each pocket.

Press the cutting board legs all the way into the pockets, use a bondo spatula to remove the excess glue around the edges.

As the adhesive cures it swells, this will lock the fin into the hull, and will try to push the fin back out of the holes unless you hold it in until cured. Lay bricks on each end of the fin to keep it fully inserted. Excess glue will push out around the fins, I use a flush cut saw to cut the glue and then rip it off. The row of fins reminds me of the plates on the back of a dinosaur, or the "saw blade" nose of a real saw fish. Handles are an important part of securing and carrying your boat around, since the boat is made of foam, the only way to attach anything securely to it is to embed it in the foam with a good glue, just like the skegs in the last step were.

I do the same thing for rope anchors for the bow and right behind the cockpit for towing or gear lashing. Drill vertically into the foam until the bit holder is buried, repeat for the second mark. You might be able to use the phillips screw driver for this also.

Then make sure the strap has enough free length to not trap your knuckes against the hull. I use the same idea to make small loops right behind the cockpit to use as tow points for ropes to other boats, and as gear leash anchors for fishing rods, etc.

I also like to add one to the bow for the bow line for securing to the car. Now that the paint is dry, you still need to add the hatch covers. You want them to be easy to slide in, with just a little friction. Sand or cut away any fabric or foam that interferes. Use the thin edge of the straight blade screw driver to cut a small groove all the way around the hole, about a quarter of an inch from the top skin. Be sure to have the hatch covers in while the foam is curing. It won't take you long on a kayaking blog or page to find out that most paddlers, find their kayak seats to be uncomfortable.

I agree. I started with just sitting on a square throwable boat cushion, after a while this feels like concrete My rear end gets numb and painfull before too long. I have a folding stadium that has a thin hard foam seat and a fabric back. I guess it beats a hard cement, steel, wood, or aluminum bench, but not by much I bought foam to make what many claim is the nicest foam seat for kayaking ever, however I haven't had time to make the seats yet.

Finally, I tried out what I think is the cheap, easy answer, a stadium seat that actually doesn't hurt my rear. Searching around on the web I discovered it seems to be usually sold under the name " Oniva seat ", I was getting them at a local discount chain, but they no longer carry them. Now I see that some Wallmarts have them. The seat most often recomended on paddling sites is the GCI sitbacker. The Oniva seat folds flat and has a carry strap, I can also see it being used as a camping seat, and even a cushion for a quick nap in the sun.

In my tandem sawfish, Tango, we use beach chairs , which are folding lawn chairs, with really short legs, intended to allow you to sit at the beach with your body out of the sand, but not high enough to be unstable on the sand. The sand chairs aren't perfect, they have a seat back angle that is slightly too reclined for putting extra power into the paddling, however for an easy paddle or for fishing they should work just fine.

If you look at the tubes and joints of the seat, it is easy to see that some minor modifications could make the seat have a more vertical back to it. I'll get around to it someday, but until then, I just sit forward a little and paddle, it works for a few hours without any strain.

Just be sure that you can fit a sand chair into your cockpit, I can fit the sand chairs just fine in Tango, but the cockpit in Sawfish is too narrow for a sand chair. My most recent seating experiment isn't finalized yet, but I like it Bass Boat Diy Upgrades 700 the best.

I like it because the seat is clipped to the hull, and the high back gives me the ability to control the tilt of the kayak hull from my hips called edging in kayak lingo, a technique used for steering. Fishing from a kayak has become a very popular activity in the past few years. Just about any kayak can be outfitted for fishing, at a cost that is much less than that of a motorboat and trailer.

Not to mention how much healthier it is to paddle in and out. By widening the hull to 36" in the middle he made his boat wide enough to stand up in. He also added foot pedal steering connected to a trolling motor. He also made a nice video showing the details of his kayak, and a full build video that explains how he put it all together.

NiteWolfFishing has another great video of his Wolfeyak. Rick INSC has built a couple motorized foam fishing kayaks. Mandrews has also been making a good series of youtube videos of his Sawfish build.

I share the link of his test under motor power. Matt fletcher built a short one as well. I haven't gone fishing since high school, so don't ask me for tips on how to rig your boat, I would recommend that you head on over to Kayak diy projects and tutorials and do some research on the mods most kayak fishermen find useful. From what I see, anchor travelers, power poles, and fish finder mounts are the most popular, and the guys there love the foam kayak idea, so don't be afraid to post up what you are building.

