4th of July in the boat shop

It was a busy 4th of July weekend in my cramped little boat shop. I set out my U.S. Yacht Ensign flag, and got right to work.

After a week of shaping that mahogany shim on the port chine, I finally got it to a point I was satisfied with. So, without any more delays, I epoxied on the forward bottom planking.

The shim on the port chine

3/4 of the bottom planking is now attached.

This time around, I used System Three Silvertip epoxy, thickened with the remainder of my collected mahogany sawdust. I learned a valuable lesson about using thickened epoxy versus Gel Magic.

Although I used the remainder of my mahogany sawdust, the mixture was still not as viscous as Gel Magic. However, it sure seemed thick enough to do the job. In the end, I used perhaps 2/3 as much epoxy for the port side as Id used of GelMagic when I did the starboard. Not only that, but it was easier and faster to apply. This saved me time, stress, and money.... some pretty good selling points. 

I still had plenty... PLENTY... of squeeze-out to fill the gaps I was concerned about, too.

I also used 4” spacing on the screws for this side, compared to the 3” spacing I used on the starboard side. The planking contact seemed just as good, and I used 3/4 as many screws (73 this time, compared to 97 before). Again, this saved me time, stress and money.

And yes, this time I did remember to scrape away excess epoxy from the areas where I’ll need to fit the butt blocks.

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Eastern Arctic Kayak Reconstruction sort of

I have started the construction of an Eastern Arctic Kayak based more or less on the information provided by Dr. David Zimmerly in various articles.  Zimmerlys own reconstruction is, as he states in his article in Sea Kayaker Magazine, a composite of various designs.
My own construction is in turn a variation on Zimmerlys interpretation. 
Major deviation for me is that I did not want a 22 foot kayak and so shot for something more like 17 feet long and lighter in weight,  hoping to keep is under 50 pounds rather than ending up with a 65 pounder.
Step one is the fabrication of the gunwales which for the Eastern Arctic Kayak are a good deal more complex than two straight boards I normally use for building Unangan style kayaks.

Whereas Zimmerly built his gunwales from two lengths of 3/4 by 5-1/2 boards scarfed together, I started with a 16 foot two by four that I ripped down the middle giving me something like two 5/8 x 3-1/2 x 16 boards which I then built up to approximate the Zimmerly design.  Lots of clamps and Gorilla glue in use. I used Gorilla glue rather than epoxy because Gorilla sets up faster and is easier to clean up than epoxy and less hard on tools.

Here the nose piece goes on.  The design I am copying has the gunwales more or less flat up to the front of the cockpit, then rising from there forward.

After the glue has dried, I faired the lumps out of the top of the gunwales resulting in something like the above.

Here I am using a spline to draw the part of the bottom of the gunwales that I intend to remove.

And heres the whole thing with the top faired and the bottom scooped out.  The gunwales are made to rise amidships because normally, when you bend them, the middle drops down.  The rise counteracts that drop to give you a more or less flat deck.

And some additional rise at the bow to help the bow stay out of the waves.

And thats how it looks faired and trimmed.

And finally, the long view.

I am thinking I probably overdid the midship rise in the gunwales by at least an inch, but Ill stay with it since it doesnt affect the bottom of the hull at all.  Sometimes it is good to go with ones mistakes just to see how much harm they do to the proper functioning of the boat.  After that you can speak with authority on why the way you did it was not a good idea.  Still, you have to admit that what I ended up with looks pretty cool.  And by the way, when you do gunwales that are 3-1/2 inches deep, you dont need fancy lumber since small knots dont affect the structural integrity of the end product by much.

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Two Coats of Sea Foam Green

I let the first coat of Aquagard 190 primer cure overnight, then rolled on a second coat. After a little more than the 4-hour recommended drying time, I opened my can of Aqua Gloss Sea Foam Green.

I havent gotten so excited at the sight of a color since I was 4 years old & opening a big, brand-new box of Crayola® Crayons. The Sea Foam Green paint just seemed to glow inside that black-lined can!

I rolled on the first coat, and let it cure overnight. Then I rolled on the second coat this morning.

