Fire as an Alternative to TV

I dont want to make too much of the making of and sitting by campfires mainly because it is something that most people who go camping have probably experienced for themselves,and that sitting by a good camp fire is vastly superior to watching TV.  Still, it is something that needs to be said. And I have some theories about why a campfire is better than TV and I will share them with you.  Feel free to disagree.
First of all, the obvious - fire is entertaining in and of itself.  There is drama in a fire.  One knows the plot well enough but never the details.  Wood, at first reluctant to burn for a variety of reasons like wind, lack of kindling, moisture, etc. eventually is made to burn.  Then the fire burns, produces coals and maintenance of the fire becomes easy, one simply throws more wood on the fire and at some point becomes tired of the process and lets the fire die for lack of fuel or actively snuffs it out.  This is the plot of the entertainment known as fire. And there are many variations on it.
The primary reason I prefer fire over TV is that fire has no political or social agenda.  It does what it does. It burns according to various basic rules and thus is educational about the laws of thermodynamics.  Not that looking at fires is what inspired thermodynamicists to come up with their theories, but looking at fires does give one a sense of how fire works and that in itself may give rise to many useful metaphors.  TV on the other hand is almost entirely agenda driven.  Someone is selling you something constantly, obviously through commercials but also in the content that the commercials enable.  Implicit in all story telling is a viewpoint, a lesson, a moral.  Even if nothing obviously new is being communicated, the very fact that the TV portrays some activity is some kind of endorsement for it or a polemic against it.  If you dont agree with the lifestyle choices of the people portrayed on TV then TV watching is a chore.  So fire, much better.
Finally, sitting by a fire with other people is a social affair and as such, becomes a lab experiment in social dynamics.  For one thing, the progress of the fire needs to be managed and as someone once famously said, no two people can ever agree on the right way to poke a fire.  If more than one person wants to manage the fire, a struggle invariably ensues, covertly or overtly.  Words will be said about the management of the fire and a winner in the struggle will emerge.
Enough for now, I have found that the internet has lots of campfire pictures.  I will comment on some of them in future posts since the pictures raise specific points such as preferred ways to arrange the logs, what to wear to a campfire, safety issues around the campfire, what to talk about at a campfire, how to cook on a campfire and more.

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Eastern Arctic Kayak Construction Interlude

Yesterday I blocked in the keelson on  the inverted deck of the kayak in preparation for installing the ribs.  I am now at a crossroads where there are a number of ways to construct the ribs.  Not knowing exactly what the shape of the bottom of the kayak should be since I have never built this type of kayak before, I have to come up with a way to do this.  I can think of any number of ways to proceed but would like to go with the aboriginal scheme of shaping the ribs, whatever that is. 
Zimmerly is of no help here. His article in Sea Kayaker gives you the exact dimensions to cut the ribs to.  This only works if you also shaped the deck exactly like he instructed.  Since my deck is not shaped like his, his dimensions will do me no good.
I could do the ribs the way I normally do them, that is, steam bend them which would produce rounded chines and a slightly rounded bottom, but I want to go for the flat bottom and hard bends in the ribs approach that is more common for the EA kayak.  I guess I will just have to experiment and see what happens.

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Eastern Arctic Kayak Construction Blocking in the keelson

My last post on the EA kayak, probably should be called EC kayak for Eastern Canadian kayak, mentioned that I blocked in the keelson.  But I didnt have any photos yet.  Now I do. 

This view shows the pieces of two by four that hold the keelson at the desired distance from the deck. Pieces of rope hold the chunks of wood in place.

Heres an overview of the entire assembly.  I installed a block of wood at each deck beam.  I usually do this since when I install steam bent ribs; they push up on the keelson and distort its shape unless I lash the keelson down very securely. But in this case, the ribs will be flat and exert no pressure on the keelson and so would not need all this blocking. I kept the keelson pretty straight.  Regular EA kayaks have some upsweep near the stern to let the kayak turn into the wind when the hunter is approaching game.  But for recreational kayak, turning into the wind is an annoyance and not an asset and so I have chosen to keep the keelson straight.

