ontinue trialling and adjusting various boat equipments. The 2.2 Amph SLA battery works, but not to my expectation, first, it’s too heavy, second, its capacity is quite small, and third, the battery doesn’t hold its electricity for too long, about 2 days without charging and the battery would exhaust… After consulting with some other paddlers, I’ve decided to replace it with 3 Lithium cells, the results are just… superb!

I now have about 10 Amph in the very small 3 Li-ion cells, almost 5 times more the capacity, and 5 times less the weight, yet 5 times the price 😀, advancements in battery technologies is just amazing! According to one of my friend, an “expert” in electric and electronic devices, the Li-ion would usually last longer, and compared to the SLA, with zero maintenance cost. After replacing the battery, I fitted the last electrical components.

The AA charger and the USB charger, they’re positioned inside another waterproof box, connected to the battery box with electrical wires inside a plastic tube. The installation is pretty easy, the two devices are connected via two switches, simply put your iPhone (or your VHF radio, or your AA batteries) into the box, turn on the switch, close the box, and let the Li-ion cells, plus the solar panel do their job!

Also, I’ve removed the plastic seat, replace it with just a back – rest instead. The back – rest is built from plywood, bent into a curved shape, covered on 1 side with a rubber sheet (to make your back resting more comfortable), and fitted into the cockpit aft, it could be rotated slightly to suit my various sitting positions. These are last updates for the boat in this 2016 year, now it’s time to just enjoy the water!

any miscellaneous jobs required still to finish equipping my new kayak for upcoming paddling trips. First is adjusting the seat’s back rest, it’s a bit too high that strapping on the spray skirt could be a bit difficult. I simple cut down its back, then rivet the cut – out part onto the rest part. The hatches’ gaskets are cut from a thin (5 mm) rubber sheet (1^st & 2^nd images), should do their job of keeping the water out.

I made a new cart for transporting the boat on land, it’s just a smaller and lighter version of the previous one. I reused the pair of wheel, couldn’t reduce the wheels’ size since they have to be big enough so that the cart wouldn’t sink in when pulled on sand and mud. The result is quite satisfactory, big enough to easily transport the kayak, and small enough to not affect the boat stability when carried on the aft deck.

The list of small jobs to really finish the boat seems to be never ending, there’s always something I could do to improve, here and there, e.g: a mesh bag would be installed inside the cockpit, under the deck, to store various things I could need during a paddling trip, e.g: a small knife, a tiny light torch, a small monocular (to be equipped), reserved batteries for camera and GoPro, lighter, my tobacco box, etc…

It’s an interesting experience equipping a kayak for long paddling trips: everything need to be ready and accessible around your cockpit: food and drink, the back up paddle, the paddle float, radio and camera, everything… 😀 Fortunately, my newly purchased PFD has two pockets on the front side where I could hold some crucial things with me: the VHF radio, the Garmin and the Cannon waterproof small camera!

ontinue trialling my newly – built kayak with some short paddlings. The adjusted rudder pedals now work properly and smoothly. The battery system charged well, everything works as expected. One point I’ve found out is that, the SLA (Sealed Lead Acid) battery should be positioned upright for it to be charged to its maximum capacity. I was thinking about Lithium battery which is more compact, lighter, has more capacity…

But that would be later, maybe I should deploy a system of SLA and Lithium in parallel, as the SLA could provide short – bursts of hight current (required by the bilge pump), and the Lithium could provide a lower amperage for a longer period of time. Today, the Sea – to – summit spray skirt package arrived, the all – neoprene thick skirt fits well to the cockpit coaming, it should do its job of keeping the water out well!

Also I’ve found out that I need to adjust the seat’s back rest a bit, it’s too high that strapping the skirt on could be a bit difficult. One important add-on to the kayak is the water drinking system. 2^nd image: the 2 plastic water bags, from left to right: 10 and 8 liters respectively. The smaller oval – shaped water bag is put in the forward compartment, with a water tube running through a cable gland over the deck.

That way you can drink (suck the water out of the reservoir through the tube) without having to stop paddling. The low – lying bags would help with the boat’s stability, no more bulky water bottles needed, and the deck space would be clearer for other items of necessity. I’ve found this drinking system idea very practical, as I’ve lost quite some water bottles lashed to the bungee cords in heavy sea, when strong waves wash over the deck.

ade the first trialling of my kayak today, a short 10 km paddling just to verify if everything works! All goes smoothly, hurray! The solar panel is adding juice to the battery, could see that obviously since the lights have become more intense, and pump has become much stronger (I almost used up the battery the day before). Under this tropical sun, that wouldn’t be a hard task for the solar cells, I guess!

The rudder works nicely, the pedals could be easily kicked by my legs, changing direction instantly. The pedals movements could be improved however, to become lighter and more responsive. Every parts of the boat simply just work! And the paddles also, I’m feeling pleased with the new paddles. And for the main part, the boat itself… it feel just a bit more stable (that’s what I was expecting for), but the hull now tracks much better!

