The Stitch and Glue Method of boat building

I now have the finished panels routed out. and they need assembly. To do this I must stitch them together.

I will try to describe here in detail the stitch and glue method for building small boats.  

The kayaks I am building are assembled from a series of laminated mahogony plankings and these must be tied together before gluing. This is done by drilling tiny holes along the rim of the planking that will be adjacent to its adjoining planking. 

When the planks are laid side by side a copper wire is pushed through and the ends are twisted together. The holes are drilled about 30 to 40 millimeters apart. Here's a few photos of this part of the process, which also shows a very messy workroom.

Here are the twin bottom plantings with the holes drilled out.

Here is what I am using, the copper core of recycled electrical cable.

This is about 2 millimetre diameter.

Each of the holes then has the copper inserted.

Then each of them gets tied. Its important at this stage not to make them two tight.

The planking will be opened like an envelope and if they are too tight the wires will snap.

Once the entire kayak is stitched, and the form is satisfactory the entire structure can be glued. 

So here's the kayak stitched together, the copper wire can. be removed later. I am also running a line from fore to aft to make sure the form of the boat is symetrical.

Removing the stitches

 At this stage I need to remove the stitches from the filleted seams. To do this I use a heat gun and a pliers. 

Clipping the copper just below the twist I apply the heat gun to the wire. This heats up the wire allowing it to become loose within the fillet. I then apply light pressure with the pliers and gently tug. In most cases the copper wire slides out without any problems.

Once the wire is removed I can then proceed with laying 10oz fiberglass tape on both sides of the fillet.

With the outside of the hull and the inside of the hull taped at the seams the hull is more structurally sound.