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Ally 15 folding canoe: the ultimate fishing exped boat?

Started by corsican dave, January 08, 2015, 10:13:29 AM

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corsican dave

New boat arrived today. Amazingly it really was "next day"  delivery, which is very unusual up here. Here's a couple of shots of it in its valise and then unpacked and the bits laid out in our spare room (very handy). I took plenty of time identifying the parts and doing dry-runs in my head before finally starting. Even so, there were a number of potential SNAFUs, as you will see..

If people don't occasionally walk away from you shaking their heads, you're probably doing something wrong - John Gierach

corsican dave

Here's the skin laid out flat, then the floor in place. Centering the floor is a key part of the build and would definitely be easier with 2 people as it tends to stick to the material a bit... After some trial and error I got it fairly close, but still not perfect as was only to become apparent later on. The final shot here shows the gunwhales threaded. This is quite easy to do solo, so I thought I was doing okay at this point!

If people don't occasionally walk away from you shaking their heads, you're probably doing something wrong - John Gierach

corsican dave

The bow and stern pieces (the u-shaped bits with welded hooks in the earlier photo) have a wish-bone type fitting that goes in the end of the gunwhales, then they rotate into place in the skin. They need a lot of cajoling to seat and the floor tends to move about as you're wrestling with them. I went for tea at this point.....
If people don't occasionally walk away from you shaking their heads, you're probably doing something wrong - John Gierach

corsican dave

It's difficult to describe the chine rods. They're two long poles joined at both ends with a rivet/bar to create a double whale bone sort of affair. There are three of these. One has plastic fittings and is pretty obviously the one which sits either side of the keel rod in the centre of the boat. The other two look exactly the same as each other. They are not..... ;it took me a good half hour or so to work this out, probably not helped by the fact that I was doing this in the relatively confined space of a large room and not having connected all three chines and laid them out alongside each other. This would have made it obvious. Maybe with the bigger boats there's a bigger size difference. With the 15 one's only about 2" longer than the other, but it's absolutely critical to the build.

The end bars of the shortest chine (the one with the fittings) are located on the lowest welded hooks on the keel/bow pieces. The NEXT largest chine is located on the next hooks. This requires them to be bent under tension and is not for the faint hearted! As you push them down into place they ping out and you end up with something that looks like a boat. Done solo, this is quite tricky and took me a couple of attempts. One you've done this you think you've got it sussed. Until you realise the floor's slipped out of position while you were wrestling with the chines..... start again.
If people don't occasionally walk away from you shaking their heads, you're probably doing something wrong - John Gierach

corsican dave

The final (longest!) chine now goes in relatively easily. At this point you're stuck with the floor position as everything's now held in tension. As you'll see, mine's slightly out but not enough to cause problems. The keel rod goes in and then it's time to start on the thwarts

If people don't occasionally walk away from you shaking their heads, you're probably doing something wrong - John Gierach

corsican dave

How to do this is obvious. You get the second largest in place to help tension the boat so you can fit the largest next. In practice, this was probably the bit I found most difficult on my own. Trying to work against the tension of the skin (new and fairly warm, too at around 18C) whilst locating the ends of the thwart on the gunwhales, then lining up the chine rods with the locating plastic pieces is hard work. The tension is so strong that it's difficult to prise the chine rods into place if you've not located them properly initially. I think another person helping to flex the boat would definitely be a help here. The mallet (provided in the kit) is an essential accessory at this point!

you'll have to bear with me here: back to work for a couple of hours. to be continued..... :8)
If people don't occasionally walk away from you shaking their heads, you're probably doing something wrong - John Gierach

Otter Spotter

Nice toy Dave! I'm sure you mentioned before but how much does it weigh?
I used to be a surrealist but now I'm just fish.

corsican dave

Quote from: Otter Spotter on January 08, 2015, 10:23:31 AM
Nice toy Dave! I'm sure you mentioned before but how much does it weigh?
18kg give or take a gallon of sweat and bits of knuckle...! :lol:
If people don't occasionally walk away from you shaking their heads, you're probably doing something wrong - John Gierach

corsican dave

Eventually I got the first one in. probably took me about 10-15mins of faffing around. I thought the next one (the widest) might be easier. Ha! Fat chance.  However with these two in place the next couple were more straightforward. Still a bit of a game to get all the chines located properly tho'. Once the chines are located, there's a really neat and positive clip system which locks the thwarts in place on the chines either side of the keel. By this time it was getting on a bit and I was aching, so I left the last couple of thwarts and the seats for tonight and went to bed. All in all, I probably spent about 2 & ½ hours working on this, but I can see it would be much quicker with two people, especially if one of them had done it before!! It's already apparent that this is a seriously strong and well-engineered piece of kit, although I don't think I'd be wanting to pack it away and set it up again each time it was to be used.....
If people don't occasionally walk away from you shaking their heads, you're probably doing something wrong - John Gierach

Bobfly

Very interesting piece of kit!
At 18Kg is this the very same as the Finnish or Swedish guy was using on his back-country tour? How would you get on for assembly in the heather and bracken and stones of a loch-side building spot rather than the floor in a spare room?
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