Building my own canoe

[aliferste]

Looking forward to it 

[Malcolm]

Ok,

It's a goer then.

The first thing to do I've decided is to enlist the help of a friend who builds boats as a hobby. Here is his last attempt on its maiden voyage in a stiff force 5 on Loch Lomond:
[attachimg= 1]

[attachimg=2]

At the moment it's straightforward, simply cutting out 6mm marine grade ply and joining the sections to make (approx) 16 ft long continuous strips. Some have been jointed already but there are more to be done. The basic canoe is very simple you can see here the base and the first four strips already jointed there are two more strips to be done and I'll go through the very simple jointing technique later in the week.

[attachimg=3]

We're continuing to cut out the main parts of the boat with the front bulwark being made out of 10mm Ply and the rear with 15mm marine ply as we are putting a transom for an electric engine on the rear.

[attachimg=4]
There is a bit of innovation going on at the moment because the canoe is not a standard build as I am also thinking about a piantedoza sliding rig set which should easily move the boat along at about 6 knots or so.  http://www.rowingrigs.com/rwdescr.html

I'm keeping my options open.

Tomorrow I'm not working on it as I'm getting some fibreglass tape, resin, acetone, brushes and car filler with is used for smoothing off scarf joints. Which I'll cover in my next post at the weekend.

So far what has been needed is: T-square (not essential), measuring tape, jig saw, drill, cascamite, a bench, some clamps, 6mm marine ply, 10mm marine ply and 15mm marine ply.   

[Malcolm]

Cutting and joining is a painstaking business. There's nothing complex about it but the cuts and joins have to be accurate. Each chine is approximately 16ft long. and is made up of two sections each 8 ft long. These are then joined using a scarf join: each side is planed in a slope.
[attachimg=1]

Before joining the two sides have to be lined up exactly. This is done by putting the two halves together by eye and then clamping one half.

[attachimg=2]

To get the arc exactly right apiece of string is attached to the high point at either end using masking tape and the drop is measured at the mid point as you can see here

[attachimg=3]

A good quality glue is then used to plaster one side of the sloping join. Epoxy or cascamite are fine. and remembering to put a piece of polythene on either side of the joint, it's clamped into place ready for tomorrow.

[attachimg=4]

[Pearly Invicta]

Nice work. That's a great wee workshop you have there. These clamps are bloomin handy, eh? My garage is full of them!

[Inchlaggan]

Nice
Keep it coming.
There are various formulae for scarph joints- I'll look them up and post (if anyone is interested!).
Ken

[Malcolm]

After the joint has been left overnight it looks like this:
[attachimg=1]

So it needs to be tidied up and in order not to shave too much wood we use straightforward easy-sand filler and smooth it down

[attachimg=2]

Starting with the bottom of the canoe we then drill very small holes every 200 mm but more frequently at the bow and stern[attachimg=3]

so that the various strips of wood can be joined using short (25mm strips) of copper wire

[attachimg=4]

Here is a section of the stitching - not pretty at the moment.

[attachimg=5]

and here are the first few strips loosely joined. You can start to see some shape now

[attachimg=6]

[Guddler]

Hi Malcolm,

That's all looking very interesting. What's the story with the short wire ties? Do they hold it together while your glue sets up and then get removed afterwards and the small holes filled?

[Malcolm]

Nice work Malcolm - Most impressive- As you get marine ply in 8x4 sheets I see the reason for having a join all the way from the gunwhales to the 'keel' in the middle of a 16' boat - Presumably you have a cunning plan to make sure this isn't a weak spot?

Andy,
Once the bulwarks are in there won't be the same stress on the chines and the glue seems pretty darn strong. I lifted a whole strip from one end and not a creak.

[Black-Don]

Great project.

Really looking forward to seeing the photo's of the finished craft  :wink:

As Tommy would say, job's a goodun. 

[sandyborthwick]

Looking good so far Malcolm,

That boat of yer mates looks like an Ian Oughtred Design perhaps?

I was thinking of tryin one of his very simple Skerrieskiff 15, the idea being that at 65kg it would be managable easily by one person.

Keep up the sbs - did you use paper plans or those from a CD?

Sandy B.O.