Day...Lost count. C'est Fini - That's French you know!

Tea count...Lost count

Injury Count...None:-)

Thankfully none Stickiness Factor...It's always sticky, it's an inevitable part of life and boat building. If it's not resin it's varnish, if it's not varnish it's Golden Syrup. What are ya gonna do. You just gotta roll with it and deal with each sticky icky stickiness situation that life throws at you.
Q. What's brown and sticky
A. A stick!

So as you will of course have noticed I have been more than neglecting my blogging duties over the past month, as I did in the previous month. The canoe build definitely got the better of me and the thought of putting fingers to keyboard at the end of each day entirely lost it's appeal. I fear I may have lost some friends along the way as I have without doubt left them lost and alone without my weekend posts. Regretfully, and with the merest hint of sarcasm, I care not as it was never my intention to entertain with my musings, more just keep a record of the build! The pressure of writing a whole page each week became too much for my small and underdeveloped brain hence the lack of updates during the latter stages. However, I thank you all for reading, both of you, and I hope from the bottom my bilges that reading my ramblings over the first quarter of the year has provided a modicum of interest and entertainment, despite that never being my intention - just in case you didn't get that!

So all's well that ends well and as you can see from the title, boat is indeed finished!!! To be honest the last six or seven days of the build that have not been documented would have made for very dull reading. It would have been more like watching varnish dry... as that's exactly what I was I doing. So it would have exactly like watching varnish dry, hmmmm! The last days were spent sanding, adding resin, sanding more resin, sanding, varnishing, sanding, varnishing...you can see I was losing my enthusiasm at this stage.

Ooh I nearly forgot! I made seats! That was quite exciting and it got me indoors too as the weather stunk! I made wooden frames and added a lattice (I think that's the right word - not lettuce as the spell checker keeps trying to tell me) middle made from strong webbing tape. It seems to work very well, although I did have to re-enforce the frames as I had made them a tadge spindly. This was discovered on the first of our sea trials (river not sea) and whilst the seats did support my victim and I they were flexing a little too much for comfort.

My largest fears concerning the bulkhead joint were unfounded. Such and odd word! How can you unfound something. Does this mean that you lost something, found it and then lost it again? It's like "disgruntled". Has anyone in the history of mankind ever actually been gruntled? There are more like this but I digress. I put silicone over one end of the bulkhead with cling film (other brands are available) on the other bulkhead to stop it sticking. I then bolted the two halves together and left for one hour on gas mark 6 until the silicone began to skin over. I then separated the two halves and removed the cling film. The theory being that I would now have a perfectly matching silicone gadget on one half of the boat. It only bloody worked didn't it!? This was the final task and the only remaining thing to do was to practice loading it onto the car unaided. Deciding that caution should be excercised as I was highly likely to either wreck the boat, wreck the car or both, I waited until Zena was two hundred miles away in Cornwall. It was a good plan as the experience was slightly hair raising.

I asked Jason - my son in case you thought I had gained a friend, to stand by and jump in to lend some muscle if needed. In retrospect this was a very irresponsible act of parenting. Had I indeed required his muscle it would surely have ended up with him acting as nothing more that a landing cushion for a very heavy boat! Anyway with much huffing and puffing and and a lot of laughing and words of discouragement such as "dad I don't think this is going to end well," from the afore mention son, the boat did indeed end up atop the car. It looked magnificent!

My good friend Ollie, who I had let down terribly with regards to a promised canoe camping trip by being far too slow in building my boat, had forgiven me enough to join me for the first test on the water. 

With my heart in my mouth, Jason and I swung her into the water for the first time. I hardly dare look at the bulkhead join or into the promisingly named "watertight hatches" at the ends. Then, to my utmost surprise I was struck by the realisation that there were no leaks, not a one! I was flabbergasted, slightly emotional but more than anything else, utterly knackered. Carrying the boat from car to river was exhausting, a canoe trolley is thus being sought!

The next couple of hours was spent heading up river and through a lock and I can honestly say it was awesome. Paddling a few feet from nesting moorhens, dive bombed by Canada Geese and being pissed on from the heavens by hailstones as sharp as cut glass were all part of my first magical trip! The second trial, the next day was a gentle paddle up the Thames from East Reading back toward town. With Jason relaxing at the back, this was pleasant couple of hours with the only threat coming from some perturbed looking swans (don't ask me how a swan looks perturbed but it did!) We even stopped near the lock for a picnic of Bacon and lattice sandwiches!

Next is one more river trial but with Captain Zena at the helm to get her used to swinging her paddle before the official launch which will be announced soon. This I hope will take the form of a launch picnic on a bright, sunny and warm May day.

It is then with a tinge of sadness but with a bucket load of relief that I sign off from my blogging duties. I shall be back at some point as I have some new project ideas forming which consist of an underwater housing for my video camera (Zenas none too keen on that one!) and then a cedar strip built Kayak - Wooohoooo. And if I get round to the latter I promise I'll blog the bollocks off that one!!!

Day 20 & 21 It's all a matter of re-cycling

Tea Count 4
Injuries 0
Time Spent 10 Hours
Stickiness Factor 5/10

Good evening, morning or afternoon readers. (delete as appropriate) Let's get the apologies out of the way first. You will no doubt have noticed that I have not been blogging for nearly a month now and if truth be told, which it will be, progress has been slow. I am sorry for the lack of updates but not for the well needed time out.

