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.

Read More..

El Toro Trailer Updated

You probably dont remember but a while back, I did a posting on kayak trailers that could be towed behind a bicycle.  The tow bar on that one broke.  The fundamental problem on that one was that it was made out of a fairly skinny piece of redwood that just wasnt strong enough.  This time I used oak.  Oak is stronger but the bar sticking out from the trailer is still about 8 foot long and so it flexes quite a bit.  When youre pedaling, the rhythmic motion of the pedaling sets up a back and forth oscillation of the trailer which is not only annoying but also slows down progress.

There it is with an El Toro loaded up for a test run. The length of the tow bar might seem extreme, but it has to be long enough to tow 20 foot (7m) kayaks.

I knew how to fix the oscillation problem which is by adding some cross braces in the form of a triangle, the universal stable polygon. But due to lack of ambition, I never got around to it.  But since the tow bar broke and I had all the tools out to replace it, it was time to add the bracing as well.  Mission Accomplished! as George Bush would say.

And the view from the rear.  The El Toro, an invention of the Richmond Yacht Club is 8 foot long and 4 foot wide.

Tow bar triangulated with two side braces for lateral stability.

And the link from the tow bar to the bicycle.  I should shorten that. Next time.

Read More..

Qaqamiiĝux̂ Traditional Foods and Recipes from the Aleutian and Pribilof Islands A Review

I got my copy of Qaqamiig?ux? in the mail the other day.  I was expecting a smaller book for some reason.  As it turned out, the book is hard bound and a full 8-1/2 x 11 inches in size and has 382 pages. 
The content is just what the title advertises, a description of traditional foods and how to prepare them.  Nutrition information on various foods is also provided along with safety tips. 
Contents are grouped by food type, marine mammals, fish, birds, caribou/reindeer, plants, tidal foods and other.
If you are not an Alaskan Native or a guest of Alaskan Natives, marine mammals will not be accessible to you, but all the other foods are available to the general public. 
If you were raised outside of Alaska, much of this food will look alien to you, but if you live in Alaska most of it will look familiar.
The book contains a good deal of historical information on how animals were hunted and caught, something that might be of interest to kayak builders given that one of the primary uses of kayaks was as a vessel to hunt and fish out of.
The book contains lots of photos both color and black and white of how the food is gathered and prepared and gives you a good sense of contemporary food culture in the Aleutians.
My only complaint about the book is that it is missing the customary picture of the author.

Read More..

G9 minus three

Three days to go. With G9 getting closer, Im trying to get the boat and trailer ready to travel. Today I bought some Boat Buckle straps for the transom, and attached them to the trailer. Aside from having to buy 3/8" bolts, because the supplied 1/2" bolts were too large for the holes in my trailer, THAT part went pretty easily.

Boat Buckle tie-down straps for the transom

Im running into trouble at the other end of the trailer, however. I installed a "Y" shaped piece to support the bow. Unfortunately, the support arm does not reach far enough for it to make contact with the boat, even with the winch post shifted as far back as possible. Not only that, but the bow eye is right in the way.

Time for some troubleshooting, but it will have to wait for tomorrow.

Read More..

Eastern Arctic Kayak Construction adding the deck beams

Construction progresses.  After I set up the deck, I started adding deck beams.  They are temporarily nailed in place 3/4 inches below the top of the gunwales. 

Before starting to add deck beams, it is a good idea to stabilize the deck by lashing the ends together and also doweling the two sides together so they dont shift with respect with each other which would cause asymmetry in the deck.

The deck prior to pegging the ends and dropping in deck beams.

And here, at the end of the day, all the flat deck beams are trial nailed in place.  You could of course dowel all the deck beams in place as you go but trial nailing them lets you do some last minute adjustments in deck shape before committing to more permanent joinery.

The last two deck beams to be added are the two curved ones just fore of the cockpit.  Shaping them is more time consuming than shaping the flat ones.  Unlike the flat deck beams which are mounted 3/4 inches below the top of the gunwales, the curved beams are mounted flush with the tops of the gunwales.  A batten is temporary clamped in place to show the curve that the deck stringer will take.  The beam just in front of the cockpit will elevate the front of the coaming 4 inches above the deck.

And here is a view down the length of the boat with all the deck beams in place.  The number of beams, coincidentally is less than in a traditional boat to keep down the overall weight of the finished boat.

