JEM Watercraft

I have been lurking here and working on my Laker for quite awhile... over a year in fact. I decided last spring that I wanted a kayak but I was completely turned off by the prices and looks of the plastic tubs at all my local stores. I wanted this kayak for local fishing on calm flat water, no rapids, no rivers, no oceans, just some tidy little trout and bass holes that require non-motorized, carry-in boat access. I have a 14-foot aluminum fishing boat (named in honor of my wife Esther, the "S. S. Es S's Esses") which is all well and good but it can't get me to some of the places I want to go. A buddy at work suggested S&G boat building to me, I read a couple books, I visited this forum, and I got cracking. It went well at first but then time and attention were sidetracked into the much larger and more intensive project of replacing large portions of my house's cedar siding, stripping the rest, and repainting everything and the kayak lingered. An hour here, an hour there, until winter came (I'm in Minnesota) and the epoxy work didn't seem like an option. It is now spring, and I have resumed work on my Laker (The TSM, aka The Trout Seeking Missile). I'm building from the free plans, using 1/4" AC exterior grade ply with 4.5oz cloth on the outside and 6oz cloth tape on the inside. I'll post some pics once I get them online somewhere. I've been documenting the whole process from printing out the PDF to the sanding I was doing today. I'm at the stage of completion where I'm about to do the fiberglass cloth on the exterior. The interior is already taped and epoxied. I'll be staining and assembling the deck this week. My goal is to have the TSM on the water for the fishing opener this year, approximately 12 months after I first ventured into this, my very first foray into boat building. My wife and friends are already blown away by the fact that it "looks like a boat". With the success of my build so far, combined with some time spent plastic kayaking on Lake Atitlan in Guatemala last month, Esther has decided that she wants a Laker too, but a 12'. She's really little (4' 11", 100 lbs) so that might work well. Thank you to everybody for posting pics and info about their builds. It is really inspiring and has turned me into a big fan of boatbuilding in general and SG Kayaks in particular.

Cheers,

Ryan

Here is a link to a collection of pics from my ongoing build.

https://plus.google.com/photos/10821366 ... 6tjQ9bP4RQ

Welcome to the forum Ryan.
Nice pics

Mike

very clean work. well done.

Very nice. Good to see another Laker going together. I love mine, and you'll find that it's great for the kind of fishing you want it for.

Jay

Thanks for the positive feedback. I'll post more pics as I go.

Nice pictures keep up the good work

Looks like a winner, great pics on the build, I too have been lurking around and well, the honey-dos haven't let me start my build on the free laker that I got over a year ago . You mentioned doing some tupperware kayaking in Atitlán, are you a fellow Guatemalan as myself?

@fransjoe

Thanks for the kind words. I hope you get to build yours, it's a fun and rewarding process. To answer your question, no, not a fellow Guatemalan, just visited for 10 days. It was beautiful and I definitely plan to return though. Went to Antigua and Lago da Atitlan (stayed near Jaibalito at La Casa del Mundo). It was my first time there but I found I didn't particularly want to leave.

I know what you mean, I've been away for so long; Atitlán still calls me, as well as Amatitlán.