Foot Braces Installed

I spent quite a bit of thought trying to determine what to do for foot braces for Paige's kayak. The usual suspects were:

• Build an extra cross section for her to rest her feet against
  Because she's growing like a weed, putting an extra cross section that is properly fitted now would render the kayak useless next season.
• Pad out the cross section with pieces of minicell foam
  Because she's still quite small for the kayak, I would have to buy a LOT of minicell foam.
• Make foot braces out of wood + stuff
  Because my building abilities aren't very good nor precise, I really wasn't up to the task of building my own foot braces.
• Buy + install commercial foot braces
  Through a process of deduction, this is my winner.

Once the solution was identified, the next obvious question is what to buy? And where will I buy it from?

The 2 commercial foot braces that come to mind are Sea Dog foot braces and Keepers foot braces. I've read nothing but wonderful things about the Sea Dog foot braces, but the average price was about $60 plus shipping. I've read a few poor reviews of the Keepers foot braces – mostly that they're flimsy; but, I found them for $25 and, as a bonus - locally. I'm not overly concerned about them being flimsy because the kayak is for a kid and she shouldn't be stressing the foot braces even if she does (one day, far away) learn to roll.

I did some quick research on how others have installed foot braces and found that the common solution was to install blocks between the stringers for the 2 mounting points on the foot brace tracks. That was my idea, as well and I decided that's what I was going to attempt to do.

First, I wanted to install the foot braces as far forward as possible – giving us the most flexibility for how long Paige can continue to "grow into" this kayak. I set the kayak on the ground and had her sit in it properly. I put the foot brace in the most forward position. I brought the foot brace only as far back as required (ok, plus a little for her to be able to change her leg/foot position a bit). I marked the position on the gunwales at all 4 positions (fore and aft on both sides).

I then measured the distance between the stringers and grabbed pieces of scrap wood. I had to use pieces of pine because the pieces of WRC weren't large enough to work. Some quick 15-minute epoxy and were in business.

I also decided to follow a trick that I'd read about. I installed the foot braces at an incline. I figure that as she gets taller, her feet will get bigger. As her feet get bigger, the balls of her feet will get higher. This is another of my ideas that only time will tell.

The actual installation is a quick screw through mounting holes on the foot braces into the supports for a quick evening in the shop. Here's the final product:

Sea Flea Flotation Bags

Man-o-day, where does the time go? I haven't posted about Paige's kayak since May 15. While I haven't posted, I have continued to work on it. The last post mentioned that I finished the final epoxy-work on the kayak. The next step was to build flotation bags for Paige's kayak.

Since I had made flotation bags before, I was pretty sure of the process:

1. Acquire & cut PVC connectors
2. Measure the kayak's circumference at the bow and stern
3. Transfer that to clear plastic vinyl
4. Cut
5. Glue connector in place (for inflation hose)
6. Tape off 1" on sides & 1.5" at ends
7. Glue both pieces together
8. Glue hose & mouthpiece

Viola! You're done!

Between the time I had cut the bags and got around to gluing them, Paige had decorated them with a Sharpie and I wrote a message to her.

The cutting the connectors proved to be my first challenge. Previously, with my father-in-law's assistance, we cut them using his hack saw in a vise and then cleaned them up with his disc sander. I should have done all of the steps while I was at his house, but I didn't have the connectors so I just borrowed the hacksaw. I don't own a vise (yet), I will – I just haven't invested in one so far. Not letting a lack of tools (or much ability, but I digress) get in the way of a successful project – I winged it and cobbled together a vise out of my work table, scrap pieces of wood and a couple of clamps. It was a little rickety at times, but it worked. My lack of disc sander was made up for by some 80-grit sand paper (down to 120 grit-ish - it didn't have to be pretty, just cleaned up a bit) and a little extra time and effort.

The next problem, I'll admit was out of sheer laziness: I have vacuumed or swept my work floor in a while. So, as I was gluing – I had various sorts of "stuff" sprinkled through-out my glue. None of it seemed to be problematic, just looks "less good".

The final problems turned out to be small leaks in various spots on the bags.

Leak #1 (on both bags), while I was gluing the bag – the extra height of the inner connector keeps the top layer of PVC from lying properly. I thought I was being slick and sliced the edge out, mashed them back together and went about my merry way. What I found out (later), was that I create a leak that proved to be challenging to fix.

