dryfly.ca started as a website for sharing one of my DIY projects, a stitch and glue kayak. Since then I've added several more projects including a skin-on-frame kayak, cedar strip canoe, kayak paddles, canoe paddles, building a spey rod, and an antenna for receiving OTA HDTV. I also occasionally ramble on about politics, technology, bike racing, product reviews and last but not least, our kids.
Click on the Photo Gallery to lots of my pictures in their full glory, including family, friends, boat building, travels, etc.
After installing the inwales I turned my attention to the decks. As usual, I pretty much followed the words of wisdom found in Canoecraft. However, there are a few interesting bits to mention. First, I managed to find a nice piece of sapele at a local lumber store. There was about 1 board.ft sitting in a bin of scrap wood that they use for stacking lumber. I still had to pay for the wood, but at least I only needed to buy a small piece. It cost me $10.
I resorted to a few more sluggo special jigs for the deck glue-up and shaping:
I had some problems screwing the decks into the inwales. First I predrilled with a 1/8″ bit for #8 screws. I got a couple of screws in, but then I broke one. Next I predrilled 1/8″ into the deck, and then 5/32″ through the inwale. I still broke a screw. Finally I settled on this pattern: start with a 3/8″ forstner bit for countersink, drill 5/32″ through the inwale and deck, then finally drill 3/16″ through the inwale.
I managed to shape the decks ok and the fit was pretty good for me. I had some Elmers wood filler that did an excellent job of filling gaps between the cherry and sapele:
And used thickened epoxy for gaps between the decks and the inwales. Once it’s sanded I think it will look quite okay.
I started caning the stern seat last week, and so far it is going fine. I’m using the instructions from Gilpatrick’s book “Building A Strip Canoe,” and his descriptions and photos are very good. So far I’ve finished doing the vertical and horizontal strips, and 1/2 of the first diagonal strips. I’m not entirely clear on how some of the cane pieces are going to be tied off but I suppose it will work out in the end.
I sanded the frame to 220 grit and varnished with a MiniWax Spar gloss finish. I tried a few different things to pass through the holes but I didn’t have the patience to coat all the holes with varnish…
I glued the inwales in a couple of weeks ago. I haven’t updated the blog because I’ve been going full-tilt on the canoe every chance I get, and I’ve been having some family fun camping in BC!
A couple of notes about the inwales:
1. I used my belt sander as a substitute for planing the final shape of the gunwale planks before installing. It was fast and gave a nice flat surface
2. One inwale I forgot to roughen up and sand the epoxy surface to which it was glued. Hopefully it won’t fail…
3. As usual, my craftsmanship in finishing details was not perfect, shaping the inwales as they meet in the stems left some gaps. Overall it wasn’t too bad. At least I didn’t cut an inwale too short and have to start over again.
And now some pictures…
Another famous sluggo jigging setup. I borrowed a drill press to bore some holes/slots into the gunwales. I added 4 slots near midship instead of scuppering. Drill presses are really handy.
Last Thursday I went for the best road ride that I’ve done for a long time. I met up with old friends and teamates Mike, Gary and Al. But first, a few comments on the riding leading up to the ride.
A bit of background. A couple of weeks ago there were several local news reports that police officers were handing out tickets or warnings to cyclists that didn’t stop at stop signs. My first reactions were those of disbelief. Typical thoughts ran through my head such as “don’t they have anything better to do?” I’ve also thought for many years that stop signs in general are completely unsuitable for cyclists. For an excellent presentation on why this is so, check out this video:
I also read readers comments from the news, and was further dismayed that a good portion of the readers agreed with ticketing. I couldn’t believe it. A lot of the people supporting tickets claimed to be cyclists and commuters! Fast forward to Thursday. I’m riding my bike down the 10th Ave bikeway. No big deal I thought, I bike commute to work all the time. Except this was different. I could have sworn that I was thrown into the middle of a crit race. Cyclists were going hard, speeding away, swerving around people. It was insane. In this one brief ride I saw at least three commuters scream through stop signs without slowing or even appearing to care that pedestrians were wanting to cross the intersection. This shocked me even more than the news reports from two weeks earlier. It took all of 5 minutes of this to convince me that police should be giving out tickets. I was appalled at the behaviour and nuisance caused by many commuters. On the positive side of things, it was great to see so many people on bikes and the crit was kind of fun.
Okay, back to the road ride. Gary and I met Al in front of his condo in Yaletown and the three of us rode out to Cornwall to meet Mike at Yew Street. Once we were all together I went to the front so they could all see the back of my BC Masters Champion jersey. I needed to remind them of the caliber of rider they were with. We did a nice ride out around UBC where Al decided to put the hammer down on SW Marine. I use the term “hammer” loosely – it was like a hammer to me. I won’t speak for the others. By the time we got to Granville my neck was killing me but my legs were ok. We then did the Iona loop. On the return, Al took off again following two triatheletes. It was then a moderately painful ride back over the bridge and up Cornwall and back home.
I didn’t get sore or still the next day or two, so I guess that means I’m in moderately ok shape. My legs are still a bit tired though and my shoulder is sore. Such is life.
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