Following my last post I had a nasty reaction to either the poxy resin, the fibre glass dust or both. The upshot of this was a pair of swollen, puffy eyes, rashes on my leg tummy arms and neck and very very itchy eyelids – not the best symptoms to have if you're a photographer! Needless to say some time off from sanding and poxying was ordered and I dutifully obeyed. Much of my time away from canoe building was spent walking. First, a good 15km hike around the Lambourne gallops in the company of air cadets. This only served to Then a weekend of camping and walking in North Wales again in the company of cadets.

In between this of course was the scheduled launch date of our lovely canoe. In hindsight this was always a little optimistic. On the bright side though, we still had the launch/birthday party on the 17th March. On the dark side, the 18th March was very much a sofa day nursing a head partially, but thankfully temporarily damaged by blackberry vodka - a concoction of my lovely wife's making. It is both delicious and addictive but ever so slightly dangerous. It renders limbs quite useless in less time than I remember!

So..to matters of canoe! Now that my rashes have almost all cleared up and he eyelids have returned to their pre-itchy state, I deemed it safe to continue. My first task of the day was to finish making the bilge runners of the aft section and using the left over cut-offs I recycled them into the rails for the aft seat. Shaping the ends to fit into the curved section of the boat was an arse of a job but satisfying when completed. Using the cut-offs from these rails I recycled them to make the kneels for the seat rails to sit on which I then shaped to mirror the curves of the hull. Yep, that was also an arse of a job.

I also laid another coat of resin on the forward section both inside and out. I'm using a roller to put the resin on now as it is much easier and gives a better finish. It lays on a thinner coat and still runs and sags a little but the finish is better and weave of the glass cloth is now almost filled.

The finish on the decorative decking is now very pleasing and another coat should see it finished. In fact I'm hoping, nay pleading and hoping that one more coat of resin all over will see this half finished and with thought spurring me on I decided to embark on the all important job of installing the beverage holder tops.

As you can see from the photograph it's a welcome addition to the build. I'm making the actual beverage holders using left over fibreglass cloth, utilising some cardboard tubing as a mould. Will it work? Dunno, we'll have to wait and see but I do have a plan B if this fails.

I'm hoping with next weekend being a long one I may get very close to finishing the whole project. My next goal is to have it ready for a canoe camping trip on 20th April. Fingers crossed but no promises!!!

Day 18 Poets Day

Tea Count 2
Injuries 0
Time Spent 4 Hours
Stickiness Factor 0/10

For readers who are unaware of poets let me enlighten you. Poets day only ever occurs on a Friday and involves leaving work early because as the acronym alludes "tomorrow's Saturday". I'll leave you work out the first two words.

As you will no doubt have guessed this is Friday's post. A week of early mornings allowed me to accumulate some time and take Friday afternoon as boat building time. Thanks as ever to my lovely wife for allowing me leave my desk while she continued working for the afternoon.

As mentioned in my last post I've added one or two luxuries to the build and having decided on the beverage holders the next addition was going to be either cutting edge sound system, periscope in case of submersion (likely) or some decorative decking instead of plain old wood decking. The sound system would add too much weight and mixing water with electrics is suicide in my book. The periscope? well that's just ridiculous, though useful. So onto the decorative decking! That'll test my marquetry skills, or it would if I had any.

I made my plan, sort of and starting cutting some strips of wood from my off cuts and left overs. Now even if I do say so myself, I think it looks pretty awesome and of course will look more awsomeer when its sanded flush and varnished. The downside is this. What you see in this photograph is the sum total of my 4 four hours work! Looks great but rather than progressing with the build I think I'm falling further behind and now in serious danger of missing launch date.

Fortunately I haven't sold any tickets to would be passengers so no refunds to worry about, just a little face loosing which by the way would not be a problem right now as the face is still very much in itchy and scratchy mode.

On a final note I have now managed the shape the troublesome piece that runs along the top of the bulkhead to meet the gunwales. TFFT

Day 17 Supplemental - Itchy and Scratchy

Tea Count 1
Injuries 0
Time Spent 2 Hours
Stickiness factor 10/10

In order to have any chance of meeting my self imposed launch date of March 17th I decided to put some evening shifts in. A couple of hours here and there should go some way to helping me achieve my deadline. This decision was not taken lightly as time off at the moment is sparse as work has been particularly good lately. The pressure to meet my launch date has been getting quite intense from various quarters. Not least of which is our party planned for the 17th which is supposed to be both a birthday and launch party, hopefully it still will be both. One friend heaped on the pressure on monday night by informing me that he had invested in bread with which to feed the ducks on launch day. You know who your are "H" and I will do all I can not to let you down but if I do, I will at the very least reimburse you for the bread.

So last Tuesday evening I donned my now ever so poxie stained overalls and gave half number one a second coat of resin on her bottom:-). This proved far easier than the first coat which I applied to glass cloth. After diligently reading some advice I kept my resin warm and kept the coat thin and this did go most of the way to avoiding runs and sags in the resin. It's still damn tricky stuff to apply evenly though especially on curved surfaces like boats.

I don't seem to be helping my own deadline much as now the boat is approaching completion I'm adding in some luxury extras. The first of these is of the obligatory beverage holders, yes you read it correctly folks, beverage holders. If luxury cars have them then so should my canoe.

On to health issues now. I am undecided if it's the remnants of the loft insulation on my overalls collar or poxie fumes and resin from the boat but my neck feels like a Simpsons spin off cartoon, that's itchy and scratchy to the non Bartonians. It's been like it for a couple weeks now and the rash is a little unsightly. More unnervingly the itching is equally as bad under my eyes on my cheekbones and now on my eye lids. Let me tell you itchy eye lids is no fun at all not least of all because I keep missing the footy. I have to close my eyes to have a good rub and on opening them everything is very blurry indeed.. Today I've missed two goals that I am aware of. If anyone has any medical knowledge of how to alleviate fiber glass/resin induced dermatitis I'll gladly take the advice.