Leak #2 (on both bags), on these bags and the one that I made for the Dirigo, I ended up with a leak around the PVC connector for the inflation hose. The simple fix is to glue a patch over the area and move-on. On this particular bag, I did 2 patches and then covered the entire area with a bigger patch – it was "cleaner looking" was my justification. As the picture shows - I even tried to be careful and clean! It still didn't work out quite like I had hoped.

Leak #3 (on just 1 bag), while "fixing" one of the leaks, Paige came out to help. Not being much for her to do, she wandered around the garage and did whatever she wanted. The wandering included her walking on both bags multiple times. Apparently one of the bags got walked on a time too many – she put a whole clean through both layers.

Leak #4 (on the other bag), while fixing my leak #1 on one of the bags, my solution was to put a patch on and then clamp it between 2 pieces of wood. Apparently I got a little over-zealous with my clamping and/or heat gunning and worked a hole into the bag.

With all of these leaks, I'm ultimately left with 2 patched up bags that hold air. In case you (dear reader) are wondering - I do feel comfortable that my patch-work will hold and they're as safe as any non-patched bag.

Lastly, I had previously mentioned installing an eyelet into the stems of the kayak (using the drill-fill-drill approach). These serve 2 purposes, one- to act as an anchor point for securing the flotation bags to the kayak and two- to act as a bit of a pulley for re-installing the bags once the kayak is skinned. Truthfully, I think #2 looks great on paper, but won't actually pan out- but only time will tell.

Places to buy HH-66

HH-66 is the key ingredient to making your own flotation bags, dry bags and kayak covered in Coverene/PVC fabric. It's the glue that melts/welds the 2 pieces of vinyl together to get a water- and air-tight seal (or, so we hope!).

Back when I made my flotation bags, I bought a pint of HH-66 from Veneer Supplies. It has lasted through 2 or 3 tries at that flotation bag, a pair of flotation bags (which, they too had issues and needed immediate patches) and gluing the stems for Paige's kayak. I have maybe 1/3 of the pint left.

With a limited amount of HH-66 remaining, I wanted to get more on hand for starting the deck. Being cheap, I wanted to get the most for my money! So, I googled for places to buy HH-66. I assembled a list of each of the web sites that sold it. I wanted to try and avoid shipping costs, so I found the manufacturer of HH-66 (RH Products Co.) and contacted them about local retailers. They quickly responded and pointed me to Baltimore Canvas Products.

Baltimore Canvas Products is official the most expensive price per quart that I came across. But, even with tax + gas/mileage - it worked out to be a less total price than any online vendor. And, I like supporting local vendors.

Baltimore Canvas Products	Quart	$18.25	No website; plus tax; plus mileage + time for local pickup
	Gallon	$46.90	No website; plus tax; plus mileage + time for local pickup
Note, you may want to try contacting the manufacturer of HH-66, RH Products Co. for local retailers near you.
Seattle Fabrics	Quart	$12.95	Plus shipping
	Pint	$10.75	Plus shipping
Mauritzon	Gallon	tbd	Plus shipping
	Quart	tbd	Plus shipping
	Pint	tbd	Plus shipping
Rochford Supply	Gallon	$28.21	Plus $20 handling; plus shipping
	Quart	$12.57	Plus shipping
Veneer Supplies	Pint	$13.75	Plus shipping (or- possibly local pickup)
Sail Rite	Quart	$16.25	Plus shipping
MyTarp.com	Quart	$15.25	Plus shipping
ElectraTarp	Quart	$15.00	Plus shipping
	Pint	$12.00	Plus shipping

September is Childhood Cancer Awareness Month!

A quick deviation from the theme and general kayaking-ness of this blog... September is Childhood Cancer Awareness Month.

Cancer doesn't discriminate between race, age, income or any other barrier that you can imagine. The oldest people get it and so do the youngest. My daughter, Paige was 13 months old when the beast, childhood cancer, struck our household. She was diagnosed with a brain tumor on January 14, 2005. We later found out that it was cancerous. She endured brain surgeries, broviac/hickman placement & removal surgeries and 6 weeks of radiation treatments.

We celebrate everyday that she's cancer-free and doing wonderfully. Just yesterday, we sent her off for her first day of kindergarten. Every day in our house is a reason to be joyous.

Sadly, we're the lucky ones - the select few that get to celebrate years of health. So much more needs to be done, so many families are affected by this beast. Show your support by visiting some of the following organizations and seeing how you can help and make a difference to a child, to a family, who've been ravaged by childhood cancer:

• Team Unite
• Alex's Lemonade Stand
• Candlelighters Childhood Cancer Foundation