And just before I started adding in the two curved deck beams, I had a crisis of faith about where the widest part of the boat should be.  Seemed like it wasnt far back enough.  But then I checked back with the drawing in Arimas book on EA kayaks and it appears that my placement was OK.  Seems that the original for this adaptation was a demo boat done for a Canadian museum and was shorter than the type usually is because available lumber was only 16 feet long.  So a shorter version with a slightly more forward beam was built.  In any case, the first boat of a type is never just right and gets modified when the second one is built.

Read More..

The Utility Preparing for Planking

A fellow boatbuilder pointed out to me that if I cover the transom first, before planking the sides and bottom of the boat, then the end grain of my planking is going to show around the rim of the transom. (Thanks Chris!) Of course, this only poses an issue if you plan on bright-finishing your transom, which is exactly what I’m planning to do. I’m planning to paint the rest of the hull. So, paint will cover the end grain of the transom as viewed from the side.

So now, my plan has changed to planking the sides and bottom of the boat first. The first pieces of planking that go on will be short 4’ aft sections on the sides. I will be butt-joining these pieces to longer 8’ pieces that will plank the forward sections on the sides. This will allow the butt joint to be located in the flatter aft section of the boat, which means it will be easier to do, and there will be less stress on the joint. I have to join the planking in sections like this, because plywood comes in standard 8’ lengths, and my boat is 11’ long.

In preparation for planking these aft sections, I’ve been sanding away dried runs of epoxy, etc from those parts of the boat I can’t easily get to once the planking is on. I’ve also worked to clean up the shape of the seat riser cutouts in frame #1. Still, before I can plank this aft section, I need to encapsulate these frame cutouts, as well as a couple of other places I won’t be able to reach once the planking is on.

Then, God willing, I should be able to begin planking the little boat.

Dried runs of epoxy have been sanded off of frame #1 and gussets. This is the starboard side.

Starboard frame #1 after sanding. The seat riser cutouts still need to be encapsulated with epoxy.

Port frame #1 after sanding.

Port frame #1 after sanding.

Port frame #1 after sanding.

The globs of epoxy are now sanded off of the transom.

Read More..

Bent Shaft Paddles

Ive been making a number of prototype paddles at the request of a friend and promoter of my paddles.  After a number of weeks I came up with two winners.  One is a bent shaft Greenland style paddle.  The other is an Aleut style paddle with some amount of extra bend added to it.
There were some other paddles in the mix that werent winners but they were instrumental in helping me figure out the specifics of what made the winning models work. I have made Greenland style bent shaft paddles before and quite by luck come up with the right design, but this time, I did some deviation from the winning model only to find that the original was still the best. The Greenland style bent shaft may actually have originated in East Greenland as reported by John Brand who found some examples of these paddles in museums and originally thought that they were just straight paddles that had warped over time, but after some reflection decided that they were actually made that way on purpose.
The bent shaft Aleut paddle is not completely new.  I had made two of these before for a friend but never actually paddled them myself.  This time around I did use the bent shaft Aleut paddle and found it to be a useful variation on the standard version that I usually make.

Four paddles out for a test run. From left to right, a Greenland breakdown for a customer, an Aleut with some bend in the direction of the ridged face, a Greenland style with significant bend and another Greenland style with moderate bend.

One of the key aspects of a Greenland paddle is that it is highly symmetrical, that is, no matter how you hold it, its performance is the same.  The Aleut paddle by contrast has a lower degree of symmetry. You can switch right and left blades without changing performance but you cannot change ridged face for flat face without changing performance.  The reason is that in one configuration, the face of the paddle trails the axis of the loom while in the other, it leads the axis of the loom.  Although the amount of offset is small, it nevertheless makes a difference in the way you need to move the paddle through the water to get it to work.
The same is true of the bent shaft Greenland paddle.  The slight amount of offset of the blade has it either leading or trailing the axis of the loom depending on how you hold it.
My insight while doing the testing on the bent shaft paddles was that when you pull a paddle through the water, you move it through an arc during which the angle the blade makes with the water changes.  The efficiency of the paddle is at its greatest when the blade is perpendicular to the surface of the water. As the stroke progresses, the angle the blade makes with the water changes from the vertical and the amount of force you exert that translates into forward motion decreases.  At the same time, the boat is accelerating forward and the water is accelerating backward so that as the stroke progresses it becomes less efficient.  So having the shaft bent to make the blade more vertical at entry into the water improves its efficiency.
On the other hand, when the paddle is used in a low angle cruising position, that is, with the loom held low and close to the deck then the paddle held so that the blade trails the loom makes the blade self orienting and requires less of a tight grip to keep it properly oriented.  While this stroke generates less thrust than the high angle stroke, it is more efficient at lower cruising speed and less tiring in headwind conditions or against the current conditions.
Whether my understanding of the mechanics of these paddles is correct or not, the fact is that they work in practice as confirmed by speed trials with a GPS.

