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Of Spindrifts and Paddling When last we left the Spindrift, we'd cut out most of the parts. We just needed to turn those 8' pieces of plywood into 11' pieces of boat.
I had told myself I was going to "up my game" on building, so, we actually dry-fit the pieces together to get an idea of how it was going to go. This was going to be tricky.
While I figured out what to do, Curt turned to on the bulkheads.
The idea was to use a Payson butt-joint on for the sides and bottom. B&B Yacht Designs recommends either the Payson butt-joint or scarfing, and I didn't feel like scarfing.
Wax paper on the floor, then epoxy on the back side of the garboard, place the fiberglass and wet it out, then wet out the other side of the garboard seam and place it on the fiberglass.
We moved to the front and did the little 7" patch up there, 'glassing the garboard to the strake. That's right - I'm going whole hog. Not only making the pieces, but also making the 'wings' that will make up the boat at the same time. Why? A better question is "Why not?"
Skipped a step - where I laid down the 'glass on the bottom of the strake. This shows the top layer of 'glass placed on the strake and covered with wax paper while I work on the top layer of 'glass on the garboard.
OK, one full 'wing' would be interesting enough, but these have to be exact mirror images of each other, so Graham wants you to build the wings on top of each other.
Once we got the f'rd garboard piece wetted out and exactly placed over the first one, I tacked it down so they couldn't move.
Lots of fidgeting around and we finally got everything laid out and tacked down.
We turned to on the bulkheads, putting in the reinforcement patches and figuring out how we were going to do the transom.
Everything epoxied in place. It was only about 5:40, but we'd done a lot and I was tired, so we closed up for the evening. Anyone see the mistake? That's right - no wax paper under the bulkheads, so when I came in the next day, the bulkheads had glued to the floor. Eh, it was a (mostly) easy fix, but it was such a rookie mistake.
The next morning, we had a visitor. That little guy is a Lesser Green Heron (Butorides virescens) Seeing how he is abut the size of a small crow, while his cousin is over 5' tall, you can see why he gets the name 'lesser.' These guys are very shy and it is rare to be able to get close enough for a picture, even at max zoom.
We had more visitors as well - a whiole passel of paddlers, mostly from Corvallis. They were a good group of folk.
Geoff (seen here, leaving the dock in his just-that-morning finished kayak)had invited them and we helped the ones without boats get boats, and off they went, up the slough.
and after a bit, they came back down.
One of the things I love about boats is the endless variety - every design different to suit a different taste.
We also had visiting Coots, Hal (far left) and Dennis (far right.) In the middle were some folks, just passing through. I couldn't talk them into a boat, but we had a nice visit, all the same.
Hal and Dennis made the mistake of hanging around after the others had left, so I put them to work, zip-tying the Spindrift together in preparation of going 3D in a week or so.
A church group showed up, so I loaded them into the canoes and sent them on their way. As the girls were getting into this one, I said "Bea is my favorite." "Why?" they asked, innocently. "Because she has a leak." and I pushed them out onto the water. (it's a slow leak)
We had all 3 canoes loaded with 3 people and one of the Mollyhawks loaded with another 5. It was a good day to get on the water. |