So far, so good.

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Completion of starboard bottom

June is upon us once again. I have now been working on my Glen-L Utility for just over two years. A good two years it’s been, too. The little boat and I have both come a long way, in many regards.

I’ve just completed planking the full length of the starboard bottom. It’s neat to think that a year ago, I was installing the sheers.

I should be able to start dry-fitting the forward port bottom this week. My goal is to have the boat fully-planked by the end of the month.

As always, time will tell...

This is what the boat looked like 1 year ago. The sheers had just been installed, and fairing had not yet begun.

Initial fitting of the butt blocks.

Butt blocks dry-fit with screws.

Butt blocks epoxied, screwed & clamped into place. Putty knife at the ready.

Epoxy squeeze-out like this will create a fitting nightmare if you let it cure this way.

Thats what the putty knife is for. Scrape it away before it cures.

Aft section battens & butt blocks drilled & ready-to-go.

Aft panel drilled & ready-to-go.

Starboard bottom, fully planked.

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A Tale of Bears Beers and Anglers

The Kings River, our destination at the end of a two mile hike downhill.

One day while camping, we found a trail that goes down to the Kings River.  Not that you have to hike down to the river necessarily.  There are places where you can drive right along the river.  But we were looking for some exercise and diversion from sitting at our campsite and so we hiked the trail from the paved road down to the river, a distance of about two miles of switchbacks that drops you down 1000 feet to the river below. The trail is just wide enough for one person, no walking side by side.  Who created the trail we dont know. It probably precedes the creation of Kings Canyon National Park, but there it is. 

At the trail head, our car was the only one there, so we had the trail all to ourselves.  A sign posted at the trail head informed us that the portion of river accessed by the trail supports native trout and that catch and release was the only form of fishing allowed.  So apparently, this trail is commonly used by fisher people. I dont know how many hikers use it since once you hike downhill for two miles you have to hike back up two miles.

So we hiked down to the bottom of the river and had a lunch of crackers and hard boiled eggs.  I was musing that it would be nice to also have a bottle of wine.  Its nice to drink wine in a beautiful place, but experience has taught me that once youve drunk a bottle of wine, even with the help of others, hiking becomes much harder since your legs feel like lead and are much harder to lift than when you havent been drinking.

After our little lunch, I did some exploring around the next bend of the river and tucked in next to a large boulder was a pile of litter spilling out of a plastic cooler.  The litter consisted mostly of aluminum beer and soda cans, some empty plastic chip bags and some plastic catsup and mustard bottles with chew marks on them.  My guess was that the chew marks had been made by a bear who had gotten into the cooler and rummaged through the contents. And when I rummaged around the cans myself, I found six of them unopened, four Buds and two Bud Lites. The bear apparently did not have a taste for beer.  I looked around for a way to carry the beers back with me and found a discarded tee shirt which I turned into a tote bag.  

Aside from being pleased to have found some beer, I was also wondering why people would drag heavy coolers full of beer and sodas two miles downhill on a narrow trail.  Apparently it was enough of an ordeal to dissuade them from carrying the empties back.  Or maybe they thought they could leave their stuff down by the river and come back another time and drink or eat what was left over.  Who knows?

Later, we ran into some more abandoned litter, one stash was a plastic tub full of clothes - 4 pairs of jeans, some sweat shirts two pairs of sneakers and an assortment of tee shirts and a disintegrating pair of waders. Was someone planning on living down at the bottom of the hill?  Again, who knows?  by the looks of it, the tub of clothes had also been searched by a bear. 

The Buds cooling in the river.  I had two and Joan opened one but didnt finish it. 

Knowing the ill effects of too much beer, we left the remaining cans for the next hiker.

On our way out, we spotted another cooler stashed a little ways up the hill next to a tree.  Seems like the bears hadnt found this one yet.

Another camping spot next to the river, obviously a site for many a cookout.

Canned food seems to be the preference on the Kings River. Skeletons of many cans remain in the ashes.

Assorted kitchen implements generously left behind for the next person.

And a few essentials, also unopened and left behind for the next visitor.