Read More..

G9 minus two

Two days to the G9 Boatbuilders Gathering. Ive basically been focusing on getting the boat trailerable. The boat wont be finished, of course, but several other builders have encouraged me to bring it, as-is. 

Hard to resist. Ive wanted to have my own boat at one of these events for years now.

In yesterdays post, I left off at the "predicament" that the bow support would not reach the boat. This morning, I had a mind-blowing epiphany: "Push the boat forward." Sheesh.

True, this does push the boat forward enough that the hull is not being supported by the full length of the bunks, but I think it will be okay. The bow eye placement turned out to be a non-issue... in fact Id say its near ideal.

The locking mechanism on the trailer winch isnt working properly, so for the time being Im using a tie-down strap on the bow.

A state DNR ranger came out today to inspect the hull. This is part of the boat registration process, in order to create a HIN (Hull Identification Number) for the boat.

Piece by piece, step by step... its all slowly coming together.

Read More..

Shimmin O The Chines

It sounds like it could be the title of an Irish folk ballad... "Shimmin O The Chines." As many ballads go, the actual work has so far been a mixture of hope and tragedy.

Well, perhaps "tragedy" might be a bit of an overstatement. But, what was that I said in the last post? "Two steps forward, one step back?"

In any case, Id made the shims by cutting a 14-inch piece of mahogany in half with a hand saw. Then I planed each half down to approximately 3/16" with a planer/jointer. I epoxied these into position along the low point in the port chine.

When I was planing down the overhanging edge, however, I wasnt paying enough attention to the angle at which I was holding my larger hand plane. Before I knew it, Id inadvertently gouged the side planking. Theres not much I can do about that now, other than fill the gouge in with epoxy. I guess its a good thing I wasnt planning on a bright finish for the sides.
 

Mahogany shims for filling in that low spot along the port chine.

The overhanging edge faired away quickly, but youve gotta watch the angle on those larger hand planes.

A close-up of the gouge in the plywood.

Read More..

What’s in a name

Today being an anniversary of sorts, I wanted to do something special to mark the occasion. It seemed like an appropriate time to order the transom decal for my boat. 

The boat’s name will be “Perseverance.” 

In the 3-1/2 years I’ve been building this Glen-L Utility, the project has bridged some pretty major personal events; dark and painful personal storms including divorce, heart surgery, betrayal and loss... things that at times seemed insurmountable. But, by the grace of God, I have made it through, and healed and grown along the way. 

At some point, watching this boat grow from a few pieces of wood, to a graceful framework, to a painted and righted hull, I realized that the project has been a metaphor for my own growth and healing. “Perseverance” seemed like the perfect name. 

I’ll close this post with a beautiful quote from a very eloquent friend of mine: “If the soul had a form, it would be shaped like a boat.”

Read More..

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.

Read More..

Look at the bright side It could’ve been worse

The first bottom planking panel is on. 1 down, 3 to go. That is the good news, and that is the main point.

Getting there, however, didn’t go quite as smoothly as I’d hoped.

It was a Sunday night, and the pre-fitted panel was off of the boat. Before it got too late, I figured I’d go ahead and glue it down. After all, I would really like to get this boat in the water this year.

One small step was in the way: I still needed to finish encapsulating 3 limbers on frame #1. That takes a different type of epoxy than the stuff needed for gluing. No problem. I had 3 mixing containers.

Ominous foreshadowing #1: Not wanting to waste time, I’d only cleaned two of the three mixing cups.

The encapsulation part went fine. Just a few ounces of System 3 SilverTip. Quick and easy. On to mixing the GelMagic epoxy for gluing.

That went fine, too. That is, until I spread the last of it onto the final remaining inches of the boat frame, realizing as I did so that I had no epoxy left to spread onto the plywood.