I had a friend ask me for two Sawfish kayaks so he could take his wife fishing. He liked the idea of build in rod holders, and his wife asked me to make the sides a little higher. I started with the basic Sawfish design, but made the aft bulkhead wider to allow rod holders to be embedded in the foam. I've since gone away from adding the extra thick thick bulkhead with rod holders and instead recommend a crate set up for fishing, with some straps or bungee cord to hold it in place.

Many of these fishing modded sawfish end up getting a battery and motor, be aware that this means you must register your boat in every place I know of, save your receipts for all of the materials used!

I was at the Old Town factory store recently and noticed that the latest design they have, has the motor fixed in place, and the steering is done with a rudder. This could be done with the motor mounted anywhere, even off to one side. I have an idea for a larger hatch you could use here. He might get reported as a UFO from a distance, but no one will be able to miss him on the water!

Use a little five minute epoxy to glue the bottle over the lens end of the flashlight, fabricate a PVC pipe to hold the flashlight higher than your head behind the seat, and you have an excellent light for after dark. Just be aware , if you add a motor to your kayak the regulations for lighting get much tougher. Any light you have on a motor boat has to be visible for two miles in the dark, there are only a few lights with this rating. If you don't have a motor, a flashlight you can wave is good enough your cell phone probably has one you could use in an emergency I prefer those cheap Energizer LED headlamps, if a boat approaches I stare at them and shake my head, making the light appear to flash.

I tried a few different things to bore the holes for the rod holders, and ultimately created a new tool to do the job. Since the cockpit floor is 7. Using a saw, I cut teeth into one end of the pipe. By inserting two screwdrivers into the holes in the top, I could lean on them and turn, boring a perfect hole into the foam.

When I hit the depth I wanted, I gave it a few turns then pulled the tool out. The plug came out in the cutting pipe, leaving a perfect hole.

I asked for which sizes to use on the best kayak fishing facebook page and was told that 1. I made a tool in both sizes, and put two of each size in each kayak, bored into the aft bulkhead. I angled the outboard pipes so that they would hold a rod at a good angle for trolling, and put the center two vertically for out of the way storage. I could have probably added five or six holders, but four seemed the standard number seen on most DIY kayak mods.

To keep the end of the PVC pipes from tearing up the rod handles, I flared the ends of the pipes with heat, using an incandescent light bulb as the heat source, then holding the pipes under the faucet while flared by a glass bottle until they took the new shape. After the whole hull was wrapped in fabric, I sanded the outside of the PVC pipe with 60 grit, then glued the pipes in with gorilla glue.

I also added loops of nylon strap with the ends glued into the foam with PLp, to anchor rod leashes too, with one anchor between each set of rod holders. Even if you don't ever plan on fishing from your kayak, adding the rod holders will make it that much more useful for you, the rod holders are handy spots to install an umbrella for sun protection, or anchor a light in for night time paddling. It will also make it that much easier to sell, and for more money if you can call it a fishing kayak.

The gear anchor loops are also a great place to tie off another kayak when you end up towing another boat. For damage to the foam, use the razor to cut around the damage, don't go deeper than an inch.

Use paint to glue the edges of the patch to the fabric that overlaps around the foam, then paint the new fabric patch to match the rest of the hull.

Most of us are not fortunate enough to live on the water, even if I did, I would want variety. New waters mean new scenery, and places to explore and discover. One lake I paddled recently, has almost no undeveloped shore line. I spotted ducks, cormarants, and Canada geese, then was amazed to get a fly by from a Bald Eagle!

More bird types on this very urban pond than I've found on remote Adirondack ponds, or secluded spots in the river. Getting your boat to these spots couldn't be easier. Unlike plastic or wood kayaks, Sawfish is super light, easy enough for almost anyone to toss up on roof racks. Thanks to being light weight Sawfish can be carried a good distance without becoming a strain. While exploring the Adirondacks I carried Sawfish nearly a quarter mile from one pond to another. This was a marked canoe carry with a smooth enough path through the woods.

Unlike most people who carry the boat across, then return and carry their gear, I simply put Sawfish over one shoulder, hung the seat strap over the other and carried the paddle with my free hand. It took me longer to answer questions about the boat, than the portage took! Thanks to the light weight, I've also been able to park and walk a distance to the water, much further than most kayakers or canoers would want to deal with. Another way to carry Sawfish is resting on the top of my head like a hat, thanks to the softness of the foam, it doesn't hurt like a plywood boat does.

