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.
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