Day 4 A cereal packet moment

Tea Count 1
Injuries 1 (when cutting off the wire ties they would ping around the garage, sorry – boat shed - like tiny missiles. It was only a matter of time before one hit me in the eye. Safety goggles on standby)
Time spent 2 hours

I only spent a couple of hours on the boat today. First off I was delighted to find the garage was still there and that the spontaneous combustion threatened by the epoxy tin had not occurred after all. Secondly, I was even more thrilled to see the epoxy had cured into brown concrete and my canoe first half was structurally sound. I spent a few minutes cutting off all the wire ties fully expecting at least one of the panels to spring back to it’s natural flat state. They didn’t and the wire tie hitting me in the eye at least woke me up nicely and so it was time for breakfast.

As it was dryish day I put both halves onto the drive balanced on some 4”x2”s to check how they would line up. This was brave. If they didn’t match up I had no idea what I was going to do. Amazing! They met almost perfectly and whilst it was tricky to balance them up to each other it was clear that the misalignment was minuscule and nothing that a sheet of sandpaper wouldn’t sort out. Buoyed with confidence I called Zena out to take a look, she was impressed and we stood on the drive for a moment taking in the view! Then, with rain threatening it was time to get them back inside and for her start with her cleaning up of my garage floor. I was fine. Carrying a canoe half whilst stamping on used un-melted mixing containers is a normal part of construction in my boat shed. But no, apparently the floor has to be clear of obstructions when carrying canoe halves – she left fairly shortly!

So what to do next? To fillet up the other half with epoxy I guess. I had done one half and was so confident in my mixing and spreading of crunchy peanut butter ability that I doubled my mixing quantities, scary huh? Yup, I ended up binning about a third of my mix as it went off too quickly! Whilst beginning the mix my thoughts turned to yesterday when I had the wild idea that a spoon would have been useful with which to dispense the filler powder. You know how it is, you tip the container and nothing comes out, you tip it some more, nothing comes out, you tip a tiny bit more and tap the container and it all comes out in one huge cascade of powder! Anyway, as with yesterday, it was too late to go anywhere near the kitchen for a spoon. My fingers were already sticky with resin and going anywhere within twenty feet of the kitchen with these hands would be tempting fate and probably death. Good forethought Leigh – good save!

It was whilst tempting the powder out of the tin using the above mentioned that the cereal packet moment announced itself. There, hidden near the bottom of the tin (I’ve used two thirds of the tin by this time) was something blue, bright blue, what the..? Fingers went in to retrieve a beautiful perfectly formed bright blue dispensing spoon. What a fantastically brilliant idea, putting a measuring spoon in with the filler powder…AT THE BOTTOM. I do have another one of these filler tins so I wonder what will be in there. A toy car perhaps, some football cards maybe. Knowing my luck, just as in the days of free toys with the sugar puffs, I’ll get another spoon.

So the gluing up process went without further incident. Richard and Gail dropped by to take a look and I think were suitable impressed with the boat, although Richard was more excited by my man garage. Gail told him that he already had a man garage and I sensed a domestic situation arising so I gave them what they had come for and they left to enjoy the footy.

Tomorrow is New Years Day so it’s probably safer not to plan any work on her as it could go horribly wrong. Let’s see how things go tonight. I’m sure I’ll end up taking out the remaining stitches, with my safety goggles on honest, but that will probably be that. Happy New Year everyone – note the assumption that somebody or in fact everyone is reading this blog!

Day 3 Spontaneous Combustion

Day 3

Tea Count 0 (Well it was only half a day)
Injuries 0
Time spent 2.5 hours

So yesterday was a day off and therefore doesn’t count. It was a golf day with Perkins senior and Perkins junior, I wonder what that makes me?

Anyway today was the day I had been dreading for sometime. Today I would be using the epoxy resin (that’s glue to the non boat building fraternity) for the first time. This involves mixing resin with hardener and a funny powder called filleting mix. This has the effect of creating a strong, thick glue which is used to “fillet” the seams of the panels which holds them together after the wire stitches have been removed (hopefully).

The words on the tin did not make for cheery reading. “mix and use in a well ventilated room at 20 degrees”. My garage is not well ventilated and if it is then the door is open and it’s not 20 degrees! It went on, “mixing resin and hardener can generate large amounts of heat and can melt plastic containers and cause spontaneous combustion…WHAT, say that again! I re-read the tin, yup, it can set itself on fire at the drop of a hat, “dispose of carefully”, well duh! Anyhow, best not tell Zeen about this bit, it’s on a need to know basis and my plastic mixing containers look perfectly adequate!

I figured I’d practice on some spare ply first, to see how easy it was to work with. Apparently I have to mix it up to the consistency of peanut butter, it didn’t say smooth or crunchy so I opted for smooth but ended up with crunchy. And so the mixing began and very shortly I had my first batch of crunchy epoxy resin ready for spreading.

