Monthly Archives: March 2012

A little more progress

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I had an accident and Praise God it crawled away with just a badly bruised, possibly sprained ankle. That has kept me out of the shop for several days now. Swelling is down and I managed to put on my boots and actually lace both up the morning.

I got in the shop a little bit yesterday and got to work on lashing some of the stringers in place. I built the stands I work on and one of the great things is I can can off the top bar and lower the boat down on one of the cross braces. This allowed me to sit in a chair and work. Was nice to be able do something besides watch TV. Trust me, there is nothing on TV!

I like to lash the center of the boat together leaving the stringers long on the ends.  Once I have the middle lashed I move to the ends and start on them.

As you can see the stringers were very long on this one. Other than being in the way it’s not a problem and I can use the cutoff by scarfing them together into longer pieces for use on the deck or seat stringers in another boat.

The transom is going to be interesting to build! A little harder than I anticipated but I am not surprised either. Once I get the bow down I will start on it.

New boats, new products

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Had a little accident early this week and took a pretty good fall.  Fortunately (and amazingly) I just have a bruise and sprained ankle. Not being able to get in the shop I work I have had time to finish up a few projects.

I just listed some new designs and a placed a couple of new items in the store.

My first tandem canoe, Tangerine.  16′ long is now available.

Crawfish Pirogue’s are also available.  These are all about being simple to build. Not that they can get a lot simpler than they were though.  I am thinking this could be great Boys Club or Scout projects. Father and son/daughter building project.  There is a single and a tandem version.

Also, I now have a black marine grade bungee cord and a black polyester rope for making life lines now available in the store.  They actually will not be in stock till end of next week but I went ahead and listed them.


If there is something I don’t offer let me know and I will look into it. I am looking into some other items and I do have a couple of boats designs in the works.

Jeff

Storing all these boats

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Everyone probably has the same problem. Where to store the boat(s)? In my case I build so many it is getting out of hand. I am going to put some up for sale very soon. If you looking for a used one I am going to let them go very reasonable.

But I still needed to get those keepers out-of-the-way and out of the weather. I have been looking at ideas for a while and finally decided nothing beats overhead storage. That is dead space. I have been looking at options for making my own, but pulleys are expensive.  I found I could buy bike hoists cheaper and just alter them.

First I had to mount a 2×6 to the ceiling since the joist ran the wrong way. That took a while since I work alone and the tall ceilings didn’t help. But once I got that done I managed to get 3 of my boats hung up fairly quickly. I have 3 more kits I can install and I am so happy with this I think I am going to..


Frame starts to come together

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It has taken me a couple of days to get back to work on the boat. I have spent a few minutes here and there over the last couple of days. I caught a couple of mistakes and today I finally got most of the frame dry fitted together.

As you can see the stringer are way longer than needed. I bought 12 foot lumber and I ripped and scarfed them together. They end up being 23 feet (+/-) long. Other than being in the way being to long isn’t a problem. After I am happy with what I have and lash the frames in place I will trim them back. I always save the cutoffs because they can scarfed together to make longer pieces.

I couldn’t resist putting the rowing unit in the boat once I got the stringers in place the bungees tight.

 

Placing it in the boat helped me see what I had but left me with about as many questions as answers. Still not sure how I am going to mount it to the boat. Looking at it I came up a couple of ideas that might work. Also thinking I need one more partial frame to support the unit.

From this angle  I could see that I could shave an inch off height off of the rowing unit frame. That will lower the center of gravity and making the boat a lot more stable.  There is enough space under the foot board that I can slide it downward and my heels could actually be below the rowing unit if I wanted. Plenty of room to make it me properly.

Tomorrow I will lash a few frames in place that will not change. But I am think I am going to be pulling some of them out and making some alterations.

Building has commenced

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I have got to name this boat.  I am torn between Cotton Row, my initial idea and Cottonwood. What ever the name I started cutting the frames today. Actually I got them cut out, just need to do a little clean up work on them and sand the edges a little smoother for them to be complete.

I rough cut them from the plywood with the jig saw and do the final cuts on the bandsaw. It’s just the way I prefer. But one thing I hate about the bandsaw is those stupid ball bearing guides! I don’t know why anyone thinks they are an improvement. They scream like a banshee and I just put new ones on it. It’s so loud I have to wear ear protection or I think I would go mad!

Instead of buying new bearings I should have bought the parts to convert it over to cool blocks. It sure would have been money better spent.

Here you can see my prototype sliding seat. I have the base built and dry fitted together. I want to get the frame built and put in the boat before I glued it anything. I want to make sure I like this and I see no reason I wont.

One thing I know I have to change is the looks of the footrest. That big slab may bet totally functional, but it sure is ugly. Not sure what I am going to do but it really needs something!

Now for something totally different

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I have been looking at a ‘pulling’ (rowing) boat design for probably two years now. I have played with lots of ideas. I pretty much finished the design on Sweetbriar but just never built it.  Not sure why but I just kept finding myself trying other things. A couple of weeks ago I was bouncing ideas around on the Wooden Boat Forum when I had a new idea.

What if I took one of my previous designs and made it more like a scull. Add a deck with coamings instead of an open boat.  Lowered the profile while trying to keep some traditional styling in the boat. (I am a big fan of traditional boats)

For those of us that are more experienced boaters (read: older) keep some stability since this is for exercise and recreation. Long enough to take advantage of the sliding seat. For use on protected water and but keep the bow tall enough that it can deal with some chop too. Crown the decks to divert water off to the sides.

This is what I ended up with.  If you could see the waterlines it is essentially a double ender. The transom acts as a bit of a rudder and is largely for looks.  The final version has a rounded shape and doesn’t come to point like I show in the drawing. The plan is a to varnish the transom and you could even put a name on there in the traditional manner.

I have started working on the prototype of a drop-in sliding seat rowing unit for this one. I need to get the frame built so I can check the fit and work out some of the details like how I want to mount it to the boat.  I need to come up with a simple-to-build outrigger. That is proving to be a bit of a challenge. I want something that anyone with some basic woodworking skills can build.

Weather is calling for 5 days or rain starting this afternoon. I just made a run to my lumber supplier and picked up a bunch of plywood yesterday. I see a lot of shop time next few days.