A simpler, cheaper option than a roof rack, would be canoe blocks, foam blocks with a groove cut into them to lock over the rails of the boat. Either way, you need a good way to secure the boat to the car. In the above pictures you will notice the bow rope is tied to a strap coming up next to the hood. I've added these anchor points to every car I've owned. To make it easier to carry my paddles around I carry them in a bag , this way they are protected, and aren't all trying to slide out and fall when I carry them.

As soon as you start planning to build a boat, you also need to keep an eye out for the gear to use it safely. Try some on at a walmart or boating store, if the prices scare you off, or they don't have paddling ones, Amazon and Ebay, even Craigslist are good options. I have three I use depending on the season. An Onyx movement probably the most budget friendly with quality features and comfort, I wear this for cool weather paddling. An NRS Ninja for the ocean, rough water, warm weather paddling.

For hot weather, flat water paddling I wear an inflatable belt pack PFD it won't save my life if I am unconscious in the water, or panic and don't get it on correctly, but it gives me a fighting chance of surviving in most conditions.

Any PFD you wear is times better than one left in the boat I have a variety of paddles, mostly from discount stores, my favorites have a graphite shaft so they weigh very little. I prefer blades that are brightly colored, as they tend to flash in the sun, increasing your safety on the water through better visibility.

I keep our family set of paddles in one paddle quiver bag to protect them and keep them organized. You will have to sculpt a foam base under the seat for comfort, or buy one of the very expensive ones with a thicker cushion under the seat. I always carry my phone in the boat for safety. I also use the here app for data free, off line, GPS positioning and maps. I keep the phone in a phone dry bag that allows me to hear music, and take pictures through it. Sawfish was the first boat I designed, my 10th or so boat build.

It is light weight, fast relative term , inexpensive, unsinkable, and stable. I really only had time to build this boat starting in April of , and even then only spent one or two hours two or three days a week to not only complete this hull, but cut out the parts for three more, and partially assemble another.

I cannot put a time to build with the boat because of this, but it won't really take that much longer than a plywood boat. It will never rot, it will never sink, it is stable enough to trust your kids in, can be built for cheap money, with stuff found at home stores and discount retailers. Even real snobbish kayakers will not know you have a home built boat until they take a close look at it.

Before you launch your kayak, be sure to write your phone number and name inside a cargo compartment. I live in a state where human and sail powered craft do not need any registration, however there are states and countries that require a registration, and that requires a hull number.

I'm using the same idea Gavin Atkin uses for the mouseboats, and shorty pen uses for the Puddle duck racer. When you get your hull to the 3D stage glued together into a boat shape, doesn't have to be sculpted yet even send me a message here on instructables, I'll give you a hull number and will keep a list on the next page. I ask that the picture be with the boat in the water, it looks nicer. This is the only payment I ask for answering your questions and sharing my plans and ideas for free.

If you want to see which numbers go with which hull, follow this link and scroll through. Sawfish the original boat , MA pantherworks 2. He also figured out the better way to do the decks on Sawfish He wrote about his build experience in Duckworks Magazine.

Brickfish, BrianM, first Sawfish 11, shortened to fit in and out of the builders apartment. Sunburn , sawfish 12, built by my 12 year old son, possibly the last using the old cut pattern.

Wolfeyak , Mark Alexander. I know there are more out there, post your pictures in the comments here, or Rowerwet. A this is the most common question I get, yes you can use EPS, the beaded foam panels, just be aware that they will absorb water unless carefully sealed. You might want to consider coating the whole bottom of the hull with marine epoxy, or some other tough, waterproof membrane.

Stored dry, especially someplace hot, with any tears or holes carefully repaired after each paddle, you will probably be fine. A you can make two inch foam by laminating one inch foam sheets together, I've done it with gorilla glue, just keep the loops to an overlapping pattern of three inch circles.

You could do this with other thicknesses, just be sure that the bottom of the kayak is one and a half inches thick minimum, two inches is best for strength. I can't find the glues you recommend, or they are very expensive in my country. A This is more of an issue than I ever imagined, my best answer is to find any boat building blogs in your country, and see if there is a local equivalent. More than one builder has found something locally made and sold that was close enough. When you do find it, and are happy with the results, please share that info here or on my facebook page, it will help others in the same situation.

The more this design is built around the world, the better the support will be for those who want to build outside of North America. Have you or anyone ever tried some other coating than the ones mentioned in the Instructable? A If it hasn't been mentioned, then most likely no.

I have a system that works, and I'm all about low cost and simple, If you do try it, please post back here or on my facebook page in a year or two and let us know what the long term results are, you might have the next great idea.

