Look What We Did to Our Nice Canoes

Boys Trip 2006 035
Originally uploaded by OzzyC.

Per our tradition, we took our boys trip over Memorial Day weekend. For several years we have been travelling staying in Nicolette Forest in northease Wisconsin, for a few days of whitewater kayaking. This year, we decided to get back to our roots and do some canoeing. Greg and I took things a step further, and rigged up the Nice Canoes we built a couple of years ago as a makeshift catamaran. Greg, being engineer-boy, calculated the dimensions, measured the sail, and determined where to put the various parts. It worked surprisingly well -- for one day. The boat was structurally sound, but anything that directly related to the sailing aspect was woefully under-engineered. Stay tuned for the complete story... its quite a ride.

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Heres a Pic of what We Cut from the Bottom

More Shavings
Originally uploaded by OzzyC.

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Sanding and Fairing and Building the Edges

Greg and I havent forgotten about you, this blog, or our project. Its just that we havent recently hit any milestones worth blogging about. As I mentioned in some of my recent postings, the part were on now is very long and tedious... not much worthy of a blog entry. Despite my lack of posting though, we have made significant progress, and its very close to the rate that I expected. This is largely due to Gregs work.

My family and I went to California for vacation recently, which prevented me from assisting Greg for two weeks straight. In all honesty, I suspected that very little would be done during my absence. (This is partially because much of what weve done to date is highly expedited by having two people working, and partially because I realize that I help keep Greg motivated.) But when I got back home, I was pleasantly surprised to find that Greg had made significant progress during my absence. While I was gone, Greg enlisted the assistance of our mutual friend Dan. Dan, thanks for your help while I was gone. I appreciate it, and I know Greg appreciates it.

As you can see in the first photo, Greg and Dan made great progress in filling the bottom of the boat. Its very close to being finished.

Greg also made a lot of progress in rebuilding the hard edges of the boat. Remember, this boat is designed to have a planing hull, so a perfectly flat bottom and very hard chines are essential in order to have this boat perform as expected at planing speeds.

In the picture to the right, you will see how we made the chines with relatively little work. Greg screwed thick sheets of plastic to the hull, as shown in this picture. This gave us (when I say "us," Im including Dan, because he was part of this particular process; he also provided us with the plastic.) a fairly straight, and very sturdy platform with which to work. We wedged epoxy thickened with wood flour and fiberglass particles into the space between the plasic, going slightly higher than the bottom of the hull. This way, we were sanding down, instead of requiring a second fill coat.

In this picture, you will notice the applied thickened epoxy. After the epoxy dries, we remove the sheets of plastic, and voila, a sturdy chine, ready for sanding.









This shot will give you a basic picture of what the chines look like after the epoxy sets and the plastic is removed. What youre looking at is the starboard side. You will notice that the chines are not built up throughout the whole starboard side. This is because of the limited plastic available. It will require a second session to finish the side. You will also notice that we (again, "we" includes Dan) have been sanding and fairing along the entire bottom of the hull.

This final picture is taken from the bow, starboard corner. You will notice that Greg has also filled the front transom area, and the front bottom area, to compensate for the three-to-six layers of fiberglass. You will also notice the fair amount of fairing done on the bottom, and the hard chine. Like Ive said, its not that we havent been working, and its not that weve forgotten about you. Its mainly that were at a relatively tedious section of the project, and theres not a lot to report. After all, how many times can I say "Yep, were still sanding" and keep you all interested?

Until next time...

Oh yeah, you may have noticed that the boat has several different colors of filler. This is because Greg is utilizing a combination of whats cheapest and what works best for sanding and fairing in a given area of the boat.

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Engineering Problems A Plenty

Boys Trip 2006 066
Originally uploaded by OzzyC.

As I mentioned yesterday, our first trip was completely uneventful. This is mainly because there was just enough wind to get us from the landing to our campsite, so we cruised to the island, set up camp, ate, and hoped for more wind the following day. Our wish was fulfilled.

After a hearty breakfast of beer and eggs, Greg and I were anxious to continue our experiment and to test our skill as sailors. We did a quick sail in the water immediately next to our camp site, and were soon satisfied that our boat and our skills were solid enough to venture further into the open water.

Being novice sailors, it took us a little bit of time and experimentation to learn the ropes, but we took great pleasure in the new experience... until we heart that first **CRACK**. I dont remember whether it was caused by shallow water, or by actual stress, but our leeboard mount broke. As this picture shows, the leeboard itself held up to the stress, but the frame wasnt quite as strong, flexible, or whatever.

Despite our hobbled watercraft, we were able to limp back to our campsite, which was upwind from us when the malfunction occurred, and fortunately Greg brought plenty of material for repairs. He pulled the leeboard mount and had soon fashioned a repair of glue and screws. On the downside, we had to wait for the glue to cure, so our sailing was finished for the day.

Stay tuned for our continued misadventures.

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How We Did It

Boys Trip 2006 055
Originally uploaded by OzzyC.

Our construction process was precise yet simple. Engineer-boy took the measurements and did the conversion mainly with things he already had laying around his garage... plywood, 2x4s, wooden dowels, ratchet straps, hose clamps, lag bolts and so forth. About the only parts he needed to buy were the flagpole that we used for the mast, and the tarp that he cut to the shape of a sail.

When we got to the reservoir, we spent the first two hours or so assembling the catamaran. By the time we finished the construction, got to camp, set up the tent and ate, it was time to go to bed. Additionally, the maiden voyage from the landing to the island occurred on a day with almost no wind. We were able to make our way to the island, but it was slow going. Our real test would have to wait for another day.

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Fiberglass Filler

Patched Hull
Originally uploaded by OzzyC.

Heres a picture of the fiberglass-filled patch. You see that Greg used epoxy filled with fiberglass particles, which he used to fill the areas he cut out, and blended in with the glass cloth. The strength is solid, and it will undoubtedly work better than the original plan of injecting epoxy into small holes. Its a little more work, but we both agree that its worth it.

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We Re Interrupt this Program

Shower Repair 8
Originally uploaded by OzzyC.

For an update on my shower repair. You may notice that my last update on this was in Mid-December. Since then I have had precious little time to work on the shower, and when I did work on it, the progress was slower for various reasons...

The patch job still isnt re-grouted and re-sealed, but thatll come in the next couple of days. And of course, its not perfect, but its designed to be a semi-permanent patch job, not a total reworking.

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Epi blogue

Boys Trip 2006 041
Originally uploaded by OzzyC.

Though this experiment met with one mishap after another, its one that I wouldnt have missed for the world. Despite the fact that we spent two hours repairing our craft for every hour of sailing (or some semblence thereof) -- kind of like owning an Italian sportscar -- its something Id do again. This trip was a blast... or should I say "gust?"

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I Havent Forgotten About You or the Boat

We didnt do any boat work this weekend. Greg was out of town. Were probably not doing any boat work next week because its gonna be my bachelor party. We wont be doing any boat work the weekend after becaust Im getting married that weekend, and its Greg and his daughters birthdays. Are you seeing a trend here? I miss working on the boat.

But last weekend, we joined the bottom hull pieces together with thickened epoxy. Not much progress, but every little bit counts.

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