So on to some possible morals of this story. Zero or more options may be true. You may be able to think of more. Option 1, maybe this story has no moral.  Simply, hikers find trash left behind by other hikers/fishermen. Option 2.  Sometimes when you wish for something, it appears, in this case, six cans of beer.  Actually, I wished for a bottle of wine, but a six pack of beer is ok.  Option 3. This particular moral relates to my previous post as space travel.  When youre camping, you cant expect food to be there when you get there so you have to bring it.  Option 4.  The caching of food in remote location has always been a practice.  Part of wilderness etiquette has always been not to disturb someone elses cache of food.  If food is cached, someone expects to find it there when they come back.  If you mess with their cache, you might put them in a bad situation. If you used their pile of firewood, you were expected to build the pile back up for the next person to come that way.  Seeing that whoever left the beer around, had already drunk most of it, I did not feel that I was violating their cache.  I suspect that whoever left the beer behind had had enough of it and just didnt feel like dragging it back up the side of the canyon. Option 4.  Traditional wilderness etiquette does not involve packing your trash out of the wilderness.  Wilderness was everywhere. You would merely be packing trash from one part of the wilderness to another.

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And the painting continues

After the fourth coat of Whidbey White, the dark colors of the wood arent showing through. So, the middle section is basically done... except for the sheers, which will be painted Sea Foam Green.

With this section finished, I re-installed the stainless steel grab handle onto frame #2.

It may be hard to discern the difference in the photo... but thats 4 coats of WR-LPU Whidbey White on the right, and only 2 on the left. I didnt see the point in painting 4 coats in the forward area, as it will be covered by the deck.

The next step will be to either begin assembling the seats, or finish applying the 2nd layer of epoxy to the aft section. Im not sure which Ill do.

Aft section needs a 2nd coat of epoxy before painting.

I also found some Sea Foam Green registration decals online & ordered them. I hope theyll match the bottom paint reasonably well.

These are the decals I ordered. Im looking forward to seeing how they look.

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On the Evolution of Kayaks

There is a notion drifting around the skin on frame kayak world that skin on frame kayaks benefit from 4000 years or so of evolution.  The implication is that skin on frame kayaks were about as well adapted to their environment as could be.  Well, maybe.  But I want to express some contrary opinions on the topic. 
First of all, kayaks were designed and not evolved.  Evolution is imagined to proceed by random changes to a design which is then approved or rejected by the environment.  Kayaks are built by humans who by virtue of experience and ability to communicate with other kayak builders have some knowledge of what makes them work.  As a consequence, changes to kayak design are not random but rather, directed. So human designs can change rapidly and become optimized in a much shorter time than evolved designs. 
Secondly, evolution as imagined, only benefits current conditions.  That is, evolutionary fitness is potentially lost if conditions change.  If there was a major change in conditions, say 500 years ago, then both the 4000 year old and 1000 year old design would have to adapt, one design having to throw 3500 years of evolution on the junk pile and the other only 500 years of evolution. 
Actually, this is what happened.  All kayak designs were thrown on the junk pile when modern petroleum powered boats were developed.  Kayaks as a species went extinct in the arctic but mutated into recreational craft and migrated into industrial cultures to the south.

In addition, little is known about kayaks older than 400 years.  So whether they evolved in the sense of "improved" in the last 4000 years is strictly speculation.  I would imagine that kayaks of 3000 years ago were probably as good as kayaks 1000 years ago. I would think that one hundred to two hundred years would be sufficient to refine a design about as much as was possible.  After that, improvements would be minimal.
What did probably happen in the Arctic was that conditions changed periodically.  Since the kayak was a hunting craft its success had to be judged by its ability to bring its builder within range of prey.  If prey changed or hunting conditions changed old adaptations might have to be discarded and replaced by new designs. 
And the last big change to kayak designs happened roughly 400 years ago when European whalers showed up in the arctic, bringing with them steel tools and later, milled lumber.  Steel tools allowed a range of joinery in kayak frames that was previously inaccessible.

