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..
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!
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.....
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.
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
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)
Nice toy Dave! I'm sure you mentioned before but how much does it weigh?
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:
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.....
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?
Quote from: Bobfly on January 08, 2015, 02:36:03 PM
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?
I think so, Vaughan. to put it in perspective, the feel free nomad weighs 22kg and my old canoe 38!
to be honest, building it on heather etc wouldn't be any worse: you don't need a flat surface and in some respects a bit of "give" and a bit more room to manoeuvre would be quite pleasant. as for the midges and the p##sing rain, well that's a different matter :lol:
Looks like a useful bit of kit Dave :) A bit of practice and I'm sure you'll be able to build it blindfold in 20 minutes - in the rain and midgies :)
the finished article, set up for solo paddling (fishing). the seats bolt in in a minute or two, so it's an easy matter to set it up for tandem use. really light, really strong. super piece of kit :8)
I remember on one of our Irish visits being introduced to one of several of the local Germans. He had had his folding canoe fold up on him on Lough Mask because of some fixing that he apparently forgot to fix in place !! Not dissimilar to the origami job in Alan's picture above. Caused huge amusement amongst the Irish locals who would not not want to go out in less than a minimum of a 14' boat with 4hp outboard and a fair number of six-packs for essential ballast.
This new Ally piece of kit looks to be a very different beast and the video of it in use in Scandinavia is very impressive where he drags it up through some rapids. :) :)
Quote from: Alan on January 08, 2015, 09:01:47 PM
(https://canoemuseum.files.wordpress.com/2013/11/illuminated-oru.jpg)
No way I'd go afloat in a Chinese lantern. :lol:
You will need to get a working sled dog to lug it around and to sit in it :lol: looks fantastic though. :D
Looks great Dave , plenty room for a small passenger ??
Quote from: shad on January 09, 2015, 07:26:54 PM
Looks great Dave , plenty room for a small passenger ??
or even quite a large one, Colin :D the carrying capacity's 300Kg. I left the second seat out for now as it'll be mainly me using it solo for the next couple of months
Do you do trips down the Spey ... say from Feshiebridge .... ?? :D :D
Quote from: Bobfly on January 10, 2015, 03:33:57 PM
Do you do trips down the Spey ... say from Feshiebridge .... ?? :D :D
yes Vaughan. it'd be a pleasure :D
Would be a grand trip that! Not too long before there will be primroses on the banks and birdies cheeping .... :D :D
Been from Kingussie down to Feshie three times using a canadian job from Loch Insch but that is as far as I've gone.
Very nice Dave, That'll open a whole new world of loch fishing up for you. Split the 'gubbings' between two walkers and you could go pretty much walk anywhere with it. It'll be interesting to see your catch reports at the end of this season.
What kind of telescope is that?
Its a smashin looking canoe Dave. Had nt realised how light they are, sorely tempted. Please give us lots of reports from your trips this year. I'm sure you will :)
Looks a great piece of kit - and a useful addition to the armoury. looking forward to hearing how you get on this year.
Andy
Quote from: sinbad on January 10, 2015, 07:22:01 PM
Its a smashin looking canoe Dave. Had nt realised how light they are, sorely tempted. Please give us lots of reports from you re trips this year. I'm sure you will :)
yep, it'll make a lot of difference being able to lift it onto the car without risking a hernia and also not being put off trips because of portages. even short boulder sections were a complete nightmare when solo with the old venture prospector.
Quote from: aliferste on January 10, 2015, 06:35:04 PM
What kind of telescope is that?
it's a meade etx 80; sorta reasonable quality intro scope
you guys are sharp... it's a good thing you can't read the book titles! :lol:
Quote from: guest on January 11, 2015, 09:46:01 AM
Book titles? I thought these were the canoe assembly manuals?
keep thinking along those lines Andy and the rare & collectible fishing books will be safe from would-be borrowers.... :lol: incidentally, paul boote & Jeremy wade helped pay for my first canoe :8)
finally managed to get out today. I put the photos on the song of the paddle site, so anyone can view them without logging in. it's incredibly light, which means it's quite twitchy. but turns on a six-pence :8)
http://www.songofthepaddle.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?47840-first-paddle-with-new-ally&p=566909#post566909 (http://www.songofthepaddle.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?47840-first-paddle-with-new-ally&p=566909#post566909)
seat is surprisingly comfy and trimming the boat is actually far easier than with the old, heavier one. now I need to clock up the river miles and see how it (I :roll:) handles the rapids. quite fun, almost like re-learning how to handle a boat. have to be much more precise with the paddle strokes, which is no bad thing as i'd got a bit lazy with the old boat.