Kayak Build, Day 19

I finally got the skin on Thursday, but didn't do anything on the kayak until this morning. I've been trying to decide how to do the seat and this is what I came up with.



At the moment the seat is just lashed in place underneath to hold it in place. It works quite well as it is, but I'm not sure the holes used for lashing would hold up for too long, so it'll be sewn in properly.

The backrest is sewn up with artificial sinew, that came with the skin, which is why I hadn't done it earlier. The padding inside is just a piece of closed cell foam, cut from and old camping mat and folded in half. It'll simply be tied to the deck beam.



Below is the first row of stitching on the seat. It doesn't look too bad, if I do say so myself.



Once all the stitching is done I'll slide another piece of closed cell foam in underneath it. The only thing left then is to put the skin on. Then it'll be a real boat.

I think I spent about 2 hours on the job today, taking the total to 66 hours. Keep in mind though that it's 2 hours of unnecessary work, since a lot of people don't fit seats to Greenland kayaks. If nothing else, I think it really adds to the look of the boat, and it's a great way to personalise it.