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Squirt Brief chronology of a short boat

Although I never actually finished my Squirt, I’ll share my build story with you. Perhaps it will give some helpful insight to the new builder. Perhaps it will help you to avoid some of the mistakes I made.

This is the paint scheme Id conceived for my Squirt. It is based largely on the Squirt "Fastidiots" I saw at the G5 Gathering.

  

First of all, let’s start with the basics: What is a Squirt? And, why did I opt for this plan instead of the Zip?

The Squirt is a classically-styled runabout, very much like the Zip in its overall appearance. Its just a good bit smaller. Frequently built at 11 feet in length (rather than the original 10 ft), the Squirt has a beam of 4’ 4”. As such, it only has enough room for two people. Although it is small in size, the Squirt in my opinion is an equally graceful design as the Zip. I consider it quite an accomplishment of design that Mr. Witt was able to design such a small runabout without it looking like a toy. A well-made Squirt is really a sight to behold.

Why did I choose this design over a Zip initially? It basically boils down to this: Having very little woodworking experience, and about an equal amount of woodworking skill, I felt that the Squirt would be a more realistic goal for a first-time build. I felt I had a better chance of finishing it once I’d started the project. Also, being a smaller boat, it needed a smaller motor... less cost, less material, etc, etc.

The first step was to transfer the plans onto wood. The way I went about this was to trace the patterns onto poster board, then cut out the poster board parts and use them as templates to transfer to the wood.

Poster board frame member templates & the pine forward deck beam

The plans show half-breadths of the frames. So, you have to flip the plans in order to draw the parts out full-size. As you can see from my poster board cut-outs, I only used the half-breadth, then flipped the template itself when I traced it onto the wood. I think this was a mistake, as it opens up more opportunities for error. I wound up with some asymmetry in my frames from doing this. Better to follow the instructions and trace the plans directly to the stock you’re going to use.

Frame #2, without backing piece, showing the gap where the aft end of the stem fits.

The bottom members of frame #2 (the forward frame) do not actually mate together directly. There is a gap between them, into which the stem fits. The stem butts against a backing frame member. This backing member also joins the two bottom members.

Frame # 2 with the backing piece. The deck beam would actually be installed on the opposite side of the side members.

Once the frame members are cut out, they are assembled with epoxy and screws by fastening gussets to the butt-joined frame members. I used vertical grain Southern Yellow Pine for most of my frame members. For the gussets, I used standard pine exterior-grade 1/4” plywood. Perhaps for the gussets, that wasn’t such a big deal. Marine-grade plywood made from better material (Douglas Fir, Mahogany) would have been better. For fasteners, I used stainless steel wood screws. I believe that was another mistake. There are plenty of comments online that stainless steel WILL rust if it stays wet long enough. Definitely get the recommended bronze screws. But, be careful with them. They’re soft & the heads will strip out on you very easily.

Close-up of frame #1 gussets

Frame #1 assembled

The transom is made by fastening the transom frame members to the plywood transom using epoxy and screws.  A solid wood motor board is fastened similarly to the interior center of the transom. On the first transom I built, I used cheap pine 3/4” exterior-grade plywood because the marine grade plywood was expensive and unavailable locally. That was a mistake. Get the marine grade plywood from wherever you have to go to get it from a reputable lumber yard. It will be made of better material, with minimal or no voids. And, being of better quality, handled by more professional wood merchants, it will be straighter.

Gluing frame members onto the transom using Glen-L Poxy Grip epoxy. (This is actually the second transom I built.)

This is how I botched the first transom. "Lusitania 13" was born.

The transom, viewed from the side, is raked backward at a 12° angle. As such, the bottom of the transom is beveled accordingly. I cut this bevel with my circular saw, making my next mistake: I cut the bevel the wrong way, meaning the transom would rake inward... NOT outward. I had to scrap the whole transom. The correct nautical term for this is “firewood.” At this point, I named the boat “Lusitania 13” because of all the luck I was having with it.

Lesson learned: Don’t try to pre-cut that bottom transom bevel unless you’re an expert wood craftsman. Deal with it during the fairing process, and save yourself a big headache. I built a new transom using marine-grade 3/4” plywood (Douglas Fir), and was much happier with the results.