Day 17 Sods Law!

Tea Count 3
Injuries 1 (A bad gash to the thumb)
Time Spent 5 Hours
Blood factor 5/10

Hello once again fellow bloggers, readers and boat building buddies.  As you can see my followers increased in number this week by a massive two fifths and I'm now confident of hitting double figures before the end of the build.  I thought it time to catch up with some updates as once again readers I am behind by a couple of days.

Last Sunday was indeed day seventeen and was largely given over to the creation of the inner gunwales and fitting two of them to half number one the aft section or the fore section...whatever!  In addition I spent a fair portion of time cutting to shape the piece of wood that be needed to run across the top of the bulkhead to meet the inner gunwales.  This is far harder than it sounds as the piece has be cut and shaped in three directions to take the shape of the boat from back to front, as well as top to bottom, as well as meet the gunwales at the right angle and take into account the slight slope of the bulkhead and...and... and...see, it's a very hard piece to shape!  Needless to say I went through three lengths of wood before giving up and vowing to do better on another day.

After a trial fit of the gunwales I had ripped to size on my trusted table saw it was obvious

there was no way on this earth they were going to bend enough to follow the curve and contour of the boat.  Being deeper that the outer gunwales meant they were much more resistant to bending.  I decided a compromise was needed and so slimmed them down somewhat to make life a little easier.  I also routed some sections out of the gunwales which would allow any water left in the canoe to drain out when stored upside down, and it makes them look pretty!  Rather handily it also made the gunwales more flexible and I was able to easily bend them into shape.  Anyone would have thought I planned it that way!  Actually I did but no-ones ever going to believe me.  I dry fitted the gunwales into place but they'll have to come off again later to be poxied.  The boat is really feeling quite rigid and strong now.

A large part of my day, and I mean over an hour, was spent looking for my countersink drill bit.  I only have the one and losing it meant the project was stalled until I could find or replace it.  When eventually I did find it I couldn't quite believe how well "sod" had implemented it's long, pointless and ever recurring law.  Out of interest, probably to me only, I took some measurements.  The gap between the table saw blade and the edge of the blade slot in the table is ten millimeters.

 The widest part of the drill bit is nine millimeters!  For this drill bit to have fallen in the direction of the slot is one thing.  The chances of it landing at such an angle that it could fall through the slot  is astonishing and then to top things off it landed inside the blade tilting mechanism and in doing so adjusted itself so that no matter how much shaking, banking and poking it was never going to fall loose.  In one split second butter finger moment, dropping my drill bit had successfully disabled not only my ability to drill and countersink the holes needed to fit the gunwales but had also disabled the table saw and hence my ability of cutting the remaining gunwales.  The table saw required a complete strip down to retrieve my bit.  Please also bear in mind that I had spent the best part of half an hour searching for the damn thing and it was only in one of those "I wonder" moments that I had peered down into the depths of the saw only to see the damn drill bit staring back at me.

The day did not end well either.  Todays use of sharps and power tools meant that the danger stakes were always going to be high.  A table saw, a router, drill, tenon saw, three different chisels, stanley knife, two different sanding machines... I could go on!  So which one do you think gave me the gash across the base of my thumb.  A deep gash at that and one which could well have rendered me useless for the day had it not happened right on last knockings.  Well readers, I can reveal to you now that it was none of these death inducing implements!  Whist clearing up at the end of my day I lifted a box containing some left over papers from my sons paper-round and as I did so a one of the papers revealed it's ugly brutish and uncaring nature and slashed me across the ball of my thumb.  I had become the victim of a brutal paper cut attack and once again sod had demonstrated it's relentless desire to implement it's own rule of law!

Day 16 What a beautiful smooth bottom you have ;-)

Tea Count 1
Injuries 0
Time Spent 5 Hours
Stickiness Dust Factor 1000/10

Sorry once again for the belated post but after much rigorous right arm action I felt truly unable to type following my day of bottom smoothing on Saturday. Doing her bottom, was not too taxing and much easier than getting around all her nooks and crannies inside and I finally managed to feather out her seams ready for another coating. Hopefully you will of course have guessed that I am talking once again about my favourite pastime of sanding rather than assume I have a new hobby of writing bad porn scripts!

Whilst this is possibly the most tedious of activities I was going to be much rewarded in the afternoon as I had promised myself some construction. Bilge runners and gunwales! Who on earth thought of all these weird names? Fitting the bilge runners (that be the bits of wood than run along the bottom to stop it scrapping along the river bed when it sinks) was a fairly straight forward exercise albeit arms two feet longer would have been useful to be able to work on the inside and outside at the same time. The gunwales on the other hand was another matter. I've read about people making steamers to help bend and twist the gunwales into shape, in hindsight I can see why. Bending an eight foot strip of wood into a gentle curve is one thing but then bending in another plane at the same time and getting it to twist to match the shape of the canoe still at the same time took every inch of strength I could muster. I used all four of my G clamps but could have done with a dozen more and at least twice as many arms that I was born with.

As you can see from the photo I not only succeeded in attaching the gunwales but also turned the patio in the back garden into something resembling a boat yard slash bomb site! Also of note in the photograph are the rather spooky "devil eyes" watching me work.  Freaky huh? Still, it was a satisfying day with all planned activities completed. I find it helps to make the plan of activities retrospectively at the end of the day, that way I always achieve my goals and often far exceed them!

Day 15 How to sheath a hull in two and half minutes...or Does anyone remember Benny Hill?

