Panache

This boat was designed by Rob Macks of Laughing Loon. The plans were very clear and contained many photos and illustrations. When I had questions about the building process, Rob was very helpful in clearing things up. I can recommend his plans for a first-time builder.

Read on for a description of the building process, or skip right to the finished boat. Click on the thumbnails for additional pictures and details.

Setup

The process begins with the construction of a strongback. This provides a sturdy base to hold the forms, which define cross-sections of the kayak at 10 to 13 inch intervals. The plans come with full-size templates for the forms. I traced the forms on ½" plywood, cut out the forms slightly large, and sanded the edges down to the line. The forms are attached to the strongback with the hull side up and must be aligned carefully to ensure that the resulting kayak has the correct shape, with no peaks or valleys. Resist the urge to rush this step. It's not difficult to do, but it can be tedious. Take your time and do it right.

Hull

I stripped the hull up from the sheerline to the chine (about 6 inches), and then moved to the keel and stripped down to meet the side strips. After the hull was completely stripped, I pulled all the staples, scraped off the glue blobs, and sanded down the whole thing to prepare for fiberglassing. The sanding revealed some slight gaps between strips where the cove and bead had not been pulled together tightly enough when gluing. I tried using wood putty and thickened epoxy to fill the cracks, but the filler mostly just broke up when sanded. The gaps weren't very noticeable in the end.

After sanding, the hull is ready to fiberglass. First, I applied a seal coat of epoxy to the bare wood. The seal coat is not absolutely necessary, but wet-out of the cloth and wood in the same step requires more care. The wood will draw epoxy from the cloth, and you must ensure the cloth is not starved. After the seal coat was partially cured (not tacky, but still could be dented with a fingernail), I laid out a full layer of 6oz. plain weave cloth and a 2nd layer below the waterline. I found that a disposable chip brush provided good control for the initial wet-out of the cloth. Mixing small batches of epoxy, I covered the entire surface of the hull. I had begun with a foam roller, but it generated too much air bubbles in the epoxy and resulted in a few cloudy areas when the epoxy cured. The foam rollers worked fine for subsequent coats to fill the weave.

Deck

With the experience of stripping the hull, stripping the deck went more smoothly. I used a polyurethane glue instead of Titebond II because it is more heat resistant (the sun will heat-up the deck much more than the hull). To avoid the problem with gaps between strips that I had on the hull, I installed the deck strips one-at-a-time on each side. This allowed me to use spring clamps between stations to pull each strip to the previous one. This technique worked well, but it did slow the process.

Sanding and glassing the deck went smoothly. I used a chip brush to wet-out the glass and a foam roller to fill the weave. After finishing the outside of the deck, the deck and hull are separated, and the insides are finished in the same way; more sanding and glassing. Afterward, the halves are attached with fiberglass seam tape on the inside and hand-cut bias tape on the outside.

Hatches

The Panache hatches are constructed by cutting holes in the deck and then using multiple layers of veneer laminations to create the coaming along the inside edge of the opening and along the outside edge of the hatch cover. It does take awhile to complete the hatches when they are built this way, but the plans describe the process in great detail. To secure the hatch covers, I used a simple system of under-deck bungees. This held down the hatch as well as external straps, but didn't detract from the look of the boat.

Seat

I originally purchased a 'Happy Bottom' seat to use in the Panache, but it wasn't very comfortable. The fiberglass seat in my Dagger Sitka was extremely comfortable, so I decided to create a mold from it and construct a identical seat. This turned out to be a really fun mini-project that was easier than you might imagine.

Finished!

After the epoxy had cured for a week or so, I applied 3 coats of varnish to the deck, 2 to the hull (Z-Spar Flagship). I intended to add more, but was too anxious to get the boat in the water. I added a RapidPulse backband and Yakima footbraces to complete the boat, and here's how it all turned out. To cartop the boat, I built a set of cradles to fit my Thule rack.

Materials

Western Red Cedar from Classic Boat Kits
1/16" Ash veneer from Certainly Wood
6oz. plain weave fiberglass cloth from Defender Industries and CLC
West System epoxy 105/207