Done and Delivered!

And it is delivery day! Unfortunately the lake is frozen over and we cant put it in the water today. When spring comes I expect a grand launching...

Final Varnish

Ok here we go with the final coat of spar urethane. The shop is warm and things are drying well, even though I had to put a milk house heater underneath it to trap the warm air inside... It is a challenge to varnish at 50 degrees....
Just a couple final punch list things to do before delivery!

Seat Fittings

Now that the deck and gunnels are installed and sanded, its time to fit the seats and drill for the support bolts. The seats will have 3" risers to suspend the seats about 5" below the level of the gunnels. This will lower the center of gravity a bit and make the canoe just a touch more stable. It will also leave enough room to put your feet under the seat if you care to kneel and paddle.
The punch list is still pretty long but I hope to have a pre-xmas delivery date....

Decks on!

I now have the rough decks installed, glued and screwed in place. With small hand holds to ease lifting.  Next step is to round over all the edges, sand smooth and put on a protective coating of epoxy. The epoxy will also soak into any crack or crevasse and lock everything in place that I might have missed with my joinery.

Grab some thwart!

Ok, not much of a post today. I did manage to finish up the gunnels and carved out a thwart for the unfinished canoe. I ran into a source of 7/8" thick maple and used it to make a substantial, beautiful thwart. Of course it needs to be sanded.... everything needs to be sanded... sheesh!

The final punch list is still a mile long, but progress is being made....

Inwales

I was really worried that the hull of this canoe wasn't going to straighten out when I installed the inwales. When I started this project the hull came to me without the forms so the sides were pretty floppy. In fact it had some interesting waves along the side.

I used a 7/8 x 3/4 inch inwale to give a lot of rigidity to the hull and everything smoothed out nicely. Scuppers were cut at 4" wide by a 1/4" deep, about 8 to a side. Should have plenty of wood to hang the seats from.

Shop Improvement

I picked up this vintage radial arm saw, and let me tell you these babies take up quite a bit of room! But it provides reach and angles and accuracy not possible with my old chop saw. Next project with this saw it to cut scuppers on the in-wales for the unfinished canoe. I installed the old trusty dado blade set up at an inch and will nibble out 4" scuppers on a 12" centers the length of the in-wales with the exception of 32" on either end for tapers. Problem to be fixed was in-feed and out-feed tables at the height of the saw platform... sheesh nothing is ever easy! But I got it done and am ready to start cutting....

Smooooth

Its so smooth you can see it.....

Its fairing time

Finally have all of the strips placed and glued up for the show boat. Even the cheaters are done and awaiting a bit of trimming. Let the fairing process begin! First is a pass with a paint scraper who's blade has been sharpened, this takes off the glue drips and begins to smooth the surface. Next I take the block plane with the blade set pretty shallow, make multiple diagonal passes on the bottom and the sides, alternating the direction of cut. Once I am happy with the cuts, its on to the RO sander with 60 grit for the first of a dozen passes to give it the smooth....

Inside wet out

All fun and games here in the shop today. A good 2+ hours wetting out the 6oz fabric on the inside of the hull. Nothing is ever easy, I used the last drop at the very end. Time to order more epoxy.

Inside out

Its been awhile since the last post, but lets be frank here. Sanding is boorish, sanding is no fun, sanding looks the same on any photo and makes for pretty poor blogging. If you want to know, I did so much sanding on the inside of this project I had to take a few days off just to let my hands heal up a bit. But that is behind us now and am ready to move on to the interior fiberglass! I spread the cloth out this morning and will do the initial wet out sometime this week depending on temperatures. I need time to get the shop up to 70+ degrees to get a good flow and cure, then I let it cool off while the epoxy dries. This seems to compress any air bubbles and makes a tight layup.

Ready for epoxy

Bottoms up

The bottom stripping is going well up to this point. I was using extra strips from a previous build and only have 3 left. I will have to mill a half dozen more to finish up.

Centerline

This morning I managed to get a good looking center line installed on the 12 footer. I am at the point where I usually switch from placing strips on the outside in to the inside out. I kind of had a thought about doing a different pattern on the bottom, chevrons or diagonals or something.... have to see what happens.

Fill Coats Going Down

One project complete and the next one is underway. Fill coats on the unfinished are progressing nicely. Once it hardens then I can flip it over and start fairing the inside of the hull. You can see in the back ground another 12 footer is underway with the strips up to the waterline....

Test Run

Ok so I know these boats will float, how could they not? But given the opportunity to take one out for a test paddle is a no-brainier... so i took a 12 footer down to Lake Pelican and put it in the water. The wind was blowing off shore so the water looked calm. I had to stand on the painter line to keep the boat from being blown away as I snapped pictures like a fashion model....

I did paddle it for awhile, up and down the shoreline... it took a moment to get the feel of the boat and relaxed into the seat. There is a bit of rocker in the craft and using a single blade is a bit cumbersome. Using a double blade though really brings out the speed and maneuverability. Just a pleasure to paddle.

Side Job

Can a side job have a side job? Ok, so every once in a while I have to do some fixing up around the castle grounds. In this instance an entry step that I built over 10 years ago, decide that enough was enough. It even had the rudeness to collapse while the boss lady was using it... so to keep the peace, 9 boards and a couple hours... tada!!

Fixing the cracks

This is an interesting project, there are a number of cracks and splits in the hull of this canoe. The boat was taken off its forms before fiber glassing and put in storage for quite awhile. The cedar has dried out a bit and some of the seams have split. Sooooo how do you fix something like this?

The problem is how to squeeze the parts together to get the glue to stick and dry... here is the clever part. Superglue! By gluing down a couple of scrap pieces on either side of the split.

Once the glue is dry, I should be able to plane off the scraps and sand any blemishes out. So far so good, I'll keep you posted.

Another Begining

Take one out and start another one! Yes I do believe I have a problem... not enough space to build all of the canoes and kayaks I want.

So this build is going to be another 12' solo, narrow enough to use a double blade with a slatted chair instaid of the traditional seat. The different thing about this one is I am using scraps and leftover strips from the previous builds and will most likely paint the outside hull. Might even do some cool graphics on it as well.

Sunset over Pelican Lake

This is why we do it folks. A beautiful sunset over calm waters, the gentle breeze on your cheeks and the swish of a paddle making little swirls and dimples in the surface of the lake. A few bugs hum along and the birds sing their evening songs. The stress and tension of the day flow down through the paddle and into the water, a bottomless well that accepts those feelings with an indifference that calms and soothes.

Ready to roll

These two canoes are completely done and waiting for pickup. The other two for this order are so close to completion I can smell the varnish.

So here they stay until the others are ready to go... could be a week, could be less....