Turning the Hull

Another few weekends have passed and we had thought planking the hull was completed. Neither of us is happy with the sheer planks, stupidly glued up in a rush and the end of a long day. More haste ............... When we turned the hull over we found these two top planks are away from several the moulds and in a couple of places have developed a fold, as they have been forced around the compound curves. The next available weekend will see us cutting away several days’ hard work and trying again. Frustrating, especially when other priorities are preventing us from getting straight on with sorting this out and moving forward.

Turning the hull, finally get to see the inside.

More Planks

And more planks! (8 down and 6 to go).

A full day’s work sees 2 planks scarfed and joined together into 16 foot lengths (ready for the next day). Also a plank on each side cut, fitted and glued into place.

Second strakes

Second strakes

Having fitted the second garboard plank, the second strakes are also now shaped and fitted. When it finally came to gluing and we had managed to increase the temperature up to 'melting point' and with epoxy mixed and planks coated, all suddenly went dark. We were left in a pitch black workshop with the epoxy rapidly curing on the planks which we had spent most of the weekend cutting and shaping. Epoxying and power cuts definitely don’t mix, but fortunately light was soon restored and the planks were quickly clamped into place.

Cutting the gain – working in 4mm ply all of this needs to be fairly precise. The rolling bevel cut on each of the planks to accommodate the changing angles of the hull shape, then moves into a rebate. This ensures the plank thickness remains at 4mm by the time it hits the inner stem.

Note the clamps and wedges, these worked well as a method of holding the bevels together when gluing. Even if making up 60 or so pairs did take some time (allowing a plank each side to be glued up, on the same day).

Take a break

Time for a short break from the canoe build. Friday gave me the first opportunity of some winter sailing this year. Cold, cold or very cold? Ice on the pontoons that morning was probably the clue. Apart from a couple of squally showers, this was an almost perfect day for it. The wind increased as soon as I left the shelter of the marina and was soon blowing a steady 6 from the NE and gusting up to 30 knots.

Whoever said Wind Vane use is restricted to long passage making was definitely wrong. My trusted Sea Feather self steering was quickly set. At least a large chunk of my body then went below to get warm, with head routinely stuck out of the hatch watching out for tankers and buoys.

Did I mention the cold?

To add to the theme of sail salt and sawdust, Saturday saw engine oil and grease, as the Beta 10 received its annual TLC. The drain plug on the gearbox requires an ‘out of socket experience’ for my left hand shoulder. Once that was completed, heat exchanger, anode, 2 fuel filters, coolant, oil and filter was just a breeze. Back to epoxy and the canoe next weekend.

Garboards

Fairing and Garboards

The first garboard plank gets glued onto the hog - planking is underway!

Yesterday we got the laminated stems and hog faired to the moulds and each other to ensure smooth fair curves for planking.

Boat builders and owners need something to worry about; my worries today all concern temperature and glue strength. We can get the workshop warm for a couple of hours after applying the epoxy but it is not practical to keep this up overnight for the full cure time. The first cold snap of the season has arrived so in future, I think glue jobs will need to be limited to the morning.

Anyway the last 3 or 4 days has seen some progress and canoes must wait for a week now as I head to the coast, for hopefully a couple of days of winter sailing (not to mention an engine service in the ‘other boat’). Then back to work, to pay for it all!

Hog & Stems

Hog & Stems


Indestructible epoxy - epoxy stronger than the wood! Not so! When I cut through the laminated stems to form the scarf to join the hog to, the glue line failed on the uppermost laminate and it sprung apart. Not a huge problem as the addition of more components will only serve to strengthen this, but surprising.

Moulds

Moulds marked and cut out

Setting out mouds on strongback

Fitting the hog (the timber which will eventually take the keel). It must be straight!

As for the instruction book - what's this all about?

Laminating Stems

Laminated Stems

The 4mm iroko thick strips are epoxy glued to the pre-shaped moulds. These will form the curved stems at both end of the canoe and join into the hog and keel.

Plywood moulds

Springing the curve to mark the hull shape on the moulds

The moulds to form the exact hull shape at each of the stations are marked out, in this case on 9mm birch ply. These are then cut out on the bandsaw and will eventually be mounted on the building frame.

Design Plans

This morning to Bristol to collect sheets of top notch 4mm marine ply. At £95 per sheet will I ever dare make the first cut?



The Plans have arrived





The drawings had already arrived several weeks back, so it was good this afternoon, to finally unroll them and plane up some iroko for the hog, keel and laminated stems.




For anyone wanting the drawings the original 19th century design by John MacGregor has been re-drafted by Iain Oughtred, to a modern lapstrake plank epoxy construction. These can be purchased from http://www.woodenboat.com/

Strongback

Two new ventures:


1] A home build MacGregor Sailing Canoe

2] A wife encouraged/enforced blog



Here goes!




The project in hand (canoe not wife or blog)

The credit for this beautiful canoe (above) apparently goes to Tom Moen (for more details http://forums.wcha.org/showthread.php?t=1634 ). Hope you will not mind us admiring this image Tom, until our own project kicks off further.

Ready to Build!

So far, we - oh by the way 'we' is my father and I (more on that later) have got the workshop cleared and the strongback built