Jack 14 – Mats Lindblom

Sunday, July 11, 2021 (Jack 14, Sjösättning), 0 comments

"Hej Björn,

firstly, please excuse me for writing in English (Swinglish), since I (still) have no keyboard set up with Swedish characters.

I don't think that you remember about it, but in mid of 2019 we had a bit of email exchanges with you advising on building a JACK 14, which I then proceeded on.

As the subject says, I have enjoyed every minute of the much longer time duration, than what was my thoughts at the start to complete the project.

But also, thanks to whoever, that I had something to work on during the COVID time, I don't know what else than watching YouTube I would have done !

A bit of self-critics and feedback:

• At the end I mainly used Western Red Cedar

  It was a troublesome searching for a supplier of good quality WRC around here, and at the end I couldn't get boards which were free from knots!

  As in our conversation you suggested me to use Paulownia, so I bought that. Due to that it for me looked a bit too greyish, I made a test on how it would look like after that epoxy/glassfiber and varnish was applied. I didn't like it that much since the outcome became to be like it was an irregular image of the wood pattern and "dirty" greyish. As a result, I had to chop away knots from the WRC and joined profiles together, but I could not achieve a 100% knot free hull at the end, but the deck is nearly free from knots. From a strength point of view, it would certainly have been better, if it was the other way around ! However, I put in efforts to strengthen the areas with patches of an extra piece of glassfiber.

  The decoration lines on the deck are Walnut, as well as I managed to bend a profile for the stem

   For the aft I used a combination of WRC and a wood specie for which I don't remember the name for but it is a leaf tree with characteristics similar to "En"

  The Cockpit recess and coaming is also WRC but I bought a small portion of ready mad profiles in very dark red, from Cheasapeake Light Boat

• During the colder part of the winters, not so long here in Virginia as in Sweden, the garage was too cold for working on the kayak itself, so I spend the time on crafting details, like a Pagaj, Seat (made an imaging of my back part out of concrete as a mould, it is now serving as a decoration in the garden *** Smile ***), Back rest, Skeg, foot supports etc.
• I have not got an arrangement for activating the skeg from outside the coming done yet. But it will be my task after the summer.
• Except from the compass and 4 screws holding it everything is made by "Ego"
• Varnish used is TOTAL BOAT GLEAM 2.0 - GLOSS. A bit shiny but I am not against it, but I would have liked to have had done a test first with a less shiny version.
• During the fine sanding of the first three varnish layer, I accidentally partly destroyed one "logo type", which I printed onto Japanese rice paper as in your description.

The "launch splash" took place on the 14th of June, in the historical York River, which is close to where we live (For only a few more years before we will move out and wave the country goodby, with a big smile on our lips !) and what a feeling of happiness and satisfaction that was.

So now, what to do more than paddling and finetuning some small details, especially the end of the lines and bungy cords?

I am secretly, I haven't asked my wife for permission yet, thinking on using my learnings and avoiding mistakes by building a Canoe. The time spending is certainly only a fraction on what it took for JACK 14, what a good sales argument to get my wife's agreement.

What I have in mind is "Sport 395" but I would like to prolong it up to 4.5 meters, do you think that it would be a too large of a prolong ?

Best Regards
Mats Lindblom

PS. I am in the process of buying a life west. DS"