Once the frames are constructed, they are mounted upside-down on a building form. Take construction of your building form very seriously. Take your time. Read the instructions thoroughly and understand them. Make certain that the form is level and true in all the required areas. I did not. Surprise! Misaligned parts. Not what you want.

Placing frames on the construction form.

The stem is made by laminating two pieces of 3/4” plywood together using epoxy and screws. Again, use the bronze screws. I used Glen-L Poxy-Grip on all of my assembly up to this point. Poxy-Grip is a very viscous two-part adhesive. Its thickness helps greatly to fill gaps in less-than-perfect joints. This can also be accomplished by thickening regular epoxy with fillers such as silica or wood flour, or a combination of thickening agents.

The breasthook assembly is similarly constructed from two pieces of 3/4” plywood. The bottom portion has a notch cut in it. This notched portion fits down directly onto the upper surface of the stem. Take the alignment of these parts very seriously as you cut and assemble them. I did not, and as a result, my breasthook was out of alignment with the centerline of the stem. Don’t be intimidated by the need for all this alignment. It is NOT hard... just take your time and pay attention. Mark all your center lines clearly, work slowly, and concentrate. It pays off.

A note about the breasthook assembly: The forward tip of it will extend outward past the  stem just a little bit. This is so that there is enough material there to fair away so that the sweeping upward curve of the stem can be carried through the breasthook.

Once constructed, the stem / breasthook assembly fits into its notch on the forward face of frame #2. The keel is also placed into position before the stem assembly is fastened on permanently. I did not get that far.

I had built my stem from cheap 3/4” pine exterior-grade plywood from one of the big-box stores. When dry-fitting it into place, I realized that the stem had so much of a bend in it that the breasthook was a full two inches off-center from the centerline of the boat. And the breasthook wasn’t on straight anyway. And my building form wasn’t correctly level and true, so my frame alignment was off. And there was asymmetry in the frames.

Lusitania 13, one sigh away from being scrapped.

At this point, knowing that I was in for re-construction of some major parts, as well as my building form, and knowing that the finished boat would be too small to carry me and both my kids, I decided to scuttle the project. I decided to look for something that would carry 3 passengers, as well as be a somewhat simpler boat to build. That’s what led me to choosing the Utility design. While not a classic runabout, it does have a certain 1950’s styling (likely because it WAS designed in the 1950’s). It still has a wood deck, and a substantially simpler interior arrangement. So, I bought the plans and moved forward.

I still have Lusitania 13’s transom in the garage. I may finish it and hang it on the wall of my shop one day.

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Yurt Design Canvas Shrinkage

Canvas shrinks.  I knew that. So when I designed the roof pattern for the yurt, I should have allowed for shrinkage but didnt.  Oh well, nothing that cant be fixed with a little more sewing.
Not only didnt I allow for shrinkage in the roof, I also didnt realize that the canvas shrinks unevenly, more along the length of the material than across it.  Something to be conscious of next time.
Now that I think of it,  I doubt that I could plan for shrinkage in any sort of exact way since the shrinkage is non-isotropic.  I suppose I could just make a roof cover uniformly oversize, then when it shrinks, regardless of whether it does it evenly or not, it would still be large enough to do the job.
For now, not having tried to it yet, I am leaning toward pre-shrinking the canvas.  Unroll however much canvas I need, hose it down, dry it in the sun, then cut it up and sew it into whatever shape I need. Everything I havent tried yet sounds like a good idea.  Whether it actually is, doing it will tell.
Meanwhile, some before and after shrunken roof cover pictures.

Before: the yurt roof cover on its maiden voyage in Kings Canyon National Park. I trimmed the fabric so there would be about 8 inches of overhang.  Sewing the seam at the edge reduced that by about an inch.  Other than the wrinkles which I hadnt dealt with yet, not bad.

After: Overhang of the roof fabric has been reduced to about 4 inches at the max and two inches at the minimum.  The wall fabric likewise has shrunk some top to bottom and side to side. Time to make some corrections. Canvas work is not an exact science.

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