The Baidarka Building Process Illustrated

The Deck

Using spreaders, one by two's cut to the appropriate length, we spread the gunwales apart to give us the desired width of the boat.

The center spreader establishes the maximum width of the kayak, in this case, 22 inches.

The stern spreader fixes the separatinn of the stern. The string wrapped around the gunwales are there for extra security since all that holds the spreader in place are two four penny nails which could pull out easily if the deck were moved.

Next we install the stem and stern plates. These are similar to deck beams except wider and flat. We mark them to match the angle of the gunwales and cut them. Once cut, we nail them in place on the gunwales. The nails are temporary so we leave the heads sticking out for easy extraction later. We also wind some ropes around the gunwales to hold everything together since the nails don't hold very securely.

The bow plate installed 1-1/2 inches back from the front of the gunwales.

The stern plate under construction.

The stern plate nailed in place.

The next step is to cut the deck beams and install them.

We lay a board across the gunwales and use a sliding bevel to measure the angle that the gunwales make with the deck. This is the angle we need to cut the deck beams at.

We draw the shape of the deck beam on its face.

Here we are using a band saw to cut out the deck beam.

We plane and shape the beam to remove sharp edges and smooth its faces.

When the deck beam is smooth, we nail it into place with two four penny nails on each end.

View of the deck with all the deck beams nailed in place.

When all the deckbeams are in place, we make sure they all look good and then proceed to dowel them. We pull one nail at a time and drill a hole, drive a dowel, pull then next nail, drill, dowel and so on.

If you work by yourself, you use your legs to brace against the deck while you drive a dowel into the opposite gunwale.

We notch the gunwales prior to lashing the deck beams. We also drill a lashing hole in the deck beam.

And then we lash the deck beam to re-inforce the dowels. About four wraps of nylon twine are sufficient.

The deck viewd from below with all the lashings in place.

And then we stain the deck with a red earth color. The red color was traditionally applied to the frame though not all modern builders follow this practice. Aleut builders mixed red ocher powder with water. I mix Venetian red artist's oil color with paint thinner. You can hold off applying the red stain until the entire frame is finished, but I find it a little easier to apply it in stages. Once the full frame is assembled, the underside of the deck is harder to get to with a brush. The red hat and shirt are optional.