Lincoln Beach and Bird Island trip

Just a quick picture from when my cousin and I went to Lincoln beach. This really nice man took our picture as we were coming in. The trip was really cool, but kinda dangerous. The waves were much bigger than I had been in before, but fortunately were long rolling waves that did not threaten to tip us. We were searching for Bird Island, ~2.5mi north of Lincoln beach, but never found it. This is where I soaked my phone a few weeks back.

I had a renter take the kayaks here for a family reunion a few weeks back and had a great time! They were careful to keep everyone in the marina and within eyesight so everyone was safe at the end of the day.

Specifications

I realized it might be a good idea to put more info on the actual specifications of the kayaks up here on this blog. These kayaks were made from a mold taken from the Old Town brand Otter kayak. The dimensions and specifications for that kayak can be found here.

Length...............9'6"
Width.................28.5"
Depth.................12"
Weight...............One is 30lbs, the other is 40lbs
Max Capacity...275lbs

They are made from chopped fiber sprayed into the mold with a white gel coat paint for the shell. The first one I made was made with a group of scouts. Because of this the fiberglass was laid up 0.120" thick. This was way thicker than it needed to be mostly because scouts tend to use their kayaks rougher. When I made the second I made it 0.080-0.090" thick. This made it 10lbs lighter and still plenty strong enough for the times I treat it rough.

After the shell was laid up I took the top and bottom pieces and using a roofing silicone I bound them together. Then I used regular Bondo to cover the seam between the two. This is the strip of off white color you can see in the pictures. This process has weathered great, but I can see that there are better ways I could do it, and will do it in the future. I plan on taking the bondo off at some point and replacing it with a fiberglass strip which would completely hide the seam making the kayak essentially one piece in the end, for example.

I am on my third type of seat now. First was a piece of packing Styrofoam like you would find in a computer box or something. Second was an open cell Styrofoam-not sure what it was used for, but I wrapped it in Saran wrap and it has worked great. One of each of these has been lost, but I just bought a new seat as a replacement. It is one of those camping seats that is just a back and seat strapped together like this one, but not this brand. We will see how comfortable it is, but even if it is not, I still have the old ones.