Tea Count 4

Injuries 1 (I sawed by knuckle with a tendon saw, just a graze.)

Time Spent 7 Hours

Stickiness Factor 9582/10 That's very sticky!

Today was one of those days I had been dreading. I was going to sheath the hull of one half with fibre glass cloth. Some people may snigger at the term "sheath" but they're just showing their age. Now I have never done this before. I have read many articles, watched a couple of videos but I was still seriously lacking in confidence. If this bit goes wrong it could pretty much ruin the whole project.

I started early determined to put in a full day. I laid the cloth out across the hull to see what was going to be the best way to do this. The cloth was only a metre wide so I know there would have to be joins but where best to join so they wouldn't be too obvious and require yet more sanding ( I really don't like sanding).

The boss came in and started to assist which was very welcome indeed if not a little tense at times due to the fact that we both know we are correct about everything all the time. The trouble is, more often that not we have opposing views so one of us is bound to be dissappointed and wrong!

Anyhow, imagine laying a bed sheet over a very long curved surface, say something like...oh I dunno, a canoe, and imagine all the wrinkles and folds that will appear as you try to get said sheet to cling tightly to the surface. Now you have an idea of what we were up against. After some warm but not quite heated debate, we decided on the best method of laying the fabric. It's pretty expensive stuff so I had ordered only just enough to complete the job so we couldn't afford much wastage and hence had to cut our cloth accordingly. The pun is intentional.

Pouring the resin onto the fabric did indeed make me very uneasy, however as soon as I started to spread the resin my fears subsided. The cloth almost immediately went from it's normal white opaque state to an almost invisible clear finish. As it did so the resin seeped through the cloth into the wood beneath giving it a varnished look emphasizing it's grain, beautiful.

The weave of the fabric is loose enough so that as you spread the resin across it the fabric moulds itself to the shape of the canoe with no wrinkles, bubbles or creases. The whole job took an hour and thanks to Zena for her poxy mixing!

I'm very excited to see this part of the job done!

More work done today was that of cutting up my eight foot by 38mm by ten inch plank to make the gunwales and bilge runners. The gunwales were routed to give slight roundover to their edges and I temporarily installed the outer gunwales onto half number one. That was fun and games. Bending such a long piece in two directions at the same time was a painful experience with lots of stress on both me and the boat. I can see why people use steamers to bend wood. The inner gunwales will prove even harder as they are nearly twice the depth. Oh deep joy!

It was good catch up today with lots done but I'm still dubious about meeting my self imposed deadline. If I'm not careful I could end up rushing it and build in slightly more "character" than I require. I'll keep you posted. Enjoy the video and come back next week for some more ramblings.

Day 14 Hot Bot...

Tea Count 1

Injuries 1 See Below

Time Spent 2 Hours

Stickiness Factor 6/10

Well once again I am behind schedule. An inpromtu trip up to the frozen north during half term meant no progress was made during the week. It was a nice break though with lots of yummy food, a few pints of the dark stuff and good catch up with Zenas family. A welcome break indeed, (other motorway service stations are available) which was finished off on Friday night with a trip to the footy. One nil doesn't sound very exciting but it was.

So to day 14. I was undecided as to what to do next and as much of Saturday was spent working so I only had a couple of hours. I opted for the thrilling task of filleting and taping. The inside seams of one half were are still to do so it seemed a logical place to carry on. Following on from my first taping experience I was determined to get it right and so avoid the unesessary joys of more sanding than is required. You know how much I enjoy sanding!

So after masking off along all the joints to avoid over spill (another lesson learned - less sanding!) I was set. Incidentally my estimating skills have improved vastly. I was four inches short of masking tape after using all five rolls. I improvised with electrical tape for four inches. I won't be doing that again!. My fillets were a work of art, smooth neat and a good depth. Masking and electrical tape removed and I started applying the glass tape. Now for those who want to know a bit about the technique of applying the tape here goes. The tapes applied on the first half of the canoe were applied to a dry surface and I got a lot of bubbles and wrinkles which were difficult if not impossible to work out. This time I applied some resin to the seams first and applied the tape to the wet surface. Also note that by letting the fillets go off a bit first and to start skinning over, I was able to brush out the edges where there was a slight ridge where the masking tape had been. Bored yet? OK, come back to me non boating people, the next bit is amusing and slightly painful.

To keep my garage at the optimum eighteen degrees I have a fan heater on my bench. The heater has a thermostat which kicks the fan in and out maintaining the perfect temperature in which to apply poxy resin. Applying the tape is a critical process and once started it's nigh on impossible to stop until you have laid the whole length. Can you see where this is going? Bending over with my head pretty much in the bottom of the canoe I started to apply the first tape. Tape in one hand, brush in the other, the process started well. Then a small but significant wrinkle formed. Not a disaster, just needs working out slowly.

Sub consciously I hear the heater start up behind me and my rear starts to feel pleasantly warm, then warmer still and then too warm, far too warm. I can't go anywhere due to tape, resin, brush wrinkle etc. The only thing to do was to grin and bear it, work as quickly as possible and move along the boat. Just in the nick of time as the smell of burning overalls was beginning to become a little too strong for comfort my wrinkle released itself from the grip of poxy and I could continue along the seam, albeit with what must have looked like a slightly alarming posture as I tried to keep hot material away from sensitive bottom skin by forcing my pelvis forward whilst still bent over a canoe. Hmm nice!

The final upshot was a collection beautiful smooth seams, a lovely glossy resin coat for the inside of half number two and a slightly sore arse.

No images today but tomorrow I have a special treat for you all by way of video. Ooh how exciting!

