Grab handles - finally

At last the grab handles arrived from EdsCanoe. They were marked out, cut to size and fitted using the M6 stainless screws in pretty short time. I had previously cut out spare plugs so chisled these out and epoxied them in place. Next morning I used a junior hack saw to remove the bulk of the protrusion. Will belt sand then apply more coats of danish oil.

The canoe is done....

Deck Plates Fitted

Fitted the deck plates after cutting a groove with a router in both the plate and the inwales. I used 4mm thick marine ply left over from my other canoe to make biscuits which were then covered in epoxy glue mix.

After fitting I sanded down the excess epoxy and gave the wood a coat of danish oil.

Still waiting for my bloody grab handles - at this rate I'll end up making them myself... Apart from these the canoe is finished. I do need to get some rope or tapes for painters though.

Deck Plates

Started on the deck plates today. I cut up strips of oak and sandwiched them around some maple. I used epoxy as glue then covered it in a plastic bag so the epoxy wouldn't stick to it and then clamped it up.

I then used a jigsaw to cut the shape out and planed the plates to size. Need to get a biscuit jointer befire fitting them to the inwales.

Pretty much finished

Still waiting for the grab handles to be delivered so apart from fitting them the canoe is finished. Picture below shows the ash furniture fitted.

The gunwale corners were bevelled off using a router borrowed from my neighbour. All the wood was oiled several times. So the boat was ready for its first outing. I went with fellow Apache owner Rich down the Dedham for the first of the sea trials.

I decided to fit deck plates so will show more of that later.

Almost there!

Finished work early on Friday so collected the fixings needed to fit gunwales, seats and thwarts etc. Decided on M6 cap screws in the end.

Carried on fitting the outwales using a 3-in-1 drill, clearance and counersink drill bit which I bought at the same time as the fixings.

Used my angle grinder with a sanding disc to cut away the excess GRP and then used a belt sander to bring this and the gunwales down to the same plane. In the process my neighbours car got covered with fine white/ blue dust so I had to do a quick wash down before doing anything else.

Added the kneeling thwart with angled spacers and fitted for size. Borrowed a router and shaped the spacers (gunwale offcuts) for the bow seat. Fitted the seat but not before giving them a coat of danish oil.

Carried on using the router with a 3mm bevel and routed all the gunwale corners. Borrowed a 10mm plug cutter and cut out enough ash plugs plus spares making sure I can match the grain up.

Jobs left to do:

• Fit plugs using epoxy mix
• Epoxy fill bow and stern inner gunwale points
• Hand sand all wood
• Danish oil all wood using hot oil
• Wait for the delivery of my missing grab handles before I can fully finish...

I've decided not to fit the stern seat for the time being since most of my paddling will be solo but will add it if both kids want to come out paddling. With this in mind I will probably not plug the fixing hole for the kneeling thwart since in my other boat I've had to remove it a few times. Maybe I'll design some kind of neat looking quick release mechanism but I'll leave that for later.

Sea trials not far away!