Alaska Gravy Spill and Sweet Potato that looks like a seal

I know there are blogs out there which handle the resemblance of one thing to another whether it be film stars or funny vegetables or kittens, but just for the sake of convenience, I chose two to display two of these things right here on this blog as a relief from the tyranny of the same thing all the time.
First, a gravy spill that looks like a map of Alaska. Well, sort of, but I think it got pretty close.  See for yourself.

Number two is a sweet potato that looks like a seal.  This one you have to admit is good.

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Eastern Arctic like Kayak closing comments

Time to bring the EA kayak building project back to life, on this blog anyway.  Time to make some comments on the building experience, a time when the building is done but the boat hasnt been in the water yet and provided feedback on its suitability as a water craft.  I could have waited another few days to comment on the completion, but Im thinking that once I try the boat out, I will become preoccupied with how the boat handles and forget all about what I learned from building it.
Part of what building an actual boat is all about is internalizing its structure in three dimensions.  Plans are flat representations of a boat and typically dont show any more than a top and a side view and some cross sections.  But the flow of the form of a boat in three dimensions is a lot more complex than the plans show and to get a feel for the form, you actually have to build the boat.  Once you have the feel, you gain the understanding of how that form interacts with the water and determines performance.
In any case, if you did some careful reading of the title of this posting, you may have noticed that called it Eastern Arctic-like Kayak.  What I mean by that is that when I laid out the shape of the kayak in the horizontal and vertical planes I improvised, that is, I didnt follow a particular plan but rather adapted length and beam to fit the wood that I had available.  I came close to building something that could be called Eastern Arctic, but not quite dead on.  Lets look at some photos.

Heres a picture of the frame just before the skin went on.  If you let your eye follow the right gunwale line you will notice that it has some bumps in it.  I think in general EA kayaks had a smoother sheer line.

Heres a shot of the boat frame. Bow down.  As you can see, the plan view is more like a Greenland hull than an Eastern Arctic.  Part of the problem with working by eye in a tight space.  Should have dragged the frame outside at deck setup time for a better view and probably would have noticed that the back end should have been wider.  I suspect the boat will behave ok, just with a narrower stern wont have as much carrying capacity.  And anybody who knows anything will feel compelled to tell me that I didnt make the back wide enough.  Yeah, I know.

View from the side with the skin on.  The nose is unorthodox, a little taller than traditional.  Looks more like a northwest pacific canoe bow.  Also the sheer line is a tad extreme.  Well see how that works out.

Meanwhile, the cockpit turned out more or less standard, maybe a few inches longer than traditional.  Soon this boat will have some paint and then hit the water.  Till then Im holding off on any predictions re performance.  I am most curious to see how the flat bottom will feel and how much stability vs. speed tradeoff there is in such a flat bottom.  Stay tuned.

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Yeah Something about like that

It can be tricky taking decent photos of my boat, because the lighting in my shop isnt the greatest. Still, I wanted to share a few photos of the painting progress, now that the color scheme is beginning to look more cohesive. 

On a portion of the sheer, Ive painted 2 coats of the Aquagard 190 primer, and 3 coats of the Sea Foam Green. I pulled the tape off of the aft port section of the boat, where the 3 main colors come together: Whidbey White, Sea Foam Green, and natural Mahogany. 

Not a perfect paint job, but heres a glimpse of the look Ive been pursuing:

Mahogany quarter knee, System Three Whidbey White hull, Aqua Gloss Sea Foam Green sheer, Meranti transom.

Mahogany quarter knee, System Three Whidbey White hull, Aqua Gloss Sea Foam Green sheer & bottom, Meranti transom.

— Happy Thanksgiving to you.

