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Rounded the corner headed for home!

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Getting really close to finishing this one up and I still don’t have a name. I think I will just call it My Boat since I don’t have commercial plans for it.

Lets start with the oars, after a lot of research I decided it didn’t matter what I built them out of as long as they didn’t break and I kept them varnished. So I laminated basswood since it was easy to get and cheap. I am sure I will build another set  in the near future and once I am happy with my design I can use better wood if I find the need.

This is the second oar blank being shaped on the bench. As you can see by the pile of shavings there has been a lot of wood removed from the first one. I use hand tools and sandpaper. I know most of you reading probably thing of hand tools as old school but there is nothing better for this job! They are a joy to work with once you learn the tricks.

This is a cheap Stanley Handyman plane I picked up somewhere. I have reshaped the blade so that is it rounded and use it as a scrub plane. It leaves a rough surface but it takes a lot of material off fast. This one works great at getting it removing lots of wood and getting it down close, then I finish with the other plans that take small amounts off at a time. Yes it is slower but you have much more control and don’t suddenly find you are way past your mark. You sort of sneak up on the line.

Next it was time to fit the trim or coaming to the boat. This hides the fabric edge and will help keep water from coming in the cockpit.

All the bits and pieces dry fitted in place ready to removed and sanded.

Now we skip past all the hours of sanding and sanding and sanding some more…..  I start to apply the first coat of varnish and then see the places I should have sanding a little bit more.

Hope to start assembling all the bits and pieces some time this week and maybe take it to the water late in the week. MAYBE!

Cremesicle to the rescue!

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Painting is done, except for the inevitable touch-ups that always seem to be necessary.  For those of you that have been guessing my inspiration was the CreamSicles.

Desperate for something I was looking at all the paint chips in the rack and thought about a tangerine color when it came to me. A Creamsicle! 

I looked at lot of color combinations but I think I nailed this one. I had to get a friend of mine to help with finding the right creamy white but it all turned out just like I had in mind.

Keep in mind your monitor and my dark shop don’t lend themselves to a good color matching photos but it exactly what I had  in mind. A slightly creamy orange and with a creamy white with just a hint of an orange tint. Just looks like a Creamsicle to me!  BTW, I am seriously considering renaming it Popsicle. I am not  happy with the name Cotton Row.

 

Skin and Oar

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The boat is skinned and ready for paint. Love the new method I used for skinning. I learned a few things things not to do on the next one. This is the tightest polyester skin I have ever had. It really is drum tight It’s actually too tight near the rear of the boat.

“I think” I know what color(s) I am going to use. I had an inspiration today but that will have to remain a secret for a while yet. I am still trying to decide if that is what I want. Lets just say it’s not as traditional as I was first thinking. 🙂

Next I worked on the finishing the oars. On my glued up blank, the handle  had ended up bad off center somehow and I had decided to just use this as test piece to learn from. As I started to mark the final shape on the glue up I realized that the handle was right, I had just left more stock on side than the other.

So I finished the oar still thinking I would just use it as a pattern but it came out so well that I decided to just keep it. I am very happy with it and it looks like it is a keeper.

Next is one more oar, paint on the hull and a lot of varnishing on the sliding seat rig. Oh and of course trim around the cockpit. That will take a little time to install and varnish but it’s getting close.

Oars and skin

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I have started on my oars. After a false start and a lot of looking around I finally settled on laminating some basswood boards into a blank.  I looked at a lot of plans on the web and I am more or less following Jim Michalak’s plans. His plans are for 8 foot and I am making 9′. So they will vary a little bit.

With that glued up I moved over to the boat and started skinning.

On this boat I just staple the skin on the inside of the coaming.

I am trying a new stitch down the bow. I have seen this done before but never knew how it was done and finally just decided to try it. It’s slower but I love the way it looks and I also found that I can pull the skin tight and not get those pesky pull holes either.

The bow is sewn and ready for a little shrinking to pull out some wrinkles. It’s going to be a couple of days before I can get back on it but it will not take long to be ready for paint or whatever finish I decide on.

Any color suggestions? I am stumped.

And this one is JUST RIGHT

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Outriggers are done, well as far as I can go right now. They are still held in place with some F-clamps so I need to order hardware.  I think I will start sanding and varnishing everything next. It might get skinned up a little but I can touch it up before I do the final assembly.

It is supposed to be stormy but since the storms are not here, I decided to take some  FROG photos (Frame On Grass).  Looking at it the outriggers look sort of narrow but they are correct for a set of 8 foot long oars. I wanted to start with these and see what I have built. If I don’t have any problems and decide later I want to try some 9′ oars, it’s just a matter of building a new set of outriggers and bolting them on to the frame.

Frame is done and we have a problem…

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Frame came off the strong back and I took out in the yard for the obligatory F.R.O.G. photo. (frame on the grass)  I still love that raked transom.

I took it back into the shop and placed it on the trailer just to get it out of way so I can clean up around the stands.

I noticed there was more flex in this frame but there is also more wood, so it is heavier and skinning always stiffens them somewhat so it wasn’t a big deal. Then I was on the other side of the shop, turned around and I could see the frame was hogged. No doubt about it, the bow was lower than the center of the boat. I could not  believe it! I took and string and tied it to the boat stretched it along the keel, found that the bow was 1″  lower than the center of the boat.

After a lot of double checking and measuring I still didn’t have an answer, just a couple of ideas. After removing a few lashing, forcing the boat back in shape and studying why it wanted to deform when the pressure was released I have found a couple of reason I suspect are behind this. Of course there is only one way to find out, but that is for the next post.

Still plugging along

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Have not made much progress but I am really close to taking the frame off the strongback. Between the ankle and other things going on I just have not gotten to spend the time on this project I really wanted too. But today I finished lashing everything but the deck beams. I needed to scarf some of the cutoffs together to get the lengths I needed for the deck.

Really anxious to get it off the strongback and flipped over. It’s going to make fitting the transom much easier. Here is a couple of photos. This is a one long boat!

 

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

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.

New boats coming

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It’s been over a month since I written anything in my blog. I would rather post something worth reading than just posting filler to up my post count.  But I have been very busy while I was not blogging, working on some new projects for spring.

My experience with Stonefly had turned me off to canoes designs. As beautiful as that boat is, very few have been built that I am aware of. Lots of Oh’s and Ahh’s but few sales. So I have avoided canoes, till now.  I started asking what people would like to see and I found a lot of interest in tandems. Not tandem kayaks, but open boats like canoes. Perhaps a Recreational tandem kayak too.

I was looking through the Sand Box (that is where I store boat designs I am ‘playing’ with) and I found a design I had forgotten about.

A 16′ long tandem canoe that I find quite attractive. I was totally surprised to see this too!  Because of the orange color I used designing it I decided to call in Tangerine. You will be seeing more on this very soon.

Before I found Tangerine, I was looking at ideas for a simple and cheap boat. Problem is you can’t get much cheaper than they are now. Searching the web for inspiration I was looking at the Cajun Pirogue (often pronounced Pea-row). A very simple flat bottomed boat. This was the perfect candidate.

What I came up with is not totally true to tradition. I did add some V to the hull instead of trying to keep it flat bottomed. That should make it track better and not always wanting to turn in circles. Not as maneuverable but much better out on a lake.

This is about a simple and cheap as I can make one. There is a one man version too. (I guess I didn’t learn my lesson to well.) I see this as a good boat for someone wanting to try Fuselage Frame or as a good father son project.  I think it would make a good Boy Scout or summer camp project too.

I am working on a couple of other designs that will be seeing soon but I will save them for another day. I need something else to write about.