Boats
Baidarka Building Process
The baidarka building process:
Gunwale prep
The Deck
Bow, Stern and Keelson
Ribs
Hull Stringers
Deck Stringers and Cockpit
Skin sewing
Finishing
The Baidarka Building Process Illustrated
Deck Stringers and Cockpit
Once the lower part of the hull is complete, the only remaining components of the frame to be installed are the deck stringers and the cockpit coaming.
The deck stringers are lashed to the deck beams. This is not a running lashing. Each deckbeam to deck stringer lashing is separate.
The coaming is made from a strip of wood 1/4 inch thick by 1-1/2" wide and long enough to fit around the coaming form and have an 8 inch overlap. Here we are planing a taper into the end of the wood strip where it will overlap on itself. You can soak the strip in water either before or after planing it. In any case, give it two to three days in the water before bending it.
You can either make a long steambox to bend the coaming or if you have water that is hot enough, you can heat a little of the coaming at a time and bend it and clamp it as you go. If your tap water isn't hot enough, you can also ladle boiling water from a pot on the stove over the wood to make it pliable.
When the coaming is bent, we leave it clamped to its form vernight to allow the shape to set
We bend another strip of wood with a cross section of 1/4 x 1/2 inches around the top of the coaming to form a lip for the sprayskirt to hold on to. We drill holes to attach the two to each other.
And we drive small wooden pegs through the holes to fix the rim to the coaming. Bamboo barbecue skewers make good pegs.
Before we attach the cockpit coaming, we want to check its fit and make sure it sits level and is centered on the boat.
The sides of the coaming are supported by stanchions which are notched top and bottom to fit the coaming and the gunwale.
And when the fit is good, we lash the stanchions in place. Decoration is optional, but I like to put at least the year I built the boat on the stanchion.
View of the coaming to deck stringer interface. The coaming is notched to fit the deck stringer.
The view of the coaming to deck stringer interface from inside the cockpit.