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.