Home Canoe Build

And with the assistance of the lovely Felicity Kendal.......

2006-11-29T18:42:00.000Z

Before you all get excited about the appearance of the lovely Ms Kendal I am merely using her to prove a point.

There has been a suggestion that this canoe was built sometime ago and that I am retro-blogging (does that word exist, maybe not but it sounds good!) in order to make it look like the canoe is being built in super fast time. Above you will see a picture of my father-in-law (Corin) holding a copy of The Lady magazine, featuring the lovely Ms Kendal.

The eagle-eyed among you will be able to see or zoom in on the top right corner of the picture on the left which states that the magazine is the current issue from 21-27th of November. I can thoroughly recommend the magazine and would encourage anybody with an interest in Ms. Kendal or for that matter Ainsley Harriott (also featured) to purchase a copy. Very reasonable at only £1.20. There's even an offer on a very comfortable looking Chenille scarf/shawl on the back cover, perfect for those cold evenings building canoes in your garage. Point made, let's move on.

Anyway, back at the ranch the canoe is coming on rather well. We found that we didn't have a piece of ply big enough for the stern deck so today we jointed two pieces together and stuck them to the stern hull.

Corin cut the two pieces to shape.

And here are the two pieces united, perfectly.

I'm not sure we managed to fit enough clamps on the stern deck to hold it in place.

We also managed to put the two hulls together and put the bolts in to hold the male/female joint together while Corin planed the joined edges to shape.

Best seat in the house?

2006-11-28T18:17:00.000Z

Lots of time today spent tweaking and sanding etc. so it looks like not much has been achieved although we've been at it all day again...... OK so the first picture does show Corin with a cup of tea in his hand, it does also show the framework for the rear seat, completed today.
And no all this canoe building is not making him look older, we faired the outside of the hull today, that's epoxy and wood dust in his hair.

The stern was also reinforced should I decide to put the brass fittings on in place of the nifty wooden ones Corin made the other day.

One hull is now completely finished, apart from the sheathing, epoxy coating and painting anyway.

A Little Fibreglass in your diet?

2006-11-27T20:41:00.000Z

So today saw the first of the fibreglass in the build. I was amazed at how the opaque fabric became see through (as promised) once it was wetted out with the epoxy resin. Here you can see Corin wetting out a piece in the bow of the boat.

Here you can see a partially wetted out piece of fibreglass and above it a fully wetted out piece, almost invisible (doesn't make for the best viewing admittedly).

On the left you can see the attachments to hold the rudder in place on the rear of the canoe and on the right the rudder housing in place.

Today we also managed to attach the outwale to the other half of the canoe.

And also the front deck was epoxied to the planed and sanded, finished gunwales on the bow end of the canoe.

What we need is direction

2006-11-26T19:56:00.000Z

Today's canoe building exploits involved a bit of head scratching and disappointment as I found out that my local hardwear store didn't stock the things needed for the steerage part of the boat (while my father-in-law is here I'm making the most of his skills and we're sorting all the rudder and leeboard stuff for sailing too). Faced with this lack of brass fittings Corin has decided that we'll build the steerage system entirely out of wood. Here you can see Corin shaping the piece that holds the rudder.

Here you can see the rudder and it's housing.

We also managed to attach the outwale and one of the seats to one half of the canoe.

The Man with the Golden Gunwale

2006-11-24T19:05:00.000Z

Today we managed to attach the inner strip of the gunwale (pronounced gunnel) to both halves. The first piece was put in place, cut to shape and then the same process with the second piece. Both were then removed and primed with epoxy resin on the contact sides, which were subsequently recoated with a mayonaise consistency for bobing to the hull. plenty of clamps to maky thr gunwale hold the lateral curve of the hull and they'll be planed into shape to follow the curve up to the bow once the epoxy has cured. The inwales were then screwed from the outside of the hull which will be covered by the outwales.

After completing this on both hulls the masking tape was removed from the outer hull seams (chines) and they were tidied up after from the epoxy filleting of the inner chines. This was done using a circular sander to remove the epoxy resin that had dripped through and also the tag ends of the wire stitches which had been snipped off earlier in the day.

Following the sanding of the hull the external chines were filled with thickened epoxy.

Todays blog was sposored by a Cadbury's Bounty.........

.......and cakes, once again, by Pauline (my mother-in-law). Pauline doesn't know I've put this pictutre on here, and I'm glad Baby Beau was born yesterday morning because when she finds out it's on here I might lose two of the body parts necessary to make children.

Industrial Action Called by Canoe Building Team

2006-11-23T10:51:00.000Z

My wife gave birth to our baby son at 0108Hrs this morning, Beau Ellis William Fulker weighed 7lbs 10ozs at birth and was back at home 3 hours later.

My very clever wife (Rachel) and our very beautiful son are doing just fine.

However due to inevitable baby head wetting to occur, I would imagine at some point quite soon, a strike has been called and all balloted members of the Leedstown Guild of Canoe Builders and Tea Makers have walked out.

Please enjoy the picture until normal service is resumed.

Holy Epoxy Batman!!!

2006-11-22T17:40:00.000Z

Over the last few days it has been quite cold, and unfortunately I've been working, so Corin managed to put a few fillets in on one half of the mammoth craft. It was so cold that these took quite some time to cure.
However, today has been unseasonably mild so we made hay while the sun shined! Not so much hay as epoxy and the sun wasn't shining as such but it certainly didn't rain and we didn't have to chip the ice off of our tea before we could drink it.

