• Happy 1st Sighting of Pacific Ocean by Lewis & Clark (1805)! 🧭

Carbon Fiber Nokomis

Love how everyone one is getting into a composite build. I still love my strippers, but these composites are new and FUN !

Jim
 
Jim,
I'm following closely, both here and in my basement!
The 1/8" thick Divinycell feels nearly as hard as cedar!

Will your next one be all CF? Trim and all?
 
Jim,

Will your next one be all CF? Trim and all?

I will omit the cedar insert on this one. I like the insert, it was just TOO time consuming !

I still like the combination of Kevlar, Carbon, and S-glass. Not sure how I will lay it up, but will work more with partials this time.
I'd better get to deciding, or I'll be left in the dust ! You guys are really making serious headway !!!

Trim ? Well. I like the idea of wrapping cedar for gunnels. I'm not a real fan of pedestal seats, but I can definitely see the advantage.
Bigger float tanks are in order.

Decisions !

Jim
 
Finished mounting the seat. Near ready to flip. Laid the untrimmed outwhales inside, then put the scale to it. With just varnish to go, CF is 41#.
20# lighter than strip built Nokomis.
Both hulls are trimmed identical. So the weight difference is the hulls.

What a joy to lift up ! I can see which one I'll be using the most !

I was happy with the hull stiffness, now that the inwhales are on. It will only get better when I glue on the outwhales.

Now to look for some S-glass, for #2 CF Nokomis.

Jim
 
I get my s glass from aircraft spruce. What are the dimensions of it again? My 15.5' x 36" Mattawa is 43 lbs with ash trim, two full layers of s glass and one 9 oz kevlar. I bet you could shave a lot of weight with all carbon, cedar gunwales, and no cedar core.

Looking forward to seeing this one on the water.
 
I get my s glass from aircraft spruce. What are the dimensions of it again? My 15.5' x 36" Mattawa is 43 lbs with ash trim, two full layers of s glass and one 9 oz kevlar. I bet you could shave a lot of weight with all carbon, cedar gunwales, and no cedar core.

Looking forward to seeing this one on the water.
16' 4"x 29-30".

From the inside out. E-glass - 1/8" cedar- 5 oz Kevlar- 5 oz Carbon Fiber- E-glass - S-glass.

Jim
 
Last edited:
Jim,
WTH!!
Where's the photos??
Are you saying your strip built Nokomis is 61 lbs? What was that layup?
Your carbon Nokomis is a bit bigger than my carbon copy Kite...but your layup is not too different.
I just epoxied in my Divinycell stiffening foam ( approx 12 ft x 2 ft x 1/8 inch = 0.25 cu ft @ 5 b/cu ft = 1.25 lb of foam)

The foam should be just as effective as your cedar, but with cedar at 22 lbs/cu ft ------- advantage: foam.

OK, I'll stop hijacking now.
 
Last edited:
SG had requested photos.
Here's a few.
IMG_1574_zpsa0s6y3a4.jpg


I could paddle it now, but as soon as I get my strongback cleaned off, I'll be varnishing the outside. And then on to the next BETTER one, I hope !

IMG_1568_zps2rdq1egv.jpg

IMG_1576_zpsaagryo4c.jpg


Jim
 
Thanks for the photos, Jim.
So what will make the next one BETTER?
Did you have trouble too keeping the sheer line straight?

When I was skiing with the kids and nephews, I would always ask what was their favorite part of the day?...and, usually more telling, what was your least favorite part of the day?

Same with boats. You can guess what my albatross is...
 
Thanks for the photos, Jim.
So what will make the next one BETTER?
Did you have trouble too keeping the sheer line straight?..

Workmanship, I hope will improve ! For one thing, temps will be better. Plan to use more S-glass.

I had one kink on the port side about half way back from the seat. The outwhale will cure it. But in the mold stage, I'll have to adapt.

May check into some Divinycell. I'll not make another insert, mostly because of time.

Plus I'm going to follow along on yours, to pick up some more tricks !

Jim
 
Decided to scrap the idea of making another CF Nokomis.
So I glued on the outwhales. Used nearly every spring clamp in the shop, and a bunch of C-clamps, for a grand total of 198 clamps.

Pulled the clamps today, and put the scale to it, including seat and thwart. 38#.
Need to sand, and then varnish. Since I used RAKA's UV- inhibited epoxy. I'm only going with two coats of spar varnish, inside and out.

A discussion popped up awhile back about gluing on gunnels. In this case, I had to, because of some waves in the shearline.
Yes, gluing gunnels is time consuming, and it makes it tough to pull them off later on down the line.
If one can really seal the gunnels, before screwing them on, and properly care for them. That might be the best route.

Pics tomorrow, maybe, as Winter decided to return, and I'll be dealing with it tomorrow !

Jim
 
Jim, what are the dimensions on your Nokomis. 38# sounds like you came out with a light boat and like the way your laminated thwart turned out also.
 
Jim, what are the dimensions on your Nokomis. 38# sounds like you came out with a light boat and like the way your laminated thwart turned out also.
Thanks ! Three canoes back, I started laminating the thwart. Liked how it looked, so for now, I'm sticking with it.
16'4"x 30"
I was happy with the weight. The ash trim, was 10# of it.
The thin insert, at 1/8" didn't add that much weight. I was pleased.

Now I'm getting anxious to hit the water. More sanding, and then varnishing.

Jim
 
Added Dynel, impregnated with graphite to the stems today. Took some pics, but Photo Bucket isn't working properly.

Have to Thank Wysedave for the tip on coloring the Dynel ! It worked great !

I first laid the Dynel strips(two) on a flat plastic covered surface. I then saturated the Dynel, with epoxy mixed with graphite powder.

Once the Dynel was wetted, I rolled it up, and squeezed the excess resin out.

Next, the now Black Dynel was placed on the hull, and covered with Peel Ply.

Tomorrow, I'll pull the peel Ply, and fill the weave of the strips with more epoxy/graphite.
This should make a pretty good wear strip. I hope &&&

Jim
 
When do you think she'll be ready to hit the water? Barrens should be ready to float in a couple weeks.....if the weather cooperates. Would be neat to make the maiden voyages together.

Alan
 
When do you think she'll be ready to hit the water? Barrens should be ready to float in a couple weeks.....if the weather cooperates. Would be neat to make the maiden voyages together.

Alan
Absolutely ! I really hate waiting for varnish to dry !
I expect to varnish next week. The plus side, I don't plan as many coats.
Hopefully Winter has let go of us !

Jim
 
Yesterday I I applied Dynel skid plates to CF Nokomis.

Two drawbacks to Dynel, it doesn't compress like E or S- glass, and it doesn't Feather out like E or S-glass !

I saturated the Dynel with graphite and epoxy mix. Placed Peel Ply on top, hoping it would compress. This AM, pulled the peel ply, and tried to feather before applying another fill coat. The Dynel is much like Kevlar, and the fibers are twisted, making it even harder !

On the plus side it took on the black color of the graphite.

I will finish filling the weave, today. Wait a few more days, to see if it will feather better once the resin has cured more.

Here's a few pics. The outwhales are on, and a pic of the Dynel under the Peel Ply. The white under the peel ply is air between the fibers of the Dynel.

IMG_1634_zpsiq9ytul0.jpg


IMG_1612_zpsdge6aeav.jpg


IMG_1627_zpsnmvsd4lu.jpg


IMG_1615_zpshmq1x6h6.jpg

The last pic shows the edge of The S-glass over E-glass. It feathered nicely, but as you can see is more visible. This should fade a lot once varnished !

Jim
 
Back
Top