Final Wee Lassie Post

So it been a while since I posted about the Wee Lassie. I finished it in early spring and actually used it a couple of times. It paddles incredibly well. Of all my boats, its my immediate favorite. Its easy to transport and paddles strait and is super comfortable. Unfortunately for all my boats, I bike more than kayak. My real love in small boats in building them. Don't get me wrong, I love paddling them too, but with my friend Marv constantly asking me to mt bike and my motivation being usually lacking, the bike gets used more. The real reason I'm finishing the Wee Lassie blog is that I'm building two more boats this winter (more on that later). I need to finish one boat blog before I start another.
So the quick finish...
I streched the skin over the frame and using thumb tacks, held it tight. For the first time in boat building, I stitched the stems (usually the fabric just covers the easy angles of the stems and does not cause any wrinkles). While a little scary, it worked just fine and does not leak. The technique to secure the skin to the gunwales was similar to attaching a coaming to a kayak. Basically drill small holes along the length of the boat. Using artificial sinew, start from the outside of the boat, punch through the skin and loop around the loose edge of the fabric and back through the same hole. Move to the next hole and repeat the entire circumference of the gunwales. Yes... its time consuming and boring, but the results are worth it. I use five coats Zar Exterior Oil Based Poly for all my boats and there is no exception on the Wee Lassie. I finished the boat up with a full length rub strip. So there you go... That's how I finished the Wee Lassie.

Day 11 frame is finished (almost)

With the ribs lashed and the forms removed, it was time for the finishing touches on the frame. Basically I needed to add floor boards. The floor boards are 1.5x1/4 inch. Basically I ripped a 2x4 into strips. Its actually the same strips the gunwales were made of, just thinner. The length of floor boards was quite arbitrarily chosen. Its longer than me when I'm sitting down like an "L" and I have no clue how long that it. I ended up lashing 6 floor boards in. It still cold in Vermont and my shed is still not heated so I had limited time of work before my toes froze. It ended up taking me two work sessions to cut, sand the edges smooth and lash all the floor boards in. I also finally got to sit in my boat. It feels small, but then again... it is. I can't wait to get it on the water.
Now is almost a sad moment. I'm done with the frame. I can only come up with a couple of things that need to be done before skinning (sanding down the sharp edges of the ribs at the gunwales, drill lots of little holes in gunwales for attaching the skin and prepare the rub strips). So now I have to wait for things to warm up (the temps need to be warm enough for the polyurethane to cure). I could skin it now, but that would risk something happening to the skin before coating it. When the night time temps are consistently 45-50 degrees I can finish the Wee Lassie.
Thanks for reading so far.

Day 10?

So Day 10 did in fact happen. It happened a while ago. I remember I was quite happy that day, I just don't remember much about that day because it was so long ago. I did finish the rib lashing, screwed the ribs to the gunwales, cut off the excess ribs above the gunwales and took out the forms. My greatest fear in taking out the forms was that the gunwales would somehow squish back together in a horrific rib cracking, boat twisting event and suddenly all my work would be a long, skinny pile of lumber. Fortunately that did not happen and the canoe stayed the exact shape it was while the forms where in. It officially looks like a canoe.
And a few photo's including one that proves the ribs hold their shape after bending...

update 9

So its been quite a while since I have updated the blog about the canoe building. The reason... nothing much has happened for quite a while. Jessica pointed out that my winter project will be over so soon and then what will happen for the rest of the winter. She jinxed me. My workshop is not heated and it just got cold in Vermont. Real cold. That Christmas thing happened. This weekend I had plans, but I have shoveled out my driveway three days in a row (tomorrow will be four days in a row). So needless to say, things have been getting in my way. Therefore this is "update 9", not "day 9".
So first things first, I needed to fix two things that happened after bending ribs. The first was the half broken rib. I shaped a piece of scrap pine to the shape of the curvature of the rib. A few drill holes later and it needed to be lashed in place.
The second fix was something very unexpected. The gunwales at the tips (bow and stern) followed a different angle than the ribs. So the ribs touched the bottom of the gunwales with an angle opening upward. To fix this I bought some door shims, but they did not fit so easily. I still had to cut the angle of the shims to make them fit. While ugly, it should to the trick to make the ribs fit snuggly.
The rest of the current step is to lash the ribs to the chines and the gunwales. While Greenland yaks run a piece of artificial sinew down the length of the chines, I will running a piece of sinew down each ribs like a baidarka. I followed a lacing pattern shown by Robert Morris from his book, "Building Skin On Frame Boats". I'm sure that the attachment of the ribs to the gunwales could be done much easier, but I chose to over do it. Every rib is lashed to the gunwales and then they will have a brass screw further holding them in place. So the lashing starts on one gunwale, around all chines and then to the other gunwale. Repeat 18 times (18 ribs). At the time of writting this I'm 11 down and 7 more to go. The ribs need to be very securely attached to the chines and the sinew becomes very tight, leading to some serious wear and tear on the hands. While I would love to be done by now, my workshop is so cold that I can only work for 2-3 hours before my feet get too cold. Go figure since my hands are uncovered and my feet are inside winter boots. So work has been slow going.
Up next is to finish lashing the ribs, pre-drill holes for the brass screws, screw the ribs to the gunwales, cut off the excess ribs above the gunwales and finally remove the forms that are holding the shape of the boat. After that the floor boards get attached and the frame is basically done. Seems so close and yet so far away.