Day 13 Soft hands...not!

Tea Count 1
Injuries 0
Time Spent 3 Hours
Stickiness Factor 0/10

I was wrong, today was the dullest day so far. It didn't help that I spent the first two hours in my loft finishing the insulation and came out knackered and very hot! This was followed by assisting Zena and Jason cleaning his room... a grim challenge indeed. The industrial style dust mask I bought for using when sanding the boat came in very handy in the loft when dealing with fibreglass insulation but it was no match for the dust and eco systems in the bedroom! Still, credit where credit is due, he did win “Best Cadet of the Year” at his Air Training Corps Squadron dinner on Friday night. Well done Jason, daddy is very proud.
A blinding headache after the mornings jobs did dampen my enthusiasm somewhat but I still managed to get off to B&Q and pick up the corner sander previously authorised by the finance director (yes she has been promoted). Goodness, what a difference having the right tool for the job makes. Feathering down those tape edges on the inside of the canoe was so much easier. A worthwhile investment without a doubt although I could probably have saved the money and used used my hands - they are now as rough as badgers behind and do a fine job smoothing plywood!
Unfortunately with the head still pounding that was enough for today. One half is ready for it's second coat of poxy (love that word) and the other ready for taping and first coat. I'm hoping to get this done through the week so I can have a weekend of sanding to look forward to... deep joy!
Seriously though, I'll have to make some headway on weekdays as launch day is fast approaching, I'm running out of weekends and I'm seriously worried that I may not be finished. Worry not party goers, we'll still party just no launch! Watch this space (blog) and I'll keep you posted. Fingers crossed, I may still make it!

Day 12 Smooooooth..

Tea Count 2
Injuries 1 (A slightly sanded hand)
Time Spent 3 Hours
Stickiness Factor 0/10

Probably the dullest day of the build to date. Sanding, sanding and more sanding. Both hulls were sanded on the outside, outside where it was very cold. There was still snow on the ground and the thermometer said -5 when I started, brrrrrr. Fortunately my android app proved incorrect in issuing a yellow snow warning, the snow was white as usual and the advice given by a wise old sage of “don't eat yellow snow” was not needed.
So the seams that had been previously filled were sanded flat and the rest of the hull was given the full random orbital treatment. Without wanting to sound too weird, it was a very satisfying feeling running my hand over that smooth bottom. Sanding the seams has really rounded off the shape nicely! Very exciting, so much so that I did both hulls in an hour or so.
More sanding was done on the inside again, boring!!! But it's almost ready for the second coat of poxy and the finance manager has authorised the purchase of a corner sander which is going to make things much faster and easier and far less taxing on the poor old arms.

Interestingly, sanding anything with my power sander makes it very smooth as you would expect, everything that it is apart from my hand, which after accidentally giving it a quick going over with the Bosch is now even rougher (and hurtier) than before. How does that work?

Stepping back in time slightly, I have now got the second plank of American Ash with which to make the gunwales. The same metric, imperial fiasco occurred as before at the timber merchants with me eventually purchasing an 8 foot by 38mm by 10 inch plank and I have absolutely no idea if this will be enough to complete the job or not but I enjoy the experience of buying it so much, no matter. Why I find it amusing that the guys at the wood yard mix their measurements so, I have no idea but it really is very funny and desperately confusing. Guess you have to be there.
Whilst we're on the subject how on earth do you pronounce “gunwales”? Is it gun-uls or gun-wales or as my ever so slightly geordie but not quite mackam wife might say goonels man. I must learn as apparently we have both inner and outer varieties on this boat!
I also managed to lay my hands on a new blade for the table saw in preparation for cutting of said gunwales – watch out fingers...
Well that was that day, short I know but after getting the central heating fixed at home I have decided to properly insulate the loft. I'll be damned if I'm letting any of my newly acquired heat leave through the roof!

Day 11 Easy for you to say...

Tea Count 2
Injuries 0
Time Spent 3 Hours
Stickiness Factor 6/10

Well here we are again folks, Sunday evening and I am having to write up three days of blog posts. The up side of this is that I'm spending more time boat building and less time writing! The downside is that I have to remember what happened a week ago. In case you were worried thinking that I may have given up, worry no more. Progress has been slow but progress there has been. I am certain that many (maybe even all three) of my readers will have had countless, or at least up to seven sleepless nights concerned for my elbow. I am happy to report that all is well and the damage was not permanent.
So after day 10's run of ill fortune I was determined to get things back on track. So with another freshly purchased drill bit I created a dozen or so holes in the bh with much more care. Once the bh's were then bolted together I was surprised at how well they matched up to each other. I'm almost thinking that the seal may be watertight with any form of gasket...hmm watch this space.

That job done, I unbolted them and then glued and screwed the bh into place. The it was onto the never ending and enthralling job of sanding. As you remember, if you have been paying attention, one half of the canoe has been taped and epoxied already. It was a little lumpy around the taping, a bit like bad custard so this needed sanding back and the flat parts required some flatting too. The edges of the tape have feathered down nicely so I'm hoping that the tape will become pretty much invisible when finished. It's a little disconcerting to be scratching the wotsit out of newly poxied wood but I am assured that a second coat will help achieve a flawless clear finish, if not it'll be pained magnolia.

The last job of the day was to mix up a little poxy (that's the official abbreviation for epoxy and I like it so it shall be used from now on) and fill in the outer seams. All edges masked off with masking tape, seems like a good choice of tape and a boring yet satisfying task completed.

Sorry about the lack of pictures today but there really is nothing of note to show. Sanding is just sanding after all, apologies to all the sanding fetishists out there. That's a very hard word word to say...fetishists!