Heres a view of the setup for an EA kayak. The rib blanks have been inserted into their mortises and await bending.  The height of the ribs will be judged by eye and the keelson wont be added until all the ribs are in place.  This is probably more efficient than what I am doing if you know what the bottom profile of the boat should look like.  I imagine they bent a few key ribs and filled in the rest for a smooth transition between them.

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The back story

Now that weve gotten the introduction out of the way, lets get you caught up on the back story.

Ill spare you the details of my journey into the world of boatbuilding, but the plot summary goes something like this: Guy caught up in brutal, lengthy divorce seeks tranquility; Looks to water; Wants boat; Wonders if it is possible to build one himself; Stumbles into world of boatbuilding; Gets hooked. You can fill in the blanks with your favorite feel-good story or courtroom drama. Theres been plenty of both.

I knew absolutely nothing about boats when I started. The first design I found online was a very attractive Jon Boat from Uncle Johns General Store. From there, a builder directed me to the famous Bolger Diablo from H.H. Payson & Co. A little more online searching brought me to the Bateau RB-14 Classic Runabout. This was when it first occurred to me that it might be possible to actually build one of these gorgeous classic-looking boats. Having now learned the term "Classic Mahogany Runabout" (remember, I knew nothing about boats), another online search instantly brought me into the world of Glen-L Marine. By sheer dumb luck, the Glen-L group was having their annual Gathering near my home, and less than two weeks later, I was actually seeing these hand-made boats firsthand. And riding in them. 

Yep. I was hooked.

Soon thereafter, I ordered the Glen L. Witt book Boatbuilding With Plywood and read it cover-to-cover. I decided on the "Squirt" design as my first build, ordered the plans, and got started. 

Unfortunately, I never actually finished the Squirt. Not that its hard to build, but I made several mistakes initially. The more backtracking I did to correct these mistakes, the more I questioned the logic of building a two-person boat when Im a single parent with two kids. The thought of leaving one of them standing on the dock on launch day just didnt sit right with me. So six months later I chose another design, the Glen-L Utility.

In September 2011, I took my first ride in a gorgeous Glen-L Zip.

By December, Id read "Boatbuilding With Plywood" and started building a Squirt from these plans.

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Unangan Aleut Kayak Terminology

Unangan kayak terminology has been set down in an article written by Knut Bergsland, Norwegian linguist, now dead, in Contributions to Kayak Studies, Eugene Arima, editor. I think thats the most commas Ive ever put in a sentence.
Ive been wanting to do an illustrated version of that article for some time, but what has discouraged me is the messy nature of the information in Bergslands article.  The information is messy because there was never just one official way of naming kayak parts in the Aleutians.  For one thing, Unangam Tunuu, the Aleut language had multiple dialects, at one time, probably as many dialects as there were tribal groups, something like nine, possibly more.  Along came the Russians, consolidated settlements and moved people around and a number of dialects disappeared.  The documented dialects remaining were the Eastern Aleut, the Atkan and the Attuan dialects. Then during WWII, the Japanese invaded Attu and moved the Aleut community there to Japan while the US moved the remaining Aleut population to the Alaskan mainland.  After WWII, Aleuts were repatriated, Attuans moved to Atka and so the only two dialects that were still alive were the Atkan and the Eastern Aleut. 
So when Bergsland collected his list of kayak terminology, he had some historical sources available that documented Attuan terms and speakers of both the Atkan and Eastern Aleut dialects. Not surprisingly, documented Attuan terms are fewer in number than for the other two remaining dialects at the time that Bergsland did his compilation. 
And terminology varied over time so that some kayak part may have been called one thing in the 19th century and then something else in the 20th.  Keeping all of this straight is not an easy thing. 
On top of that, we have to deal with Bergslands dense and sometimes cryptic writing style.  I give one example here.
"On top of the taamx^aax^, on the right side in front of the hatch, there was a hook for holding the paddle when not used, made of wood or baleen, or sometimes ivory (Atka 1952), possibly in the shape of a sea otter (Jochelson 1952:131), called in western EA (1909, 1950) x^aach(a)g^iilux^, in AA (1840, 1952) haachachag^iilux^, derived with the suffixes -g^i- + -alug^- place for having - from the above-mentioned term for paddle, EA (1778-) x^aasi-x, AA Au hassi-x."  inhale.  and so on he goes.  So you rub your eyes, go back to the start of the paragraph, try to match up the English with the Aleut term the two of which are invariably separated by a string of parenthetical phrases and hope you dont miss the period that lets you know that you have finally arrived at the end of the sentence.  By the way, the AA, Au and EA sprinkeled liberally around the sentence are abbreviations for the dialects respectively, Atkan Aleut, Attuan Aleut and Eastern Aleut. 
You get the idea.  I thought it might be nice to have a version of this that puts the Aleut term right with a picture of what it is referring to. 
I might put the pictures and words in this blog if I can make that work, the problem being that the blog software controls the size of the pictures, (small) and the layout of the text. Stay tuned.