With confidence growing and no fires yet appearing my practice piece of ply was in fact one half of my canoe, well how hard can it be. Apparently quite hard. It’s like trying to spread peanut butter onto a two pieces of dry wood with another piece of dry wood. It sticks where you don’t want it too and doesn’t where you do! It’s crazy stuff

Anyway, within an hour or so I had filleted all the joints between the stitches (and my fingers) in the hope that tomorrow I can remove the stitches and it won’t all fall apart. Other jobs completed today was that of re-shaping the nose cone (it’s a rocket now) as it was slightly out of line after I had tightened the wires. I temporarily installed the mid-ships bulkhead in half number two. This was a pain to fit and has only increased my fear that the two halves will not match together and we’ll all get wet. I’m hoping for a fine day tomorrow so I can take the halves outside and marry them up to see if I need to re-work anything! I have to do this before I go much further as once the joints are taped there won’t much in the way re-shaping that can be done!

Well that’s it for now. Probably won’t post tomorrow as it’s New Years Eve, Happy New year everyone, and I shall be busy partying and buying a new wheely bin after the old one mysteriously melted and then caught fire!

Day 2 in the Big Brother Boatyard

Tea Count 2 (+1 Coffee)
Injuries 0.5 (Bumped head on garage door and nearly drilled a hole in my finger)
Time spent 8 hours

Another good day with good progress made. I put in a good eight hours today and Zena is already describing the canoe as my other woman. She's probably right as the boat is definitely female. Despite my best efforts this morning, shaping the bow (or stern) she proved utterly stubborn and refused to do as she was asked, definitely a she. After tightening all the stitches half of my canoe really began to take shape and as each stitch was twisted she gradually became more and more sturdy. The curve of the stern (or bow) was always going to be a challenge and despite my best efforts in accuracy when marking out the curve, it was always going to be a compromise between measurement and guesswork. A little shaving and sanding and I now have what I consider to be a smooth and graceful curve. Tying the ends together has also given her more strength in the bow, stern whatever, important as steering is yet to be mastered and impacts are inevitable.


Inserting and tying in the small bulkhead really added rigidity. This was a pleasurable part of the build as I wasn't really expecting the bulkhead, taken straight off plan to fit with such accuracy. Building an extension to the house was easy, everything being straight and true with ninety degree angles to work with. No such luxury here. Everything is curved, bent and twisted into shape so when you have a bulkhead which is supposed to be upright and fit into what is essentially a squished octagon, what hope is there. Well actually, quite a lot it would seem. No shaving or sanding required, who'd a thunk it.


The centre bulkhead on the other hand was another matter. My temporary template was not a perfect fit so I cut a new bulkhead using the plan dimensions and still no joy. Now I had a problem. Creating a template for the bulkhead with nothing to guide me was not easy. The problem was that the bulkhead is designed to add strength and rigidity to centre section of the canoe. Without it there is nothing to stop the centre section flopping around like large wobbly jelly. Some head scratching went on at this point and head banging (didn't open the garage door high enough). After much thought and soul searching I had an idea. Using the previous unfitting template I would wing it and guesstimate the differences. After one more failure, template mark three was a perfect fit. All I had to do now was repeat all the above with the second half of the canoe!

Stitching the second half together was as easy as the first with only a little tweaking required. Encouragingly the front (or back) curve followed the same mis-alignment as before which means that I have either made the same mistake twice or everything is just fine. Either way I am encouraged by my consistency. A little shaving and sanding will sort that out tomorrow. The small bulkhead went in with same ease as the first, although I have left the centre bulkhead on this half for another day.

To be honest I'm terrified, fitting the centre bulkhead on the first half was a tricky affair, I'm sure this one will be no exception. The added problem is that not only has this got to fit as before but then the two halves of the canoe must meet together with a scary degree of accuracy if we're not going to be submariners.

No doubt I'll dream long and hard over this problem tonight, we'll see how it goes tomorrow no doubt.

Day 1 And so it begins...

Tea Count - 3
Injuries - 0
Time sent 6 hours

Well it's not really day one as this was a few days before Christmas when I marked out the panels on the 8x4's. It would have been pointless taking pictures of this as to be honest it wasn't really that impressive. So today is day one.

I have to admit to being slightly scared of cutting into my lovely 4mm marine ply but all went well and within a couple of hours - about 4 - I had all the panels cut to size. Another couple of hours of sanding and shaving and all the lumps and bumps had been fine tuned into perfect curves in readiness for stitching together.


I had only planned to cut the panels out today and possible sand and shave them to shape, but with things going unusually well the stitching process was too much of a temptation. And so with about 70 pre-cut wire ties in hand the first half of my canoe began to take shape. I say the first half because due to the lack of building and storage space I have decided to build my canoe in two halves, a proper cut and shut! Well actually not as the canoe will be built in two halves and then shut (joined together) so no err.. cut.


So with day one over I can look back in admiration at half an achievement and I must admit to being very pleased with my progress thus far! Although, now I've finally begun and can see it taking shape I'm starting to have some major concerns. Firstly and most worryingly, what happens if when the two halves are built, they don't meet up properly? Will it a)leak like sieve or b)if the two halves aren't straight mean we can only go around in large circles. This will haunt me until the end of the project I'm sure. My other major concern is this. After applying the resin to the joints and then fibre glass tape and I remove the wire ties will my canoe simply spring apart and once again become several sheets of 8'x4' albeit in 14 adjoining panels.

Well, we shall wait and see but fingers crossed it will remain canoe shaped at least for it's maiden voyage.

Tomorrow will see me twisting the wires together to bring the panels into a closer alignment and re-shaping the front (or back depending on which it becomes)as the centre panels are a touch long.