Day 10 Who is Pete Tong Anyway?

Tea Count 3

Injuries 1 - A very sore elbow joint!

Time Spent 5 Hours

Stickiness Factor 8/10

With the social calendar clear, today promised to be a day of good progress, it also promised snow. Unfortunately only the latter proved correct. It started off ok with some more joint taping inside the buoyancy compartment at one end. I successfully cut out the whole for the hatch cover on the BH, although I wish I'd done that before the BH was installed. I was pleased to be able get much more filler into the crumple zone prior to taping and I'm pretty confident of surviving some hefty impacts but hat's as far as my good fortune went and from there on it all started to go Pete Tong.

A trip out to B&Q for some much needed supplies proved a welcome break from the epoxy fumes. Flying to B&Q is much more fun than driving. The main item on my shopping list was an 8mm drill bit. I was excited to be unscrewing BH number two, lining it up with BH number one and drilling the holes for the securing bolts. Once these are tight I'll really be able to see how good the seal is. Back from shopping and with a burst of enthusiasm I took half number two onto the drive and began sanding those fillets. It went well, much sanding was done, then it snowed! Not wanting to get my canoe wet (that would be just silly) it went back in the garage to join it's sister. The sanding would have to be finished another day. In case you're wondering, I have a self imposed ban on sanding in the garage now that the epoxy coating has begun, dust is not required!

Never mind, snow won't stop me, oh no, I'm made of sterner stuff than that. Time to remove the the BH and get those holes drilled. That's when it happened. Unscrewing the second last screw, a tear inducing ripping sound screamed from the port side (or starboard). The top most seam had split it's fillet along more than half it's length. Gutted! "Oh how unfortunate" my inner voice exclaimed, or words to nothing like that effect! Recovery mode kicked in and I quickly stuck in a couple of wire ties to keep it together and stop in spreading further. Ok, it can fixed but I could of done without the extra work.

Right, BH out, moving on. The BH's lined up as expected and I started drilling my first hole. There's nothing more satisfying than powering through solid wood with a brand new drill bit. Well there is but we can't talk about that here. I was feeling very smug. Normally I would have persevered with one of my trusty ten year old blunt drill bits but today...I had planned ahead. Like a hot knife through a soggy butter I powered my way past the halfway point. Then the drilling started to get harder, much harder, much much harder. Not deterred I pumped the drill to get past the tough bit using all the back pressure my elbow could muster. I had to stop, my elbow had completely given out and I had a horrible painful feeling of tendentious running deep in the joint. I don't actually know what tendentious is but it sounds right and it really hurts! Yeah I know, I can hear you, “man up...”. Then the horrid realisation struck... I had hit a screw that was securing the BH frame to the hull! Doh! And now my brand new shiny drill bit was as blunt as f....Oh dear, you know what? It's time to head indoors, tomorrow is another day!

Day 9 Life on the edge

Day 9
Tea Count 2

Injuries 0

Time Spent 3 Hours

Stickiness Factor 11/10

Some in the boat building community may well question my decision to apply fibreglass tape and a coat of resin on the coldest night of the year (-7 here last night), but hey that's just the way I roll. Call me reckless, irresponsible or even just crazy man, but I'm a man who likes to live on the edge, take a risk and dance with the devil. So yes, I did apply tape and resin on the coldest night of the year and you know what, it was fine, the epoxy has cured overnight and the joints are tightly taped.
My irresponsible inner voice persuaded me to go for and I really must listen to it more often as every once in a while, well about one in a hundred times it turns out to be right!

Having learned my lesson when it comes to sanding fillets I made the unusual decision to spend time preparing the joints by masking off the rest of the boat to avoid spillage and thus reduce sanding time. I say unusual, preparation prior to starting a job has ever been my strong point, just ask my better half on that one. I'm pretty sure I get that trait from dad. The story of angle grinding mortar joints on a house extension with all the windows open still does the rounds now and then.

It turned out that this preparation was time well spent and I am thusly proud (is thusly actually a word – it should probably be “thus I am very proud” but never mind.) The fillets were finished nicely and very neatly and the tape applied. I also glued in the first BH. I put a coat of resin over the whole of the inside of half number one with great trepidation. This was the first time I have used the epoxy as a coating rather than an adhesive and it is vitally important to get a good finish if I want to leave it clear and see the wood through it, rather than painting.

It was by far and away the stickiest day so far. If there were prizes for stickiness yesterday would have won the gold medal. At one point I thought my wedding ring had become permanently stuck to finger. Not a problem you understand as I don't ever plan removing it but welding it to my skin is probably a little extreme. There are better ways of showing by devotion and loyalty.

Applying the tape was trickier than I thought and it seemed to bobble up a little in places and I'm not quite sure how bad this is. Everything has cured beautifully this morning, there don't appear to be any air bubbles under the tape but there are a few sort of “bobbles”. I had tried to get these out when applying the tape but this proved impossible. I wonder if I can sand them out or will that weaken the joint – who knows? Someone hopefully! The finish on the wood is not at all bad although it will require sanding before another coat is applied. Oh joy more sanding! This also concerns me. I have a nice clear finish, although not quite as smooth and flawless as I want, so sanding it and applying another coat seems logical. However, scratching the shit out of the clear resin with sandpaper seems a little risky. Will it a) simply look like a scratchy mess when I apply the second coat or b) will the second coat cover the sanding marks and give me a clear smooth finish – answers on post card please (or in the comments box below would probably be easier).