A Yes! A Yes, but aware that a motor makes it so that you have to register the boat, save all of your receipts for what you buy to prove you paid taxes on the materials. You also may have stricter regulations about required gear and lighting. If you want to add a gasoline motor, be aware that gasoline eats foam, use plywood encased in fiberglass with bilges that do not drain toward the motor or tank storage.

Finding a motor small enough to be safe may also be an issue, let us know what you discover. A I finally added a few videos for the steps people seem to have the hardest time understanding. Click on the blue links throughout the text to see the videos and links. Very, one year on our vacation, my family took a fleet of sawfish kayaks down down the Saco River in North Conway, NH.

I was in my Seafoam mouseboat, which is only made of 1" foam instead of 2". The Saco is known for mild whitewater. It has plenty of rocks, and gravel , and our boats all bumped and thumped over them. With the foam strake, Sawfish got hung up a bunch , and I had to get out and push my wife over the shallow spots. The two 8 foot sawfish have only plastic fins, they bumped and thumped over the rocks. After the trip I inspected each foam hull, they had grooves in the foam and fabric, but no holes or tears.

I left the boats upside down in the sun for a few hours, and the grooves disappeared due to the self healing nature of foam. I've also taken Sawfish out in the surf in York, Maine. Each wave was actually dropping me from crest to trough, with a splash, and the hull didn't show any stress at all. Once I. I gave them the name clownfish , but after a while I realized that the boats were really just a short sawfish. I made the stern too wide on these, and it causes drag, if you build one, make the stern at the water line small and pointy for better speed.

I took the Sawfish 8 for a paddle, it handled my lbs just fine. It is easy to create any length kayak you want with the sawfish design, I decided to make a tandem kayak for my wife and I to paddle. My wife prefers to be in the same boat when we paddle. I prefer her to be as well, because then I don't have to wait for her.

I took the standard length Sawfish 12 and added 4 feet to the middle, at the six foot station. I really think a two foot stretch would have been plenty, but the 16 foot boat works just fine for the two of us, and as a solo boat when I go alone. She can stop to fiddle with her hair, or take a drink, even read a book or take a nap, while I continue to paddle along.

Duet is my 16' Larsboat , the Larsboat is a Jim Michelak design, that is a simple stretch of his most popular design, the Toto double paddle canoe. The Toto is 13' long, adding three feet to the hull makes it into a fast tandem. My Larsboat is actually about a half a foot longer than the plans. For comparison I have a picture of Sawfish next to Duet at the top, while Duet is a fast seaworthy boat, she is also rather heavy, weighing 65 lbs, not much fun to move on and off of the van, or pick up after a long days paddle.

Here is a video of our new tandem sawfish in action, Tango , is actually a little longer than she needs to be, she could easily handle three paddlers without too much modification. This is just as well, as you can see our youngest rides in Tango with us. Most couples do not get along so well in a tandem, be sure to try one out before building a tandem and then finding out why tandems have the nickname "divorce boat".

Since I first launched Sawfish, I have been using her hard, and testing different ideas on her. I tried two handle anchoring ideas before I was happy. Then we had the day my wife got blown away in Sawfish and ended up on a beach far from the car, because she couldn't control the boat in a strong wind. I added a foam strake to the bottom of the boat to see if it would help with control. This strake made the boat slower, and got hung up on many rocks when we did a family trip on some mild whitewater in North Conway, NH.

I hacked the foam strake back off the bottom of the boat, but that left a bare section of foam right down the middle. The wood cockpit rails had a break in them, and this caused the foam to crack right at the break, and tore the fabric there.

The damage was only in the top layer, and it didn't weaken the boat when it was floating, so I just lived with the damage. The cockpit location was about a foot too far aft, and this made sawfish slow, and hard to handle in a cross wind, moving the seat up as far as possible helped, but didn't fix all of the problem. Finally I took sawfish on an exploring mission, ending up in thick reeds and shallow water.

I split my kayak paddle in half and used each half like ski poles to push through the reeds, until our way was finally blocked by a stone wall. There were rocks and logs in the water, and Sawfish was being bent and beaten harder than any time before. The flexing caused the score line running right down the middle of the foam used in the hull to split, and sawfish began to leak into the cockpit.

After we got back to the shore and were carrying her to the next pond, we found a stick embedded in the foam of the hull. It's been a few years of hard use and no repairs on purpose, to see if the boat would be safe over long term.

The design passed and met all of my expectations, but now it was time to make sawfish over into a boat that would look as great as the sawfish I'm building now.

