Thwarted !!!

There are five structural pieces that run athwart ships, I have been waiting to use the term "athwart ships" for YEARS. I finally have a reason to use it, athwart ships. The first time I heard it used in a sentence, and correctly, was at the Adirondack Museum . A very cool place to spend a day if your in the neighborhood. There was a room of boats used in the Adirondacks, and there was a nice young man building a piece of art called an Adirondack Guide boat. He was very good, and very nice. He was planking the boat with quatersawn white pine, about 1/4 inch thick. Now I don't know about your lumber yard, but quatersawn white pine doesn't exactly grow on trees where I live. And he was tapering the edges and cinch nailing them so that it required no caulk to be water tight when finished. He was very good. Of course I had to have a conversation with him about the boat and his work. I asked about the shape of the boat, he said it was symmetrical fore and aft and athwart sips. I was very proud of my self because I knew what that meant. Athwart ships.
Back to the free-cycle canoe. The five athwart ships pieces are two handles, bow and stern, two thwarts, and a portage yoke.
Here they all are:
The boat had the thwarts, yoke and one handle with it when I got it. But they where in sad shape. They appeared to be moldy, and just plain plain. The thwarts where just straight pieces of wood, no real shape at all. I wanted a little more visual interest when looking athwart ships. The thwarts and yoke also where soft at the ends, there was no sense in trying to clean them up and reuse them. I wouldn't want them to fail if there was too much stress athwart ships.

All of the athwart ships members where made of red oak. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know, they're "supposed" to be ash, but I used red oak. Why? Because it's readily available at HD and Lowes, I would have had to spend a morning going to a place to get ash. It's relatively cheap, so if(when) I messed a peice, it's not that much cash to replace, and a short trip for more wood. Plus it's my boat, so deal.



The handles are just some sort pieces bull nosed on both sides, and about one and a half times wider than the original. Take a look:
Stern












Bow














The thwarts that came with the boat where also just straight pieces, not pretty at all. I looked at buying new curvy ones, in ash, but decided that since I have a complete wood shop (thanks to my wife), I'll make them. I laied out a shape that I liked,cut a sample from cheap pine to see how it looked on the boat. It was ok so I cut the bow thwart on my seldom used band saw. Some work with the router, and a lot of sanding, some trimming, and it was done. I wanted to make the stern thwart curvier, so the layout was changed, and a sample cut. When I went to cut it on the band saw, it blew a tire. Yup, band saws have tires, rubber strips on the wheels. I don't use the band saw much, and the tires dry rotted. Thats the breaks. So the second thwart was cut with the jig saw. It didn't take much longer, and with some sanding, routering, and more sanding, both thwarts where done.
This is them;
Back;











Front:














The yoke, which is the curviest piece that is athwart ships, was next and last. I it wanted to look and be a bit beefier than the original, the same as the thwarts, because I want to be able to add bungees at a later date. The neck part is also wider and deeper than the original. They layout took much head scratching, measuring, and the purchase of a new french curve. A paper pattern was made first. So some cutting with the jig saw, sanding, routing, more sanding, the yoke was cut, then trimmed and fit to the boat.
Here it is;


All of these athwart ships pieces where treated with Watco Teak Oil, they finished up pretty nice, if I do say so myself.

Well, we're close to getting wet, but there is still more work to be done.

Till next time, ATHWART SHIPS! (I just love saying it.)

RERAIL!!!

The new gunwales are on the hull! It was easier and more difficult than I though it would be. It took two days. It took two day because I worked slow, and quit early to go to a matinee. The port side was first, mainly because that side didn't have the old rails attached(remember the tear?).
I used almost all the clamps I have, except for the longest bar clamps, and the smallest. Needed them all. The most difficult part of all was trimming the ends. It takes practice. 7 or 8 more boats and I might figure it out. The directions,instructions, suggestions, or what ever you want to call it that I found on the Madriver web site helped some, but it was still difficult. The end result is that there won't be inset decks, that's the way it goes. Remember, this isn't a show piece.
Here it is with one side done.
Notice all the tools and clamps in the boat, used them all. Plus the stuff you don't see. The rails where attached from the center out. The center was easy.
















Here is the old and new.


I like the new side too!
















But all was not perfect on this sunny day. My wife decided to start a new project. Part of the new project entailed rinsing gravel. Go figure, when 'shewhomustbeobeyed wants clean gravel, who an I to argue. It wasn't the rinsing that was the problem, it was where it was done. Which just happened to be at the stern of the boat. Which is slightly up hill of the boat. Remember Mr. Newton and that whole gravity thing? The water ran just along side of the canoe, so I spent half the day working in mud.
Any way, The next day, I got the other rail on. It was the same story,easy in the middle and not so easy at the ends. I used all types of tools to shape and fit the ends, and the came out looking like crap, so don't expect a close up.
Here she is with her newest clothes:



The thwarts are temporary, just to keep her stiff.

All that's left is new thwarts, yoke, decks, and some more fiber glass repair. Moving along.

In all the stress, and difficulties and problems I had to keep reminding myself, something that most in this boat hobby know very, very well. It helped when thing got tough with the ends.
It goes something like this, not exactly, but you know what I mean:

There is nothing my friends, nothing quite so worth doing as messing about with boats.

See you next time, fair winds.

Open my eyes!

If your thinking by the title that I finally realized that I was way over my head, and was going to give upon this project, and then you could take over this sweet old girl, sorry no such luck. Yup, I'm sticking with my wife, and the canoe project is going forward, too.
Today were talking about the success and failure of the tug eyes. Just as refresher, I glued small blocks of wood in the bow and stern so that the hole of the eye wouldn't be open and will keep water out of the flotation chambers. There was some concern voiced about adding weight to the ends, and it's effect on the boat handling, but it's only 2 or three ounces per end, if that much, so I don't think it's going to be an issue. Plus the boat wont handle too well if the float cambers are filled with water! But thanks for you concern and comment.
So lets open those eyes.
We'll start in the back. The holes are 1/2 inch in diameter. I just happen to have a fostner bit set, so I took the proper bit from the case and put it in the cordless drill. If there ever was an indispensable tool for any number of projects, the cordless drill is it. I drilled in from both sides to avoid any tear out exiting the wood. The hold went all the way through solid wood, just what like i wanted.














The bow eye is another story, however.
I held the block lower block so that it wouldn't interfere with the inwale. The danger,of course, was that it would be too low and the hole would tear out the top of the block. Which is exactly what happened.














To fix this, I'll wait until I have the gunwales on, so I know just how nuch space I have. The most likely fix will be some more epoxy/sawdust mix. At the very least,most of the hole is filled.

The gunwales also got a coat of the Watco Teak Oil. That was after sanding, by hand, 100 grit and 150 grit. Just so you know, that's 72 linear feet of hand sanding per grit. 72 feet of not very stiff ash. Yes,my hands cramped, and my arms where tired. But they turned out pretty smooth. But I hate sanding. I brushed on a good heavy coat of oil. As heavy as you could, with the thin stuff.
It soaked into the wood a little bit,much less than I thought it would. So I figured I'd let it sit. After a couple of hours, it was sticky. Really sticky. Like OMFG WHAT DID I DO!?!? Sticky.
I had nothing to lose, so I decided to just let it sit. The next day was sunny, and that helped, but still tacky. Then it rained. It was still tacky, but the water beaded up nice. As luck would have it the sun came back out, and it dried so it was just slightly tacky. Dry enough to work with.
Here they are drying, exciting stuff.



















So stay tuned, the exciting event, attaching the rails, is not far away.
Tight Lines.