The Back Burner
We haven't done a lot with boat building lately.
The canoe we restored is ready for it's test ride, then it probably goes up for sale. It's a bit too heavy for my son and I to carry ourselves. I suspect it will sale better next spring, so I'll wait until then.
I'm still thinking about a light canvas design that we can carry easily. Maybe I'll go small. I heard about a kayak made by Lifetime that will fit in a Toyota Prius. That would be a fun size, if it weren't to unstable. Hopefully we'll slow down a little during the winter months and have time for some modeling.
Fresh Interior Paint
This weekend we took a few minutes and threw a fresh coat of paint on the inside of the old canoe. You may notice that we didn't paint the seats. They are made of a smooth plastic material and I wasn't sure how well the paint would stick.
New Subfloor
The old canoe is in pretty good shape but it has been sitting for a very long time. When you put a little weight on the bottom it pops and snaps a bit. To help prevent any damage I thought it might be a good idea to build a small subfloor. The idea is that the new floor will help distribute our weight over a wider area when we initially step into the canoe.
We built the base out of pre-treated cedar fence posts. I measured and drew cut lines then my son cut all the boards and stapled everything together. The finished base is half an inch thick and is just placed in the bottom; it is not attached.
Hull Design Sketch
Based on my hull design ideas I threw together this sketch. You can see it uses the Vee shaped hull and strait sides I suggested earlier. I drew it to 1/16th scale (1/16th inch = 1 inch). You can see that the rocker is not actually a bend, but simply an angle. I'm not sure how this will effect the finished product. I'll build a model of the design and see how that works.
Sorry that the photo is blurry. I took this snapshot with my iPhone 3G camera.
Freshly Painted Trim
My son and I spent a couple days patching and painting the wood trim on the old canoe. We used wood putty to fill most of the cracks, sanded lightly, then applied two coats of outdoor acrylic paint. It's pretty rough but this is an old boat; we're trying to make it look "nice", not "new". A lot more sanding and patching would have made a better finish but we're happy with the results.
Here's a snapshot of the trim before.
And here it is after.
Simple Hull Design
I looked around the web for some pointers on hull design. Remember, I want to keep the hull design very simple; with fewer cuts, less expensive wood, etc. Here are some initial decisions I've made.
Vee Shaped Bottom
Initial stability indicates the boats stability when you first step in and when rowing in calm water. Final stability indicates the stability in rougher water or when leaning. A flat bottom has good initial stability but bad final stability. A round bottom has good final stability but is shaky at first. The Vee shape should offer a good compromise and should be easy to cut because of it's strait lines.
Strait Sides
The angle of the boats sides are said to affect stability, dryness and ease of paddling. The three basic side profiles are; Flared, Strait and Tumblehome. Flared sides give you good stability but make it a little more difficult to row. Tumblehome sides curve into your body and make it easier to paddle but it makes the boat less stable and keeps you less dry. Strait sides appear to be a good compromise as well as simple to cut.
Rocker
Rocker is the amount of bend up in the front and rear of the boat. I want my boat to have a slight rocker. It sounds like the more rocker you have, the more drag you have. On the flip side, however, the more rocker you have, the easier it is to turn the boat. So, I'm going to try a small (but arbitrary) amount of rocker. To keep the design simple I'm going to use strait edges.
Top Angle
I also plan to angle the top of the boat away from my body. I haven't completely decided if I want to create a canoe or a kayak yet. Right now I'm leaning toward the kayak design. If I go that route, I'll angle the top of the craft away from my body so that any splashed water has a tenancy to run away from the pilot.
I'm working on drawings now and will upload those as part of my next post.
Patching Tiny Holes
The fiberglass canoe we bought is in pretty decent shape for its age. The bottom is fairly strait but it does have a few very tiny holes in it. I'm not sure if these holes go all the way through, but I thought I'd patch them up to be sure.
I went down the entire bottom of the canoe looking for tiny holes. As I found them, I'd mask off each one. I ended up finding a total of about six holes.
Once I had them all masked off, I mixed a little bit of 30 minute epoxy. I put a thin coat of epoxy over each area, carefully working it in with a Popsicle stick. I proceeded to apply epoxy to each hole on the boat. It took me about 15 minutes to mask and epoxy all of them.
Before the epoxy is dry, but after its hardened a little, I carefully remove the masking tape. What's left behind is a nice clean square patch. I left that to dry and headed to work for the day.
A Repair Project
While I'm creating plans, making models, and otherwise preparing to build my own skin-on-frame boat, I found a deal I couldn't pass up. My son and I picked up this old canoe for $50. It's in pretty good shape and just needs a little bit of TLC.
This canoe is a bit too heavy for my son and I to carry, so it doesn't fit the bill for exactly what we need. The idea is to spend a little time repairing the canoe as my other plans start to come together. We need to patch a few tiny holes, repaint the wood trim, and repaint the interior. When we're finished, we plan to use it a few times then sell it for a small profit. If it works out, we'll use those profits to finance the next boat.
Another Crazy Idea
I've recently decided that I want a small boat. My son loves fishing and I'd like to take him more often. Some of my favorite fishing trips have been from a small boat.
I like to do things myself, but I don't have a ton of time and I'm cheap. To give you an example, I bought a handgun a few months ago. I didn't want to spend a bunch of money on holsters as I tried to figure out what style would work well for me. So, I bought a piece of leather, some brads, and a couple cheap tools, and I made my own. That's just how I am.
A few years ago we had a 14' Jon Boat with a tiny trolling motor. Because we didn't use it very often, it became fairly expensive to maintain and use. New batteries every couple years, registration every year, park entrance fees, gas in the truck, etc. If I got a smaller boat, it would be much less expensive. For starters, boats without motors don't need new batteries every few years. In Utah, they don't have to be registered. Something small could be strapped to the top of my car instead of hauled with a truck and trailer, saving gas money. And, if the boat was light enough, we could even carry it down to the water, saving entrance fees in some places.
Because I'm cheap and somewhat handy with tools, I'd like to try building my own. Most of the information I've seen on the web made boat building look extremely difficult and I thought it was out of reach. Then I came across some simple skin-on-frame designs. I found people making the frames out of cheap materials, such as branches from a tree. I also read that you can make a boat skin out of stretched canvas fabric (or even a bed sheet according to one website). Finally, waterproofing is supposedly as simple as painting a few coats with thinned outdoor paint. That doesn't sound so bad, so here I am.
Because I don't have a lot of time, I want the design to be as simple as possible. A few hours a week is probably all I have time for. Because I'm cheap, I want to build it using fairly inexpensive pieces of wood, although I do want it to look nice and last a while. And, as if I needed any more excuses, my garage door opener burned out a day or two ago, so I won't be parking cars in there for a while. Seems like a great time to "do-it-yourself". My wife will be thrilled.