So I shall be having a busy weekend with her this weekend and see if I can make further progress. Snow is forecast so I may well take the two halves to the nearest hill and see how they slide. Sledging racing in two halves of a canoe, what fun!

If anyone can be bothered, I have forgotten to keep a tally of my hours spent thus far (I like the word “thus” it sounds good) so feel free to add them up and let me know. First correct answer wins a Mars Bar!
Happy weekend everyone.

Day 8 A moment of truth

Tea Count 2

Injuries 0

Time Spent 3 Hours

The moment of truth has arrived. With both BHs in place I made the courageous decision to put my two halves together for the first time. Clamps to the ready and a couple of long bolts...da da dahhh (you have to sing that bit) they fit...they blooming well fit. OK, not 100% seamless flawless fit, but it's pretty damn good and a little sanding here and there and you'd have thought they were made for each other...err well they were! The next big test will of course be for water tightness, of that I am not quite so confident.

Despite my own good advice about quitting while you're ahead, I thought another couple of hours out in the cold couldn't hurt. I was wrong, it did, oh my how it hurt. Sanding, sanding and more sanding to get those fillets prepared for glass taping. My sanding was interrupted numerous times by at least six people over those couple hours. Having the canoe on the drive it seems caused something of a stir in our sleepy close as all the neighbours wanted a closer look. To all those who dropped by, I thank you from the bottom of my heart and if I kept you talking for what may have felt like an uncomfortably long time, it's not because I'm weird or I really like you, I just wanted a rest from the never ending sanding! Thank you neighbours.

So there's not much else to say about day eight. Sanding really is not that interesting. The cold eventually got the better of me. I realised things weren't quite right when the sweat forming on my brow was freezing solid where it appeared and I lost all feeling in my toes. Sweating and frostbite at the same time, hmm nice! Early finish before Sam arrives for her wedding makeup test - another victim to bore senseless with canoe antics.

Day 7 Quit while you're ahead.

Day 7

Tea Count 2

Injuries 0

Time Spent 3 Hours

Well readers, apologies for the lack of posts recently but progress has been a little slow. My social calendar has been in overdrive recently and with dinners, trips to London and house guests, canoe building has been 2nd on the agenda. I am however, happy to report that things are back on track and I am once again very sticky.

Day seven, Saturday last proved most productive and saw me complete the routing and sanding of the second bulkhead and screwed into place. I was rather hoping that it might develop the same warp as the first bulkhead but in the opposite direction so they might fit together in perfect harmony. No, that was never going to happen. This one is perfectly flat. The left side of my brain , the one in denial, says that the bulkheads will simply flatten out when the securing bolts are tightened, whilst the right side, the sensible side, is desperately trying to work out a plan for getting the warp factor out! The rounding of the edges and cutting of the slots in the bulkhead frame went without a hitch. Apparently I had learned from my mistakes when using the router on the first BH (bulkheads are hear-by known by the abbreviation BH as BH is much shorter to type than BH...)
So, perfect slots, perfect rounds and a good fit into the canoe. One major incident worthy of note however was the splitting of one of filleted seams when I pushed the BH into place. Normally this would have upset me greatly but it was far too cold to get too precious about anything. This can be repaired when it comes to taping the joints.

So feeling smug with myself for now having two halves that look like they could soon become one whole I decided to call it a day, go inside and get warm before our trip to London to see Cirque de Soleil. Experience has taught me that when a build of any kind is going well and a the day has gone without any major problems, don't push your luck, finish early before it all goes pear shaped.

Day 6 and a half - Warp factor 3

Tea Count: 0
Injuries: 0
Stickiness Factor: 5/10

Time spent: 1 hour

I just can't bring myself to count this as day seven yet. Just one hour after work and before tea tonight I got the second bulkhead framework glued together ready for sanding and routing at the weekend. You'll have noticed the new "Stickiness Factor" register above I hope. I thought it only appropriate to record this as it's fast becoming one of the major factors and difficulties of the build. That epoxy has to be the stickiest stuff known to man. Once it gets on your fingers, you're stuffed. It gets on everything you ttouccch annd itt taakess hhourss tooo geett ittt offf...LOLLL. For those who are still concerned about my pliers by the way, I'm afraid they are doomed never to pli again.

So, first the bad news. Bulkhead number one, which as you remember I screwed into place last time out, has now developed a warp. Unfortunately that does not mean that my canoe will capable of near light speed (pause while the non trekkies google warp speed). Instead it means that the bulkhead has twisted in shape slightly vastly increasing the likelihood of said canoe taking on water and sinking like a rock. Whilst the warp is only slight, and I suspected this might happen once the epoxy had cured properly, it does reduce dramatically the chances of the two bulkheads meeting sufficiently to be water tight. I'm clinging on to the slim hope that once the joining bolts are in place I can screw them together tightly enough to bring the bulkheads into line! Watch this space.

So now for the good news. With ever increasing likelihood of a sinking to watch I have decided on a launch date of March 17th for those interested enough to come along. I can hear a bunch of people complaining already as I had mentioned the 18th. Sorry folks it has to be the 17th. This is one day before my 45th birthday and sounds like a totally suitable day on which to drown. The reason for change folks is...drum roll please Pete...PARTY!!!!

So fingers crossed it'll be ready for the big launch and I'm already looking forward to a weekend of sanding...

Day 6 and a quarter – Routers not routers

Tea Count: 3
Injuries: 0
Time Spent: 2 hours yesterday, 5 today

The quarter was actually yesterday (Saturday) but as I only worked on her for a couple of hours and all I did was to build the second bulkhead it really didn't seem worth posting any updates, plus time was in very short supply yesterday. Posting any images of my progress would have been much like Reading's match with Hull yesterday...pointless! I might as well have used the images from the first bulkhead.