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What Killed the Kayak Aleut Version Sand Point AK

Sand Point, Alaska is home to one of the larger fishing fleets in the Aleutians.  The pictures below show the boats which have replaced the kayaks of the Unangan (Aleut) hunters.

Good bye, kayaks.

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The Utility First planking panel attached

Over the weekend, I was finally able to attach the aft starboard side panel with epoxy and screws.

First, before I removed the panel from the boat’s framework, I traced the lines of the chines, sheers, and frame to the inner surface of the plywood. That way, I would have an easy visual reference for where to spread the epoxy. I also drew reference points on both the plywood and the chine to help align the panel when it was time to put it back on.

I removed the panel & set it aside, and staged all the items I’d need nearby: chip brush, extra latex gloves, awl, clamps, screwdriver, and the silicon bronze screws. I kept extra screws close at hand just in case I stripped any screw heads. This time, I put some old newspaper down on the floor to catch any drips of epoxy... right next to the earlier dried globs that I’m going to have to sand off of the concrete at some point.

Planking panel removed & waiting for epoxy.

Frame outlines made a great reference for spreading the epoxy.

Waiting for epoxy.

Some of my alignment was a bit off when I drilled into the sheer. Ill have to be more careful next time.

Same drilling alignment issue with the transom frame.

With everything ready to go, I mixed 6 oz of Silvertip Gel Magic epoxy. Gel Magic is a highly-viscous 2:1 mixture (2 parts resin to 1 part hardener). Its thickness makes it ideal for applying to vertical surfaces and for filling gaps. In this way it is very similar to Glen-L Poxy Grip.

The GelMagic components are color-coded.

Using the chip brush, I applied epoxy to both the plywood panel and the mating surfaces on the boat’s framework. At one point, I was concerned that 6 oz of epoxy would not be enough to do the job. Luckily, however, it was just about right, with a minimal amount of waste.

Wearing 2 layers of disposable latex gloves, I roughly aligned the panel with the reference marks I’d made earlier, and held it in place with one clamp. The Irwin spring clamps are great for this, as the springs in them are quite strong. Next, I used the awl to align the first holes, adjusting the clamp as necessary. I hand-threaded the first screw, then changed gloves to avoid getting too much epoxy onto my screwdriver.

After driving the first couple of screws, I clamped the rest of the panel into position. Hand-driving the screws went very smoothly. I found that using a ratcheting screwdriver with an oversized handle is just ideal for this task. I also found that I’d over-beveled some of the holes, as a few of the screw heads went slightly below the surface of the plywood. I’ll create less of a bevel next time.

With the panel fully “glued and screwed” into place, I used the putty knife to scrape away excess epoxy from the areas where I’ll need to join more wood: the chine and sheer where the forward planking panel will butt up against the aft panel; and the interior joints of the chine and sheer to the aft panel where the backing piece for the butt joint will be attached. I then used the putty knife to fill the screw holes with epoxy.

It was while using the putty knife that I realized the major component of this process that I’d forgotten: 

A rag. 

Thankfully, the laundry basket was nearby. 

There’s one less item I’ll have to wash, dry and fold. Hopefully, however, I will remember to get shop rags next time.

Alignment marks & filled screw holes along the chine.

Excess epoxy was scraped away from the chine so it wont interfere with fitting of the forward panel.

The small gap on the side of the transom is now filled.

Seam of cured epoxy against frame #1.

On the interior seams, I scraped away excess epoxy so it wont interfere with fitting of the backing block for the butt joint.

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