Sisters man launches hand-built kayak

On Saturday afternoon, about 3 p.m., the pool at Sisters Athletic Club was turned over to Doug and Peg Bermel for a special launching of the beautiful hand-built kayak he and his friends scratch-built - a 17-foot thing of beauty made from strips of Western red cedar, Alaska yellow cedar and Peruvian walnut.

Doug purchased Joe Greenly's "The Spring Run" kayak plans from Redfish Custom Wood Kayak & Canoe Company of Port Townsend, Washington. Three months later, some 725 hours spent completing the project, it was ready for Peg to try out in the Sisters swimming pool.

"Not counting the many hours he spent helping me disassemble, reassemble and disassemble again my '55 Chevy Bel Air," one of his helpers, John Morris, said with a laugh.

Doug cut the cedar and walnut slices to 5/8-by-5/16-inch thickness on a table saw, then routered the bead-and-cove contour the entire length of each piece. After building the hard back platform that would hold all the forms that give the kayak her sleek lines, he glued and stapled the bottom half, then sanded,

manicured, fiberglassed and varnished the interior.

Fabricating the top half with the cedar and walnut slices came next, and then he painstakingly assembled it to the bottom half to the complete hull.

"I was afraid I'd screw that up," Doug said, shaking his head, "but it turned out just like the plans said it would."

It turned out perfect, yes; but not without expending more hours of care and effort making adjustments, taping, gluing, fiberglassing and the kind of worrying that causes gray hairs to appear - or in Doug's case - disappear. Then, after more hours of head-scratching, sawing, milling, planing, sanding, fiberglassing and varnishing, the real thing began to appear.

"The only way I could get glue on the strip of fiberglass cloth joining the hull and deck way up in the narrow bow and stern," Doug said, "was to place a sponge on the end of a long stick and wash it into the cloth.

"But now that I know what I'm doing, and how to do it, I've got another one underway for myself," he said with a big grin.

Joe Greenly, the designer, suggests that a builder either borrow or purchase a good table saw and jigsaw, router and router table, drill, block plane and utility knife, and purchase pre-milled strips. Sawing and milling the strips is the most time-consuming and dangerous step in the whole building process.

The designer further suggest one use MAS brand epoxy resin, and be sure to use a respirator that filters out organic solvents, and oh, yes, have lots of good old duct tape on hand.

Contact Redfish at [email protected]