Anyway here is a picture of my nice warm epoxy mixing station, notice that it is on the worktop above our oil fired boiler (warmest spot in the house, which now stinks of epoxy resin) and also a little picture of the epoxy in mid mix. We have been using the West System epoxy, brought from the nice people at CFS Fibreglass Supplies, lovely people very accommodating and extremely good about me taking a few items back to swap for other things.

The outer seams are taped to stop the thickened epoxy mixture from dripping through, and the inner seams are taped either side of where the fillet goes so that when the fillet begins to cure they can be stripped off to leave a nice straight edge.

And here's one we made earlier.

Today's Blog entry was sponsored by Tetley's Tea, Pauline's (that's my Mother-in-Law) Victoria Sponge and pasties by Hampson's of Hayle. Sponsorship deals by any of the previously mentioned establishments would be considered without prejudice.

Did you see the size of that canoe?

2006-11-17T19:08:00.000Z

Ok, so today we wired the other half of the canoe together and put them together on the drive, it's huge!

I'm not sure I'd have gone for this model if I'd comprehended exactly how big it is. Anyhow, it looks good.

Corin also came up with the idea that instead of just using bolts to hold the two halves together when its finished, using a wooden 'gasket' cut into male and female parts. Once fitted together it will prevent any flexing in the centre join, and stop the bolts from wearing their holes out of shape by flexing.

Getting close to needing to start epoxying. It's very cold so will need to use the fan heater as the epoxy won't cure at less than 10 degrees. It's cold in our garage. I feel quite sorry for Corin, he's still aclimatising to our cold Cornish winter from his more temperate Spanish autumn.

Day Off

2006-11-16T21:40:00.000Z

Today we went to the lake and fed the ducks.

That was nice.

Day Two (in the Big Brother Household)

2006-11-16T10:02:00.000Z

So after my having to leave to go to work yesterday lunchtime Corin not only managed to cut out the rest of the panels but also managed to start wiring the canoe panels into shape, its starting to look like a canoe, cool.

The wiring up procedure is pretty straight forward, line the panel up at the front and the back and off you go. However two tips would help anybody else doing this.

Firstly When measuring along the sides of your panels make sure when you mark your drilling points e.g. every 20cms or so, you only mark one side of each chine (seam) as when you put the adjoining seam next to it in place the curving of the panel offsets the holes slightly. Just mark and drill the holes for one side put it in place and starting at the middle working towards the end drill the other panel adjacent to the existing hole, wiring as you go.

The ply panel you can see at the front of this half will be a bulkhead which will have a deck on it, creating a compartment for buoyancy.

When drilling your holes, drill from the inside of the hull towards the outside, the stitches will be easier to put through the holes from the side they were drilled from and you want your stitches to twist together on the outside of the hull.

On the left you can see the end stitched up and on the right the finished article.

Having completed the stitching of one half Corin thought it might be prudent to make the other half up next rather than start epoxying this half, just in case they didn't fit together for some as yet unknown reason.

First day of building

2006-11-15T00:19:00.000Z

I had to work today so I could only help for the morning, so of course my first job was the teas and coffees, essential elements of canoe building. We had already decided to build the canoe in two halves to be fitted together at the start of each summer season for ease of storage and also building, we have a largish single garage but its amazing how much space 16 feet worth of ply actually takes up when you start to put it together.

My father-in-law (Corin) and I initially marked out the bottom section and in an uncommon bout of recklessness cut it out. It was very shortly after this that we realised we no longer had our base line from which to measure and mark out our datum points for the rest of the sheet.

This is Corin in the pictures, posing for the Next Directory DIY section.

So after a short period of taping the cut out piece of ply back on and making the rest of the marks we sailed on until lunchtime marking and cutting various panels.

We spent quite a bit of time checking the merits of fitting as many panels on each sheet of ply in different positions as I had read somewhere that it was possible to make the canoe out of three sheets instead of the recommended four. I suppose we'll see.

I was very surprised how quickly it seemed to be happening and already when placing two or three pieces together a canoe shape was beginning to emerge.

As I said I had to go to work at around lunchtime so I'm not sure how much further Corin got in the afternoon.

The Story So Far............

2006-11-12T19:24:00.000Z

My Mother and Father-in-law have come to visit us from their place in Spain so in proper pain in the backside son-in-law style I have convinced my Father-in-law that it would be a good idea if we (that's the royal we as he's a carpenter and I hardly know a saw from a set-square) built a canoe for his grand-daughter (for grand-daughter read son-in-law).

I did a fair bit of research on the internet and found a company, SELWAY FISHER, whom I would certainly recommend as their range of canoes and the advice as to the practical applications for each model, is very impressive.

I opted for a design called the Waterman 16, which was a very good compromise on a number of points, it is a high capacity and therefore very stable (got children to consider here) but had a good tumblehome to make paddling easier.

Also as I used to be a white water canoe instructor in the Ardeche and my wife used to work at a sailing centre on the French Mediteranean, the Waterman 16 seemed like a good choice.

I decided, after reading quite a few opinions on the Selway Fisher Yahoo Forum, to build the bottom panels out of 6mm marine ply and the upper panels out of 4mm exterior ply, to save a little weight. I decided on pine for all the gunwale, seating and extra bits an bobs.

Very luckily on the same industrial estate is CFS fibreglass who also came highly recommended as a supplier of epoxy and fibreglassing materials. So after a few brushes, some thinners, masking tape and other bits and pieces we are now ready to start cutting out the first panels and start building.