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At the Boathouse
When I got to the Boathouse, the osprey were acting up. I think the one down on the pylon (you can just barely see him, flapping around) might have had a fish and the other thought he should be sharing.
I had a little bit of time before I got started, so I organized our latest donation - the forms and a model of an Atkin Valgerda - an absolutely stunning boat. It's not on our schedule of builds right now, so if you are interested, stop by. These forms were used by Brandon Ford, a very good friend of the Boathouse, when he built his beautiful boat, Ravn.
This is the friction knob I'll be using on our little Junk. I've bedded a 3/8 bolt in glue and sawdust. You'll see more of this later.
I needed to knock the corners off the chines and gunnels we'll be using for the Lazy Weekend 2.0 build. My router table was just a little short, so I had to build that stand it is on.
Curt and I gave the Junk a good sanding in prep of painting. There was a lot of epoxy dust in the air.
Visitors! Connie (in the back) brought her daughter, Patience, and friend, Sebastian. I happened to have some pool noodle light sabers laying around and the inevitable happened.
Patience wants some help building a container board (what we not in the fiberboard business call 'cardboard') boat for the Toledo Boat Show this year. I am not overly familiar with the ergonomics of 9-year-olds, so we did a little testing. It turns out, you can fit two of them, side-by-side, in 34".
Time to get 'em on the water. Sebastian had never been in a boat before.
'Tis the season - the plum trees were bearing fruit and only accessible from the water.
After trying out tandem paddling, I put 'em in single boats. It would have been easier to start them in solo boats, but they would have missed out on the opportunity to yell at each other.
Back at the Boathouse, it was time for Round 2 of light saber battles.
I opened up at 10am on Saturday, and at 10:01, Connie was there with Patience and Sebastian. She said Sebastian was at her all morning "Can we go paddling? Can we go paddling?"
SO off they went, with Connie as supercargo this time. Sebastian needs to work on his paddling technique.
The Tik-Tak Kayak was getting a lot of attention. Jordan, a new visitor to the Boathouse, wanted to give it a try. Jordan weighs about 280lbs, which is a little more than I had designed for. Still . . . .
.. . . the man didn't get wet. That's pretty much all the Tik-Tak is supposed to do: Keep your butt out of the water.
Rocky (on the right) works with kids from the Confederated Tribes of the Siletz Indians, and we have been working at getting them to the Boathouse. They weren't able to show up today, but we want to have a boat for them to decorate for the Toledo Boat Show in August. I put Rocky and Jordan to work, assembling the Lazy Weekend canoe.
We started by attaching the frames to one of the sides . . .
. . . then the other side to the frames. And we got more visitors! Bob Larkin came by again, this time, with his wife and kids.
I got them loaded into boats and returned to helping Rocky and Jordan.
Bob's kids, Mike and Pat, got in their own boats, Mike in the Tik-Tak and Pat in Aurora. They both liked them both.
Chine logs to the bottoms.
Rocky needed a break, so Curt stepped in to attach the other chine.
Then flip, and attach the gunnels. You can also see Geoff in the background, working on the rudder for the Junk.
Bob and his wife were having a wonderful time in one of the Mollyhawks - that is a wonderful design by John Welsford.
Patty tried out the Tik-Tak and deemed it acceptable. Mike says he is finally - after years of urging by his father - going to build a boat, and it will be a Tik-Tak Kayak.
Once the chines and gunnels had been attached to the Lazy Weekend canoe, there was nothing left to do today except go for a paddle. Rocky put his wife and sister in one canoe, and himself and Jordan in another.
It was a GREAT day on the water in Toledo.
Good timing on this photo - and a fitting end to this essay.
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