Building a Tik Tak Kayak for a Silent Auction
February 12, 2016

Friends of the Boathouse, Connie, Patience, and Hailey, want to contribute to a fundraiser for the charter school in Eddyville. Patience LOVED the little 8' version of the Tik Tak Kayak, and as it is a very easy and economical build, it is perfect for something like this.

Patience and Hailey are in the 5th grade, and while I would LOVE to have them do all the work on the boat, I did the major cutting to save time and, possibly, fingers.

The Crew: Patience, Connie, and Allan. Hailey would be showing up soon.

We are getting ready to cut the curves of the sides. Boat building is an excellent way to teach fractions.

There's Hailey.

Drilling pilot holes for the deck and hull. We clamped both pieces together because I believe in making all my mistakes at once - it's easier to correct that way.

Drilling pilot holes for the sides.

Prepping to attach the chines. The Tik Taks have a significant flat spot (helps with tracking) so we glued and screwed that part first. Since the join is flat and we can apply lots of pressure, we are using Tite Bond III for the glue. The screws will be removed, so we are using drywall screws with fender washers to apply the pressure.

More glue, more screws.

The bend to the pointy-ends is tight, but not too tight for 1x1 (nominal) chines. Even kiln-dried fir will take the bend, you just can't have knots at the curved part.

Lots of screws. I keep forgetting the attention span of child laborers. "Keep on task, girls! It'll be over soon."

Chines attached, it was time for a break - and a paddle in the Coracles. Now that I know where to get bending oak, I might have to build these with oak slats instead of plywood.