First I removed the fabric, this was easy, I cut it all the way around with a razor knife, then peeled the fabric off. Then I used the power plane to reshape some of her bottom curves and bow shape to be less square, and flow through the water easier.

I used the ice cream scoop to remove all that extra foam from her bow and stern, and created more useful space for bow and stern cargo tanks. I added a new aft bulkhead a foot forward of where her old one was, a new forward bulkhead, added new decks, and higher cockpit rails with no inward curve to them.

I also added a third bulkhead in the stern, this will enclose a small cargo tank in the very stern, but leave an open area behind the cockpit for fishing gear or a small child to ride. There were a few deeply damaged areas in the foam on the bottom of the hull, I cut them out and glued in new sections of foam to give the hull a smooth surface again.

I used the power plane to remove the plastic cutting board skeg, as it would get in the way of putting on new fabric. Since I wanted a skeg in the stern again, and couldn't get the old one out easily, I cut away the bottom layer of foam in the stern and replaced it with a new piece. Sawfish had no strakes on her bottom, and I found it hard to paddle in a straight line, the boat went sideways almost as fast as it went forward. Since I was over an hour from the nearest Harbor freight, I bought some cutting boards at family dollar and added them to the Sawfish.

I even bought some stencils that say sawfish, and a little sawfish shape stencil, they really dress the boat up, and help identify her. Anybody seeing her on the car or in the water knows what kind of kayak she is! I'v gotten a few questions about the strength of the boat, will it handle rocks and moving water, etc.

To prove it to myself and the rest of you I took it to the most extreme conditions I know of, the surf zone on my favorite beach. I tried it out in the surf on two different days, one was very windy with good surf conditions, I'm not sure what the wave heights were, but I know the waves were covered with surfers and they got plenty of rides.

I punched out through the surf, the boat went through just fine, though many waves came over the bow and filled the cockpit. With a cockpit full of water the boat got harder to handle, but still made good progress and rode over most of the wave.

Once I got past the break I rolled out of the kayak and then rolled it up on one side to dump out the water.

Thanks to the foam it floated high on its side, so all of the water came out. I was able to climb back in with some effort, without filling it up again. This will only work for stronger more agile people as it takes some strong swimming with your legs to get up enough to straddle the hull with your body, then swing your legs around into the hull. I did all of this in water too deep to touch bottom.

NOTE- if you fall out of this boat with any wind, it will sail away quickly, faster than you can swim, keep a rope tied to it to give you something to grab.

I tried to surf the waves back in , but the hull is too long, the skeg too far back, the bow too pointy, and the stern to narrow, for this hull to be able to surf in the big stuff. The bow dug in, the stern came around and I got dumped!

Part of the problem was the lack of a good way to brace my feet in the cockpit, mostly the hull shape is wrong. I do plenty of surfing in a Yakboard, so I know how to surf, but I also know a normal kayak will be swamped, rolled, and handle like a pig in the surf. I see people try to surf in regular kayaks all the time, it is entertaining for me, but not fun for them. Even white water "squirt boats" do not last long, they fill up fast even with a skirt.

Since the boat was no match for the surf, and I really wanted to surf, I launched back through the surf, then paddled over a mile down the beach to get as close to my parents beach cottage as I could, so I could swap Sawfish for a surf kayak.

The seas were very rough thanks to the wind, and most of the rollers this is the north atlantic ocean, gulf of Maine were over my head as they approached, then I would be launched off the top, to smack down on the other side. It made the trip just fine. To make it out without another trip through the washing machine surf, I hopped out of the kayak where I could just touch bottom, then holding onto the bow handle and the paddle in the other hand, I bobbed and walked out of the surf.

Two days later the surf was much lower, the waves were perfect for kids on boogie boards, so I tried the surf in Sawfish again. This is the day I have pictures for, the surf is small, and the surfers were only getting a few good waves. Before I launched I made a scupper in the cockpit. I used the shaft of the double paddle to punch a hole through the cockpit floor fabric, the foam bottom, and the bottom fabric.

SInce the hull is foam, it floats even with a 1" hole in the cockpit floor. I am currently working on a foam surf kayak, check out my Rowerwet facebook page Sandshark album. I was able to surf a few small waves this way, but the boat is not for surfing! I just did this to prove how strong it is, if it will handle being smashed around in the surf, a hole drilled through the bottom, and a couple good wipeouts in the surf, you do not need to worry about how strong it is. And a plastic kayak not going so easily because it is heavier.

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