Graduate Unpacked

 Graduate is the name of a stitch and glue kayak kit I bought myself as a graduation present. I bought it around September 2020, it shipped out closer to December 2020, and now I'm getting to unpack it and start building in April 2021. It's been a while since I built a boat, this should be fun (or very frustrating). 

Stitch and Glue is a special technique. The ultralight 3mm marine grade plywood is cutout with a CNC router, so the computer gets the cuts much more accurate than I could get with a jigsaw. The router also puts small holes in the pieces near the ends. The basis behind stitch and glue is that the pieces are wired together with copper ties first, through the small holes. Then you tack weld the joints between the stitches with epoxy, pull out the stitches and add fiberglass tape and more epoxy to fill the joints completely. The rest is just boatbuilding, attaching the top to the bottom and fiberglassing the hull. It's a strange and cool process, let's see how it works!

The package has panels that have to be joined first

The panels join together with these finger joints

As it ships

Panels are all glued up. Fiberglass tape goes on the inside of the boat

Starting to join the panels together (stitching)

The bottom is the hardest part to get together

The bottom half is stitched up! Those frames establish the shape but they don't end up in the final product, only one called a bulkhead

with the cutest little transom on the back end

Both halfs are stitched

If you look closely you can see the copper wire in there holding the panels together

Cool shape, but I wish the front didn't get that flat spot on top

Starting to look like a boat

I still don't have much epoxy at this point, if any. But seeing how it all comes together is really cool. I got two kinds of plywood in this kit, okumme and sapele for the darker top. It takes a lot of manipulation to get these panels together in the shape you want, and a lot of patience. I wasn't particularly good at this stage, and it showed in the final product. This is still starting to get fun.

My kayak is a Wood Duck 12' from Chesapeake Light Craft. If you'd like to order your own kit here is a link: CLC Wood Duck 12