Done glassing

Finished off the remainder of the glassing and coated the bare bits of the hull with epoxy. I'll let it cure off for a few days before I attempt to fit the gunwales.

More glass taping

Started taping the outside chines (only one left to do) but have run out of epoxy which is just great - not. I've ordered some more from China Wind Yachts because without it work will stop altogether as I can't do anything more until the taping is finished.

Carried on trying to bend the gunwales, there's a bit more set than before so it's going in the right direction. In the mean time I was talking with my dad who, as it turns out has a steamer, so I might try it out.

Spoke with "Woodman" from SoTP forum regarding methods of bending gunwales. He suggested fitting the inwales first and screwing them in using countersink screws which will be covered up after fitting the outwale.

Total spend to date £338

Looking ahead

I'll be heading off to LA on business soon so decided to take advantage of the excellent pound to dollar exchange rate (2.0029 dollars to the GBP on 20th Apr. '07) and bought a throw bag, pfd and a dry bag from REI. They can deliver free of charge to a store not too far from the US office. Also placed a bid on eBay for a cherry/ spruce 60" paddle. I think that should be it for this trip otherwise I won't be able to carry anything else.

Gunwale forming

Took some advice from SoTP forum on how to form the wood without using a steamer. Concensus is to weigh the wood down then pour boiling water over it to soften it up. I poured about 3 kettles over the course of the evening and wrapped towels around and left it overnight. Took a look the next morning and the wood sprung back in to place nearly smacking me in the face at the same time so there's no real set at all. I guess I'll keep adding boiling water and weights and see what happens. If that doesn't work then I may have to resort to the steamer.

In the mean time I've turned the canoe over and have sanded down all the chines so they are nicely rounded and smooth and ready for the final glass tape application.

Gunwales

Took the Tuesday off work to go up to my neighbours woodworking shop. Spent most of the day routing out the drainage slots in the inwhale plus more time routing the edges of both in and outwhales with a nice bevel. Very grateful to Steve for letting me take up his time and tools - couldn't have done it without him.

Got the bits home and started to form them by suspending a bucket with bricks in. Not sure if this is enough so will consult with SoTP and get some answers there. Then spent the evening filleting and glassing the remaining inner bulkhead section.

All-in-all a good day and to cap it off my oldest boy; who's 4, learned to ride his bike without stabilisers plus it was his first day of school so a good day for him too.

Weds - Had a hospital appointment around lunchtime so spent some of the morning painting the remainder of the inside of the canoe with epoxy. The inside is finished now except for fairing and painting. Got the fairing mix delivered today but upon opening the box I found the contents spilled out and all over the place.

Total spent to date £300.

More taping

Filleted and taped the forward bulkhead section. Access is pretty tight so getting a good fillet of glue is quite difficult and I had to resort to using long sticks and pushing the glue in then using my hand to spread it out.

I used a tip found from trawling the SoTP forum re. putting the resin and hardener in a bucket of hot water to get it nice and fluid. This helps when dispensing and works really well, I'd recommend it - just wish I'd found out about it earlier, it would have saved me some time.

Increased the hatch hole sizes in the bulkhead using an angle grinder. Not the right tool for the job but it worked.

Bought some stainless steel M4 button head cap screws to fix the hatches in place. Also bought the wood for the gunwales - just need to persuade my neighbour to lend me his router again so I can add the drain slot features.

Total spend to date £282

Good Friday

Friday was good... I got up really early; in fact it was still dark, so decided to take advantage and start with the final filleting so I could lay tape down. My aim was to finish the area between the bulkheads. This took a whole lot longer than expected and really annoyed my wife who'd got plans to visit the zoo. I explained that once I'd glued I had to continue and put the tape down to get the strongest bond. All up this took about 7 hours.

Off to the zoo.

Glass tape preparation

Forgot to buy some more masking tape so my plan of putting glass tape down was scuppered. Instead I took some time to clean up the tack joints and get rid of the dust etc. I cut the glass tape in lengths and lowered the canoe to a more managable height.

I'm amazed at how rigid the canoe is even though the joints aren't fully glued and no tape present either.

Offered up the deck plates to the holes cut in the bulkheads and even after making them as per recommendation the holes are too small. This is a real pain as I don't have a suitable way of removing the material. I need some kind of cylindrical sander is there is such a thing - off to screwfix to have a look.

Glueing the panels together

I'm now ready to tack the panels together. I mixed the epoxy with Flag resin, taped the outside chines between the copper wire then pushed the epoxy mix from the inside and let it cure - that was Friday evening. On Sunday I removed all the spacers and staples and started to fill a few of the remaining gaps before running out of time.

Also managed to borrow my neighbours router and finished the portage yoke. It still needs to have the edges bevelled but aside from that it's finished.

Cut out the triangular bulkhead panels that fit on top. I placed the front pointy end on a brick then loaded another load of bricks on top to bend the ply so hopefully it will take the shape of the fore and aft of the canoe.

A colleague kindly dropped off my deck plates that I bought from a US supplier. I'll dry fit them this evening to check the hole size in the bulkhead.