So as I said, time was short yesterday as I had driving duties to get four cadets up to Benson to go flying. With the weather against us we were late getting back and by time I had refuelled with toasted cheese and tuna melts, it was gone three before I got started. With dinner planned for eight fifteen with Sarah and Graham and the inevitable two hour “I've got nothing to wear” débâcles from Z, there was little time left for boat building. Worse still, I then found out that the restaurant we were actually going to was three miles further away than the one I thought we were going to. This of course meant leaving five and half minutes earlier than anticipated. Will this boat ever get finished?

Today however, you will be mightily relieved to hear was a different story. Sure, it was a late start, to follow the late night and a Sunday morning lay in was well needed, but I still managed to get in a good five hours. Bulkhead number one is now complete and screwed, (but not glued) into place! Bulkhead number two has all it's framework cut and is ready to be glued up when I can next face mixing epoxy resin. Since my last episode of epoxy mixing went badly wrong I'm eager to avoid the whole matter of epoxy mixing. Whilst mixing said epoxy I dropped my stirrer into the mix. The sensible thing to do would of course be to simply carry on a with a new mixer, after all I do have a bag full of them. But no, seemingly without any conscious thought process I went straight for the pliers to retrieve the mixing stick. It worked well, the stick was recovered, but now the pliers were proper sticky and the stick was now on the workbench together with a bunch of resin. Reaching for a cloth I instinctively new this wasn't going to end well but I couldn't stop myself. Sure enough within a few seconds I had managed smear the sticky stuff over most of the bench, all of my hands and now I had a very sticky cloth to boot and the recovered stick was now in the bin. Pointless exercise. I gave up!

I spent a little time this morning prizing the pliers off the bench but I doubt I'll ever get them unstuck enough to use them for their originally designed purpose. I'll keep them though as they do make a good emergency hammer.

My other achievement today was to use my faithful router (that's rowter not rooter for all the techno heads out there) to round off the bulkhead frame and cut the slots in the frame. This process was not without some foul language due to a router (that's rowter) bit breaking mid way though a pass, hence one rather wiggly slot. I have decided that this now adds character to the build and will remain forever wiggly. Zeen was mightily impressed with my progress today even ventured out into the cold to examine the bulkhead in place. She delicately ran her hand across the wood and exclaimed “oooh smooth” whilst smiling in my direction, scary huh! I smiled back hiding my concern slash fear and asked her to take some pictures!

I'm hoping things can move on a pace now that the bulkheads are all but complete and next week end should see me taping the inside fillets of at least one half of the boat.

Dinner last night, by the way was awesome. Great food, great company good catch up albeit that for most of the evening we were the only four in the restaurant and in keeping with the boat theme we sat overlooking the Thames!

Day 5 The Princess lives...

Day 5
Tea Count 1
Injuries 0 (very surprising given the power tools involved)
Time Spent 4 Hours

Well well well, after an enforced break of nearly two weeks I'm back on boat building duties. A particularly nasty bout of man flu lasted much longer than necessary and meant that sanding and sawing wood was not possible or advisable. Thanks go out to all my Facebook friends who were overwhelmingly sympathetic and the kindness of their MUP comments has not gone unnoticed!

So, more wood arrived last week, or more to the point I collected more wood from the timber merchants. American Ash was my chosen breed for the centre bullhead supports and who'd of thought you could measure wood in so many ways.

ME: "How long's that bit mate?"
WOOD YARD CHAPPY: "3 metres pal." We've only know each other a minute and a half and it's like we're blood brothers already!
ME: "And how wide?"
WYC: "six inches"
ME: "eh? you just said it was 3m long..."
WYC: "Well it is...and six inches wide!"
ME: "Err... ok" Now my head was spinning. Working in imperial and metric at the same time was going to challenge my estimating skills to their limit. I stared vacantly at the equivalent of my fag packet design sketch but nothing came to mind.
ME: "OK now I need to fathom out what depth I need." Now I thought it was quite clever to throw in yet another unit of measurement but no, not even a flicker of recognition of my intellectual quip! Never mind! I paid for my wood and left!

Once home all I had to do was turn my 3 metre by 6 inches by 0.0820 fathom plank of America Ash into several metres of 50mmx25mm to support my bulkheads. This meant power tool time. Table saw and cross cut saw to the ready. Now, a previous encounter with the table saw had left my garage with blood splattered ceiling and the disappearance of the end of my finger. I was keen to avoid a repeat performance and considered putting some plastic on the ceiling in anticipation, but that would surely be tempting fate. It'll be fine!

I was however going to be more responsible with regard to dust. Having given up smoking several years ago I now place greater value on my lungs and so am more particular about what goes into them. I donned my funky new breathing apparatus and safety goggles (my eyes are important too!) and looking just a little bit scary I got started.

Squaring up rough cut wood is not an easy task but with lots of careful measurements and setting of guides, I soon had a large collection firewood... and some nice square bulkhead supports. Now for the tricky bit. Each end of these supports needed to be cut at a different angle to follow the line of the bulkhead. Not easy but I was up to the task and carefully cut each piece to match the previous.

Voila, almost perfect and within ten minutes I had all the pieces glued up with epoxy and stuck onto the bulkhead. I say "all"... my cutting list got very confusing. True to form based on a lifetime of mismeasuring and bad estimating, I was three pieces short. No matter, that will give something to do next time. So the first bulkhead is sticky, soon to be set solid, next time I'll be gluing up the second and hopefully making it match the first.

That’s all for now, thanks for reading! Still only two followers:-(