It could go quite straight even without the rudder deployed. The feeling that the shorter boat is very steady, and could possibly go faster compared to my previous Serene – 1 kayak. Though the LOA (length over all) of Serene – 2 is shorter, its LWL (length waterline) is pretty much the same. The higher free board makes climbing into the boat a bit more difficult, but that’s not a problem, cause the cockpit now is a bit larger.

The slightly higher free board is very important, it should keep water out of the deck for many of the times, and hence waves shouldn’t threaten flooding the hatches much. My overall feeling is very pleasing, for those months of efforts put into the watercraft! 😀 But 10 km is too short, I need to trial the new kayak more, and record the routes by my Garmin, to really evaluate the boat’s performances in precise numbers.

ticking the vinyl decal decorations is among the last steps that complete the kayak. Since the deck spaces are almost used up for various accessories, the boat names and owner’s informations go onto the port and starboard sides instead, and the boat eyes intrinsic for any Vietnamese boat of course! The solar panel is tied on the aft deck, stretched with two short wooden spars, and lines through its grommets.

There’re some more items to be built or fitted for this kayak: the seat, the carriage for transporting the boat. I would rebuild my previous carriage, reuse the 2 wheels, but build it lighter and smaller, to easier carry it on the aft deck. The seat and back rest are also important parts, but those would be postponed to a later phase of the project. Also, I’m still waiting for my spray skirt to be shipped from Amazon.

After sticking the vinyl decal decorations, the bottom receives additional 2 layers of transparent PU paint, making them 3 layers in total for the bottom (the deck only received 2 layers), protecting the vinyls. The handle line pulling through a hole drilled at the bow (with a wooden block inside) is just a simple hang – man knot, the kayak has no handle at the stern, since the rudder has taken up all the space.

It’s so good a feeling to see the boat completed! Looking back on the building progress, there’re still things that I’m not really pleased with, in building quality, in the look & feel, in equipments… But I believe this is my best boat so far, accommodating various small design changes that I’ve found neccessary from my paddling experiences. I should start trialling the kayak soon, to see how she would behave on water! 😀

ectified one problem with the signal light, the bulb is too greedy, it eats up a lot of electricity and could potentially burn up the reed switch (I’ve noticed the reed switch has malfunctioned sometimes due to the high current). So I replace the bulb with 8 small white LEDs (1 Watt each). Some more soldering work, but finally it’s done, equally bright, but less power consumed, and safer for the switch.

Today, I installed and tested the rudder system. First is the two cable lines used to pull the rudder up and down. The 2 lines run back to the cockpit and are attached to 2 small wooden balls, with a short segment of bungee cord. Third image: the wooden balls and bungee cord. The bungee serves as a shock cord, in case the rudder should collide with some thing and kicked back, so that no damage would be done to the whole system.

One simple rule to operate the pull up / down lines: grab the ball that is further from the cockpit and pull it. Well, it sounds pretty simple, but useful enough, when in action, you just don’t have to think over and over again: which line is up, and which line is down! 😀 The two rudder control lines run back to inside the cockpit where they’re attached to the pedals via 2 small wooden jam cleats to adjust the lines’ tension.

All works well, but the pedal motions are not really smooth, because the bungee cords are not strong enough to pull the pedals back (once one pedal is kicked, I would just have to kick the other pedal to balance the rudder). But I would just leave them as they are for now, as they’re working already, would consider replacing the bungees with stronger ones (or revise the design a bit) later on.

fter joining the hull and deck, the hull receives its final bottom glassing. The fiber fabric would overlap the deck about an inch, to better seal the joint. One little trick to make a clean, tidy line at the painting (or epoxy) boundary: mask the area to paint (or to fill with epoxy) with duct tape. Prior to applying (colored) paint or epoxy, brush the duct tape with a very thin layer of transparent paint (or epoxy).

Wait for the paint (or epoxy) to cure, than apply the (colored) paint (or epoxy). That way, the colored paint (or epoxy) won’t leak through the duct tape, cause no matter how good the duct tape is, paint (or epoxy) would leak through, causing a blurry, untidy line. Second image: masking with duct tape, prepare for glassing the hull. I run out of my fiberglass fabric roll after this task, also use up the last drop of epoxy! 😀

The hull glassing receives an additional layer of fill coat, then another layer of epoxy at the 3 seams, then a slight sanding. I don’t sand much, just at some rough places. The color scheme for this kayak is also brown / yellow like my previous two boats, but this time, the colors would be much lighter. Next would goes in the vinyl decal decorations, then varnishing the whole hull and deck with transparent PU paint.

Since the deck’s space is used up for the 3 hatches, the bungee cords, the signal light and solar panel, and other accessories, all decorations would go to port and starboard sides: the boat eyes, boat name, and owner’s information! There’re many many other unnamed tasks required still to finish the boat, so I won’t hope to complete it until next week. However, the kayak would see water and start its trial paddling very soon!