Second Sea Trial

After yesterday's trip to the lake, I was not convinced that the rowing seat was in the best location.  The boat seemed easily led off course.  Also seemed less stable than I liked.  Of course, I was comparing it to my own, much wider and heavier boat.

This morning, I made an easy way to move the boat from the trailer to the canoe cart.  Tried it out in my backyard and was delighted!

Drove to the lake, shifted the boat to the cart and rolled it to the water. While the boat was empty, I hung a plumb bob over a mark on the floor of the boat to find a way of measuring when the boat sat level.

I put the oars in their locks and set a new, temporary bench in the boat too. Instead of a wobbly bucket that was over 9" tall, todays bench is sturdy and only 7" tall.  I sat in the boat and moved the bench around until the bob was again hanging over its initial spot.  I marked the location of the bench on the floor of the boat.

I knew the boat was sitting level and I was satisfied.  I rowed into the lake a hundred yards and was impressed at how much more directionally stable it was.  The boat seemed more solid and less tippy too.  All good news.

Brought the boat home and was very surprised to see today's placement of the seat is about an inch different from yesterday's!

Why was the boat so much improved?  The new seat was much lower, making it less tippy.  The oars had been readjusted for this narrow boat.  Made it easier to keep going in a straight line.

I am now building the bench, then the adjustable foot braces.  The To-Do list is getting very short!

To The Lake!!!

I am behind in my writing here.  I have accomplished a few things that need reporting.

Once the slotted inner rail was in place, I rolled the boat over and went to work on the outside of the hull.  I did some sanding then applied a thin coat of thickened epoxy to the areas I'd applied before. With a light sanding, that was smooth enough to paint.

I made a nice set of moveable oarlocks.  Figured out a way to adjust them in increments of 2.5 inches, rather than the spacing of the slots, 5".

I wanted to use my utility trailer to haul these light boats, but the draw bar was way too short.  After some research and discussion with my fabricator son, I changed the old bar for one that gives me an extra 4' of distance from the trailer to the hitch.

Nothing left to do but go to the lake and see how the boat floats!  The boat sits level, with only part of its skeg under water

I sat in the boat, on a bucket, various distances from the bow.  My friend, Manfred stood on the shore and advised me whether the bow or stern were too low, or whether it sat on the water much like it did when empty.  My sitting in the boat lowered the boat an inch or so, and the boat sits flat.  The skeg was still not immersed.

 I attached my oars to the locks and of course, they are meant for a boat much wider than this one. Rowing was awkward and clumsy. I tried to make some determination about how well it tracked, but with such clumsy rowing, it was very difficult.  Save that for when the seat and foot rest are installed.

As Promised . . .

This morning, once the shop warmed with the sunshine, I removed yesterday's clamps.  Used the cabinet scraper to cut back the epoxy over-runs and gave the area a light sanding too.

After lunch, I applied the first coat of varnish to the decks and rails.

Slotted Inwale Installed

Another big step today!  This morning, I glued and nailed the spacers to the top of the sides of the boat.  They went in nicely and with the air-nailer, very quickly too.

I had varnished the edges of the little spacers, but I had not varnished either the hull, nor the back side of the rail.  Took awhile to do those, but the varnish dried very quickly so I went on to gluing the rail in place.

After lunch today, I 'buttered' each of the spacers with thickened epoxy then used clamps to hold the inner rail exactly where I wanted.  That part of the process worked very nicely this morning, without slippery glue.  With the epoxy making the joins much more difficult to locate, I had to use more clamps, little sticks to coax the rail to stay in place and a bridge of a 2x4 across the hull to anchor a couple more clamps.

So, these pictures are a work in progress.  Tomorrow I shall sand, varnish and post again.

Inwale Spacers

Yesterday, I started working on the spacers for the inwale.  I want to use a nice, light and light-coloured wood.  Trouble is that spruce and pine are so soft and fibrous that the drills tear rather than cut cleanly.

With previous boats, I was able to set up a jig on the drill press and slide the wood strips to the proper place under the drill bit.  The bit would carve a nice arc into the end of the wood, and at the same time carve the arc into the leading edge of the next segment.  Worked well with fir.

I tried a number of drills and hole cutters, but each of them left a torn surface instead of nice and smooth.  I finally gave up and came in to supper.  This morning, I tried using a hole saw and that was better, but still required sanding or filing.

Online, I found nice router bits with round cutting heads, like a mushroom.  In order to try out the possibility, I experimented with one of my regular router bits.
I set up my router table and ran the end grain through the bit.  Came out smooth, rather than  ragged and torn.

The next picture shows my router table set up with the new router bit.  The piece of wood that I want to cut is clamped to a sliding guide which moves along the top of a board.  That board is clamped next to the cutting head.

The new operation has only a few steps.  Cut the piece to length on the chop saw.  Run the end of the piece (with the help of a fence, guide and a clamp) over the top of the bit.  Flip the piece of wood around and repeat on the opposite end!  Very nicely done.

 Sorry it is so blurry, but I hope you get the idea.

In this last shot, I have nearly 70 of these insert pieces all coved and clamped together so I can varnish the edges.  Once that is done, I shall glue them to the inside rim of the boat, in preparation for the inner rail.

Alan, attached are a few pictures I just took.  They are as-is, and will look better once I sand and varnish.

The first one is of the proposed slotted rail.  The thickness of the apacer and long rail is the same as on my canoe and that looks nice.  I would like to use this light coloured wood for the spacers to accent the decking on the seats.  Make the rails look more delicate too.

What do you think?

Living Colour!

Today is very exciting!   I am satisfied with the epoxy work inside the boat and I have covered it with paint!

The seams and joins have at least three coats of epoxy and subsequent sandings.

The paint is an exterior paint from Benjamin Moore.

The top of the sides has been masked to allow for the inwale to be attached.

The floatation tanks have yet to be painted.  Access hatches have to be cut into the tops and some seat supports need to be glued in first.  I chose a pine plywood for the tops.  I like its colour and it's light.  Turns out to need some stiffeners on the underside.

On with the show!