Ski at home

One of the most notable features of our yard is that it is very sloped. After leaving the showing of our future house the thought popped in my head, "Hey, I bet I could ski down that". Nice idea but small problem. We first saw our house in April. Ever since then, I have been waiting for enough snow to strap on my short skis and let gravity take care of the rest. It finally happened recently. Jess thinks I'm nuts, but knows how much I've been waiting to do this, so without questioning much she pulled out the camera to document this moment. Unfortunately, this may be the only skiing I get in this year. And yes... it was worth it.
A few pics before the run...



and the video evidence...
first run
second run
third run

Day 8: Best in Vermont

Day 8 was supposed to be 4 hours of steam bending. I figured that since I was going to break a few ribs here and there, 4 hours would be all I could take. I started the morning off by marking out ribs every 6 inches. That left me with 18 ribs. Ironically enough, I only had 18 ribs. That meant ANY failure meant another trip to the HD to get more rib stock. But instead....
The backing strip was a piece of gros grain ribbon from a gift box that read "Best of Vermont. It turned out to be quite the omen. I succeeded on all 18 ribs (so I broke one, but its at a tip, where two piece ribs are often used anyway). I'm real good at wordy posts, so no more words, just pictures.





And then I took a lunch break and refilled my steamer. Once back in the workshop I needed to wait 15 minutes for the new rib to heat up. I had nothing to do and had a camera...









And a video of the bending.

Day 7: First Blood

So day 7 was supposed to be easy and a prelude to steam bending ribs tomorrow. Steam bending ribs is somewhat exciting (relatively speaking). Deck beams are not all that exciting on the other hand. But installing 5 deck beams was today's chore. Considering my Greenland yak has 8 or 9 deck beams, this was supposed to be easy. Instead it took all friggin day long.
One major difference between a canoe and a kayak is the lack of deck beams in a canoe. Usually there is only one deck beam called the thwart. The stems are heavily reinforced with a breast hook or a wedge to help the tips angle apart. Instead of the breast hook, I'm using two closely spaced deck beams to give it shape (along with the thwart). Being that this is my first canoe, I really hope this all works. Only when I take out the forms will I find out if it keeps its shape.
Installing deck beams if fairly strait forward but tedious. Each deck beam has two angles that need to match the gunwales. The first angle is the shape of the gunwales as they are close to each other at the tips and spread apart in the middle. This angle is achieved simply by tracing the gunwales on the deck beam. Flip the deck beam over and around and the line drawn on the bottom is now on top. The gunwales do not sit parallel to each other but instead spread apart such that the top of the gunwale is further apart than the bottom of the gunwale. I use a tool such as this to find the angle and trace it onto the deck beam. After that, its just a matter of making an accurate cut to make the deck beam fit the gunwales. Lots of words to describe this and lots of detailed work to make it fit perfectly.
To make the deck beams stay put, they get lashed and pegged. Pegging is strait forward. To lash it, I have figured out the most secure and tightest way is to drill two holes in the gunwale and saw two groves in the deck beams. Wrap sinew around the deck beam and gunwale and then pinch the sinew tight. The resulting lashing resembles and "H".
First Blood: In all my woodworking projects, bleeding seems to be a requirement before they get finished. While installing the thwart, I finally drew first blood. My pull saw is a very sharp saw and very good at making detailed cuts. When making detailed cuts, my hands are often a little too close the business side of the blade and cutting myself is quite common. I cut the tip of my finger and bled a small amount. Just enough to leave a few blood spots on the thwart. Now that I can check "bleeding" off the check list I hope I do not have to check "bleed again" off the check list.
Steam Bending: While this post is way too wordy, I might as well mention the next step of steam bending wood. When done correctly, its a miracle in woodworking science. When done incorrectly, its the most frustrating thing on the earth. The basic idea is that when heat is applied to wood, the chemical bonds that hold wood fibers together loosen up just enough to allow them stretch. Upon cooling, the bonds reform in their new positions and the wood is strong again. Steam is the most common way to apply heat to the wood. Certain woods bend better than others. Oak and ash are probably the best. My steam box is a PVC pipe and my steam source is a wallpaper steamer. While the wallpaper steamer is new, the PVC pipe is seeing its second action. Hopefully the revamped steam box will give me good results and I will create ribs, not firewood.
This post is definitely way too wordy but fits my day quite well... Way more complicated than I predicted.