Best practice is to coat both mating surfaces. Best practice is to use a clean mixing cup for each batch of epoxy. Now, I had one cup with still-curing SilverTip, one cup I didn’t bother to clean, and the last cup which I had just used.

Since the epoxy on the boat would start kicking off at any minute, I had to make a split-second decision: Either mix more GelMagic in one of the dirty cups, or hope what I’d put on the framework was enough on its own. With best practice being to coat both surfaces, I hurriedly scraped out the GelMagic cup as best I could & hoped there wouldn’t be a problem mixing more in it.

I quickly poured in about the same amount of resin. (That is, as “quickly” as one can “pour” GelMagic.)

I calculated the amount of hardener needed, quickly grabbed the bottle, opened it & upturned it....

...which is when I quickly found out I’d added the wrong hardener. GelMagic hardener is amber in color, and very viscous. This stuff was clear and flowed like water. It was the SilverTip hardener, not the GelMagic, and now I’d just wasted both.

I calmly murmured a string of socially-acceptable phrases, and pondered my next move.

I had more epoxy, but the last remaining mixing cup was full of junk. It still had hardened clumps of SilverTip thickened with mahogany sawdust clinging tenaciously to its inner walls. There was no time to clean it.

So, I made another rush decision & decided to use it. The clumps started breaking free as I mixed the batch of GelMagic. I picked them out as best I could as I spread the epoxy onto the plywood. That in itself added more time to an already urgent task.

It takes a long time to hand-drive 97 screws. It takes longer when you’re having to bend plywood against its will in the process. It took long enough, in fact, that by the time I drove the last screw into place the epoxy was so viscous I could barely manage scraping it with the putty knife. It was also late by this point. I was tired and exhausted.

I was so tired, in fact, that I forgot something very important. I forgot to reach underneath the planking and scrape away epoxy along the battens, where I will need to fit the butt blocks for joining the planking panels. Ugh...

Chipping away at THAT for the last 3 days has been fun, I assure you.

Oh well. The first bottom panel is on, and it is on solidly. That is the good news, and that is the main point.  

With the forward panel removed, this is how I marked the lines to cut butt blocks from a scrap of plywood.

The Utilitys framework & the Zips stem assembly.

First bottom panel epoxied on.

Fitting at the stem.

Transition joint.

My daughters Hello Kitty mirror was a huge help in chipping away at that epoxy.

Read More..

3 9 13 centerboard

I took the plunge today and bought a few board feet of 2X6 fir to start laminating the centerboard.

After an hour on the saw including set up, I have a pile of nice strips to glue up to the basic shape.

The logic to start on this part of the boat was that the garage is still too cluttered and cold for serious building and these parts can be done with the glueing indoors and the shaping outdoors.  The centerboard trunk will be determined by the final shape of this part, so there it is.

Plywood will be ordered next week so it arrives when Im home to receive it!

Read More..

The Water We Eat

One of the things that traveling does is give one a broader perspective on the world than is available from staying in one place.  My recent trip to Kings Canyon National Park was no exception.  One insight I had on this particular trip was about water, where it comes from and where it ultimately goes.

We spent most of a week camping right next to Kings River which drains all the water that collects in Kings Canyon. The river at this time of the year, October, does not carry much water since it hasnt rained all summer and the melt-water from glaciers higher up in the Sierras is minimal. 

Still, he water of the river is cold and clear even late in Summer when temperatures during the day still rise into the nineties.
And as is usual for me when staying in a place for a while, I become curious about it, specifically about the Kings River.  Where does it go?  I dont remember where I got the answer, but the answer is, into a reservoir downstream in the foot-hills of the Sierra from which the water goes to the city of Fresno and to the surrounding farmland for irrigation. And so, the water of the river next to which we camped never reaches the ocean. And even before the reservoir was built and before the land in the valley was farmed, the river seldom reached the ocean. Most year it drained into the shallow Tulare Lake which most years had no outlet. Only in unusually wet years did the water of the lake overflow into the San Joaquin River which flows into San Francisco Bay.
But now, the Kings River irrigates farm land and the water that first fell as snow in the Sierra Nevada range ends up in almonds, peaches, plums, oranges and other produce, much of which is trucked out of the state via interstate highways and gets consumed far from its origins by people who have no clue that the water in the peach that they are eating may have also cooled my body on a hot day in October.

Read More..