Deck Beam and Carlins

This next step covers some structural components of kayak, the deck beam and the carlins. The deck beam is an arc at the front of the cockpit, attaching to the sheer clamps on each side. This beam will be hidden under the deck but will at as an important reinforcement for the deck and carlins. The carlins are wooden beams (1/2” by ¾”) sticks that will provide the inner support edge that the deck rests on around the cockpit.

There were several parts to this step. The first part was gluing two identical, arced pieces of wood together to form the deck beam. This was rasped and sanded. Following that, the deck beam was cut and glued into its spot at the front of the cockpit. This was glued down with the epoxy bonding mix I’ve discussed earlier. Once this was in place, attaching the carlins was next.

Attaching the carlins was one of the most frustrating steps I’ve encountered so far. The carlins need to be attached to the deck beam with two wooden tabs on the outside edge for reinforcements. These create more surface area for a bond also. The tabs are glued into place and a screw is run through each one. This was the easy part. The carlins must be attached at the front to the tabs and deck beam, and then fit into each of the hanging knees and finally a slot in the top of the rear bulkhead. The carlin itself is bent along this path, which pretty much matches the flow of the kayak’s shape. This is a spot where you need four good, long clamps to hold the carlins into the hanging knees and rear bulkhead. Also, more clamps are really handy for holding together the carlins as they attach to the deck beam and tabs. When the kit is shipped, all the wood is packaged up in a big cardboard folder that’s about 4 by 8 feet square. The company goes through great effort to ensure that all wood is kept in order and protected during shipping. My carlins were straight as an arrow out of the box. When I reached this step, I realized that was not working in my favor. I knew that I needed to have everything set before I started mixing any epoxy, so that means being able to “dry fit” the carlins in place, using the clamps, to ensure I have a good fit at all the touch points. In my first attempt, I could feel the carlins were at their breaking point as I tried to flex them into place. Sure enough, I broke the first one I tried to fit in. I tried to repeat this step with the second and managed to break that also. Now I was out of carlins. One thing I did realize before I started this was that the carlins were simply long, thin pieces of pine that I could easily replace with a drop to Home Depot if needed. The trim isle has these same pieces of wood. I also felt this was another place were the instructions could have been improved. They should have you bend the carlins into a curved shape before you attempt this step. It was too late for that. As I drove to Hope Depot, I already had my plan. I was to buy the most bent piece of ½” by ¾” piece of pine trim that I could find. As typical of big box store lumber, they had no shortage of that. I bought my new sections and was back home in a jiffy. These new “pre-bent” pieces were easy to fit into the needed shape. The one final thing they needed was a slight twist, from about the front to the middle. That was pretty easy to get that done. At the front, I used the wood block “nose block” to get the wood twisted. This piece is used later in that same spot with the cockpit combing. I used a clamp to force the twist and get the carlins flush with the edges of the tabs for a good bond. The clamps on the hanging knees would keep the twist from there back. After I thoroughly checked everything with my dry fit, I was ready to get out the epoxy and do the glue. With the nose block, I used some plastic between it and the wood, as I wanted to ensure that I didn’t actually glue in on.