The Sasquatch 14 x 30 kit arrived today.

Builder show and discuss their progress.
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Oldsparkey
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The Sasquatch 14 x 30 kit arrived today.

Post by Oldsparkey »

The Sasquatch 14 x 30 kit arrived today.

This date will be listed in all the history books ... June 17,2008. 4:10 PM.

The kit for the 14 x30 arrived today and it does not weigh anything , I'm thinking Matt sent me a empty box just to pick on me. There is no way that will make a 14 x 30 canoe. A 14 x 30 inch-er , possibly but not one I can paddle.

Guess I will have to open the box and take a look at the parts in it , then figure out how they go together or hang loose and take life easy till the instructions get here. Matt said he sent them separately for two reasons.
One ... He figured I might not read them
Two.... He wanted to keep the weight of the canoe down when shipping it.

************************************************************
A Few Days Later............

The poor postman , he got a hernia today when delivering the instruction package from Jem Watercraft on how to build the Sasquatch 14-30 Canoe and was really in a lot of pain. Now I know why Matt sent it to me separately and not with the canoe kit.

OK , so I exaggerated a little ..... The package is really not that large , only about three pages less then a copy of Gone With the Wind.
Browsing threw it I was overwhelmed with all of the information Matt includes , absolutely everything is covered , well almost everything.

I did notice one item that was not covered so I will e-mail Matt about that.

The instruction package has a pull here to open notice ... which works really well to open the instructions.
He forgot the instruction on how to open the kit package with all the panels in it , Do you open the left end or the right end , or just skip that and go straight for the tape in the middle ..... Decisions , Decisions , Decisions.

Looks like I will have to make an executive decision and go with it .... Ennie , Minnie , Might , Mo , take that knife and open the package here. As soon as I can decide which end to open , looks like I will be building a canoe.

I can see one advantage of a Kit over cutting everything out yourself.... It should not take more then a minute or two to have all the panels (20 of them) and temp frames cut out to be assembled. As soon as I open the box they came in and take them out.

************************************************************

Got the carton open and the panels are out , sorted and stacked along with the temp frames and end Jigs for the bow and stern on my work table.
I need to say that all I got was the wooden part of the kit , I have the glass and epoxy here from previous builds.

The wood is top notch , a fine cut and I need to say this is one nice kit , everything is done very professionally and well done. I think it is done better then the kit I got for the kayak I made from a competing kit maker.
Knowing Matt I was sure it would be like him , plenty of information and consideration which is done by a paddler for paddlers.

We did not have Jem Watercraft then , Jem Watercraft came along a few years , later, after I made that 17 1/2 foot Sea Kayak.

Chuck.
PS. The beauty of a kit is that everything ( the wood panels and temp frames) was delivered to my front door. Took me about 10 minutes to cut and sort the panels all 20 of them. That's a lot quicker then marking an cutting them out in this Florida Heat. :D
Remember:
Amateurs built the Ark...... Professionals built the Titanic
Visit some fine paddlers at The Southern Paddler
Oldsparkey
Design Reviewer
Posts: 1272
Joined: Sat Jun 19, 2004 11:08 am
Type of boat I like: Wood boats .
Location: Somewhere around Central Florida
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Post by Oldsparkey »

Going to try something new but am in no hurry and need to get two new sheets of the Plexiglas panels. As I told Matt , No hurry on this build , don't need it till November and it should be done by then.

I like to put down a sheet ( 16 inches x 30 inches) of 1/8th inch (Thickness) plexiglass then put the two areas to be joined over it and another one on top of the joint when fiber-glassing them together , Making a butt joint.

Going to do the same with a twist , I will cover each sheet of plexiglass with a chunk of heavy duty garbage/yard bag and pull it tight , tape it on the back side so the working area is nice and smooth. The reason is that with a lot of use the plexiglass becomes scared and it makes it a lot harder removing the epoxy that gets on it. The garbage bag should stop that. Plus if you use plastic of any type and don't have it smooth under and over the joint then you have waves in the joint from the cured epoxy.... Lots of sanding not a lot of fun.

Chuck.
Remember:
Amateurs built the Ark...... Professionals built the Titanic
Visit some fine paddlers at The Southern Paddler
hairymick
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Post by hairymick »

Good thinking Chuck,

Will be watching what you do here with a lot of interest mate. 8)
Regards,
Mick

JEMWATERCRAFT Swampgirl; Wadefish;Touring Pirogue;South Wind; P5 ;
Laker X 2, Sasquatch 16.5 T-V 15 Okwata 15:
Cobia 15 (under construction)
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