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Post Apocalyptic Boat Skin

I periodically visit my friend and neighbor Tim Anderson at the Control Tower of the former Alameda Naval Air Station where he both lives and works.  Most recently, I delivered some sawdust to him for use in his composting toilet and as is usually the case, Tim offers me something in return, in this case, a vinyl banner.  I am not exactly sure where these large sheets of plastic are used, but they have the look of something that hangs up in an exhibition hall at a trade show.  Once the trade show is over, the banners get tossed or at least recycled and that is how Tim got them.  And then I got one.  
So far, this is all very boring, but wait, the plot thickens. 
One of the challenges of skin boat building is to use opportunistically gotten materials to build them.  Old wood or even new wood that does not come from a lumber yard is fairly easy to come by.  So is string.  The only thing I typically have to buy and cant easily get in a pre-used form is the skin.  So enter Tim Anderson with the vinyl banners.  I havent tried them yet as a skin boat cover but imagine that they will work, even if the are a little heavy. 
So this is the tie in with the post apocalyptic theme.  In a world where industrial manufacturing has collapsed
where does one get materials from?  If the manufacturing system has just collapsed, the most obvious way to get materials is to scavenge.  All the stuff that was manufactured will still be available, only not necessarily in stores.  One may have to re-purpose goods made for other applications.
And if you havent been following the blog for long and you are wondering where the post apocalyptic theme intersects with skin boat building, let me explain.  Skin boat building is a technology developed in a pre-industrial environment.  No manufactured goods were available.  All materials had to be scavenged.  In the current state of our society, skin boats can and typically are constructed out of materials that are the output of an industrial manufacturing stream.  But occasionally, I try to build boats that could conceivably be built in an environment where the industrial manufacturing stream has ceased to flow.

I havent tried the vinyl banners as a boat skin yet, but am currently using one to keep the UV off my skin boats.  I am also thinking of the vinyl as a potential yurt cover.  More on that later.

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Eastern Arctic Like Kayak Performance Report

I finally did it. Finished the EA kayak with some deviations from the traditional norm, painted it and headed out to the water to see how it paddled.

There it is by the side of the water.  Launch imminent as soon as I get in and start paddling.  Weight is between 50 and 60 pounds Im guessing.  Length is just short of 18 feet about 16 of which are in the water. Beam is somewhere around 27 inches. Two paddles are resting on the boat.  One Greenland style, 88 inches long and the other, an Aleut style with a 3 inch wide blade at 120 inches long, yes, thats right, ten feet long.
The big question was what sort of speed a flat bottomed boat could be paddled.
I had my GPS with me.  At the start of the test while I was still fresh, I managed to get the boat up to 5.6 mph. Cruising speed seemed to be between 3 and 4 mph. I did my usual two mile circuit once around Ballena Island. Wind was variable, maybe up to 15 mph and wind blown waves were about 1 foot max.  So not much of a rough weather test.
Overall, the boat seems to move about adequately.  Turning with the flat bottom is easy.  The boat responds quickly.  I thought that staying on track might be a problem but it turned out not to be.  The boat had no particular tendency to turn into or out of the wind and it had adequate length so it wasnt yawing right and left with each stroke.  Paddling both down and upwind was possible without any undue steering effort required. So all in all, the boat performed well.  I would still like to take it out on a rough day when waves are more like two feet, like a normal summer afternoon on the bay.
I ended up using the 120 inch paddle for most of the trip since it seemed to be a better match to the boat than the 88 inch paddle which required more effort to reach the water.
Overall, I felt that I needed more experience with the boat.  The initial outing left me feeling that its weight and speed was such that I need to discover some more positive attributes for the boat or it would not get much use. 
Speed is of course an ill defined measure.  What matters is efficiency.  Overall, the width and flat bottom of the boat are a combination that require a good deal more effort to make the boat go than just about any other kayak style that I have built.  If I were to build another version of this boat, I would probably decrease overall width and increase flare to the sides from the 10 degree flare that I put into this model. Increased flare would decrease the width of the bottom. I probably would also go with bent ribs to reduce weight of the boat and have some V in the bottom.  With lighter weight and less resistance  to movement this style of boat would be adequate for recreational use.
As I mentioned earlier, the boat also needs some rough water testing to see how the flat bottom handles going over waves.

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