Weekend of Paddling and Sailing on Lake Elmer Thomas

I took my SUP and sailboat, Gaia, to Lawton/Ft. Sill for three days, October 28-30, to visit my wonderful friends, Andi and Andrew Kley.

Grommet came too.

Andi and Andrew:  Andrew is stationed at Ft. Sill, so we were able to camp at Lake Elmer Thomas Recreation Area, on the Post.

The weather did not cooperate on the 28th;
too  windy for paddling--barely OK for some sailing, but then the wind died before long. It was glorious on the 29th.  It was a bit chilly for SUP-ing in the morning so we sailed first.  Here are some of the photos from the morning sail, mostly shot by Andi:

Grommet couldn't wait to get on board!

Andrew took over the helm for most of the trip, so I got to do some relaxing (and trying to keep Grommet out of the way). 

The boat heeled over quite a bit a couple times--great fun!

Here I am relaxing in the companionway and pretending to know what I'm doing.

Andrew is taking us back to shore so we can get to the real purpose of the trip (of this blog too), Stand Up Paddling:

 Grommet went for a ride on one of the Kley's boards while I secured the sailboat and then tried out my new wetsuit.  It appears he liked it--didn't want to get off the board!

He finally decided to take a break while I was getting ready to take my SUP out.

This was Grommet's first time on the paddle board and there were none of the problems I had anticipated.  He climbed on board and was right at home.  I, on the other hand, had some learning to do.  I paddled for a while in the kneeling position but eventually managed to stand up.  It was a bit shaky but I was able to stand upright when Grommet inevitably moved around--a tribute to the Kaholo's stability.  

Getting Better at Paddling

CLC is right--it doesn't take long to learn paddle-boarding.  I paddled almost three hours today without incident.  Maybe I was a little more confident.  I also found that the board has wonderful secondary stability.  I.e., I thought I was about to go over once or twice when I first started, but the board stabilized after tipping just a couple inches.  So all in all it is a wonderful paddle-board and pretty good full-body exercise.

I was asked to provide a walk-around video of the board so people could get a better idea of the various sections, so here it is:

SUP Walkaround Video

Project Finished, Maiden Voyage

I decided to spray-paint a green stripe in the center of the deck to cover the area between the deck pads.

 The deck pads and carry handle are installed in this photo.  You can see the green stripe I added between the pads.  It's fairly close in color to some of the greens in the decorative fabric.

 I also installed an additional pad for Grommet.  I hope he will be able to come along for the ride once I become proficient on the paddle board.

 A simple cargo net is held on with suction cups.  We'll see how it works out.

I've also attached a tether to the aft end so I can easily recover the board when I fall in.  The loop goes around my ankle.

After finishing I took the board down to the lake for its maiden cruise (and my first time on an SUP).  I had a GoPro camera attached to my head, so I wasn't really sure where it would be pointing, but it came out OK.  You can watch the video and hear me talk about the experience on YouTube.  Somehow I didn't fall in, but I was pretty shaky.  Hoping to get some lessons soon.

Varnishing Finished--Getting Very Close to Completion

The hull bottom and sides are all varnished and the varnish had plenty of time to dry while I was in California.  Here the board has been flipped right-side-up and the deck got it's final sanding prior to varnishing.

Another shot of the sanded deck from the stern.

After the first coat of varnish: the stern . . .  

and bow.  Very happy with the varnish except for some bubbles.  More about that later.

Some shots after the final coat of varnish: the bow, . . . 

                                                      stern, . . .

and the entire board (difficult to get a shot that does justice to its full 14-feet).

As I said above, I love this varnish (Minwax Helsman urethane) except I'm getting bubbles no matter what.  I don't think the problem is with the varnish itself though--I think it has more to do with the method recommended in the book.  I.e., the varnish is applied with a foam roller and then the bubbles are "tipped out" with a foam brush.  I followed that method and though I tipped the bubbles out multiple times, I still found some when I came back later.  My guess is the foam roller is creating so many bubbles that they continue to emerge after it is too late to do another tip-out.

Still, the finish looks very nice and I want to get the board on the water.  I may sand it down again later and try applying it with a high-quality bristle brush, as recommended by Minwax.  The only problem with that is that the deck pads and breather tube will be in place and it will be difficult to do a good job around them.  I'll probably leave it as-is.  The finish looks great--you have to run your hand over it to feel the bubbles.

Installation of Skegs and Final Epoxy Coat

Here are the twin skegs being glued in place.  The wood block is to keep them exactly 14 inches apart, vertical, and parallel while the glue sets.

The glue has set.  Next the skegs will be filleted and the eight strips of fiberglass fabric (two on each side of each skeg) shown will be used to help hold them in place.

This shows one of the finished fillets.  After the fillets gel (about 3 hours), the fabric strips will be adhered to them and more clear epoxy added.

Fiberglass strips epoxied in.  It's hard to see but they go up the sides of the skegs. There are double strips on each side.  I don't think anything is going to knock one of these skegs off.

And the final coat of epoxy has been added to the hull bottom and the skegs.

Another shot from the bow end.

Tomorrow I start light sanding of the entire paddle board.  I hope to have that finished and begin varnishing on Tuesday.  As I said, the epoxy is supposed to be UV protected, but John Harris at CLC says he has seen UV protected epoxies come and go without success--he hopes this one will be the one that works, but it is too early to tell.  So I'm going to varnish it for more protection, and I also think I can get a little smoother finish that way.  I leave for California Wednesday, and stay for about a week.  My hope was to get this thing in the water before then, but it's not going to happen.

Decorating the Deck and Applying Fiberglass

These are paper templates I made for the forward and aft ends of the board, getting a test fit.

Here are the aft cloth . . .

and the forward cloths after a layer of fiberglass and two coats of epoxy have been applied. 
As you can see I have moved the project to the garage.  High and low temperatures have been fluctuating too much outdoors, and right now the hollow craft is sealed--too much temperature differential could either cause enough vacuum or inflation pressure to damage the hull.  As soon as the final coat of epoxy cures I can drill a hole for the breather tube, and from then on the pressure will remain equalized.

Sanding, Re-staining, and Starting Fiberglass Application

All the stain has been removed and the corners rounded over, although that is difficult to see in this picture.

This is the fairing compound over the uneven finger joints after sanding.

Entire assembly has been re-stained.  As it turned out the faired finger joints don't look all that bad, especially near the outside edges.  Inboard, they will be mostly covered by the deck pads and the carry handle.

The stern panel is covered by masking tape for staining, but I will leave it on when I fiberglass the bottom and side panels also.  The fiberglass does not wrap around onto the stern panel.  It will be fiberglassed later, along with the deck.

The roundover and part of the deck have been covered with clear epoxy.  This is so when I fiberglass the side panels (the paddle board will be turned upside-down for that operation) and epoxy runs can be wiped up with alcohol without disturbing the stain.  I will also have to sand the rough edges of the fiberglass, and the epoxy cover will make it easier to avoid sanding off the stain.

The bottom and side panels of the hull have been fiberglassed.  As it turns out I had no runs down onto the roundover but I'm still glad I took the precaution of protecting it.

Next I will need to design and cut the cloth coverings for the deck.  I have decided not to cover the entire deck--tested it and didn't like the look.  And as I said the deck pads and handle cover most of the finger joint errors.  I will probably move the project into the garage for the final steps.  The outdoor temperature is starting to fluctuate quite a bit and this could affect the even curing of the epoxy.