Kayaker from NY

First Stop Introductions
#1

Hey guys I am a whitewater kayaker from NY looking into making my own composite freestyle kayak in my sport’s latest trend. I’ve been researching and lurking for a while now but i figured I would post up.

Originally all whitewater boats were made in fiberglass/ kevlar which gave way to more durable plastics, but now as we are trying to push our moves higher and further out of the water we are returning to high-end composites.

I am looking to make modifications to my current boat in clay, mold it in 3 parts with flanges and then make 2 halves which will overlap to be glued and taped together.

I’ll be starting off by figuring things out with by making a few mouse pads and helmets while I get my mold together, then going for the real deal. Hopefully I can get this sorted out and make my boat during the beginning of the summer.

Key elements as you might imagine is to have a very stiff, impact resistant and light final part.

I am planning on using a Marine epoxy system by West Systems which will be resistant to condensation and UV.

Layup I think is going to be: (listed from outside -in)

Hull: 4oz carbon twill , Kevlar, core (haven’t found one right for the job yet), Kevlar, carbon

Deck: 4oz Carbon twill, kevlar, carbon

Thoughts?

#2

Howdy, this is my first post too (and will do an intro in a min!)

Looks like you’re on to a good plan for now anyway, so fair play to you!I could imagine kayaks are subjected to a good number of bumps and bangs, but do production kayaks have kevlar in them?
Even though its slightly unbalanced, I wouldnt bother putting kevlar on the inner side of the kayak. The purpose of it is to protect against rocks, etc which I imagine are unlikely to be found on the inside of the kayak (hopefully not anyway :slight_smile: ) Its contribution to stiffness is negligible so, I would leave that layer out. Also, are you planning on just using one layer of carbon and one kevlar?

Im assuming you will want a closed cell foam core such as Corecell from SP -would be a good starting point anyway.

hope it goes well

#3

The idea behind a kevlar or Hybrid inner layer is to reduce the impact of abrasion from my feet.

Thanks for the suggestions!