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catsittingstillWhen I was building my canoe three years ago, a shop teacher named Martin Walker was an enormous help to me. He has built a minimum of two canoes a year (and sometimes three or four) with his shop class for, I guess two decades or so. So he's seen pretty much everything that can go wrong and knows how to deal with it. "It's wood--you can fix it!" is a comforting thing to hear when you are worried that something has gone wrong.
Anyway, one of the things he did to help me was let me show up and help out in the shop when his class fiberglassed their canoe, so I could have done it once with company before I fiberglassed my precious canoe all by myself. And the next week he let me come back and help fiberglass the inside.
So when Launch Day for the class came around, he invited me along, and I chased canoes full of kids all over the lake. He invited me again this year, though my major contribution had been to sand a little when I dropped by with the stations for my first canoe so he can build an Osprey sometime if he likes.
It was a glorious day. He brought one of his old canoes, and his wife came, and brought their grandson (about three, but has his own paddle and darn well wants to stick it in the water) and Henry, who had been working on a wooden boat (small-ish motor boat) in the shop brought his boat, and there was the boat the kids had finished, and my boat, and we had a bevy of beautiful boats tied up at the dock.
Martin and the kids had to leave about 1:00pm, but I figured I might as well stay a little longer. I paddled up and down the convoluted shores of Tellico Lake, passed the recreation of Fort Loudon (which apparently only lasted four years), found a couple arms of the lake with pretty fierce headwinds, admired my beautiful boat as it gleamed in the sun, and enjoyed the rich blue of the sky and the vivid greens of the trees.
Eventually I went in, to find that Fort Loudon had a constumed re-enactor/interpreter: I talked to him for a while (which is how I know Ft Loudon only lasted four years). He offered to tell me all about medicine in that era. I was suitably appalled. He suggested another good place to go canoeing (full of stumps so the big boats and the fast boats stay out.) Eventually it was time for him to pack up and go home; the park rangers only work till 4:30 (though considering what time they start this is a full work day.) Deprived of further entertainment I loaded the canoe on the car all by myself; there was a certain amount of panting and grunting involved, but it felt more fully under control than when I've done it before; this spring's weight training has been working, I think. Though I need more shrugs and front raises; my shoulders and upper arms were still pretty tired..
Today I got the hardware I needed to finish the clamp-in yoke and clamped it in and figured out how to get the canoe on my shoulders myself (it turns out the secret is to turn it upside down on the ground, then pick up the stern over my head and "walk" my hands up the gunwales while balancing the canoe on its nose, until I can lower the yoke onto my shoulders. I marched up and down the lawn (once, for proof of concept) with the canoe on my head, then took it off by reversing the process. I think I'm going to bring a closed-cell foam pad for the nose of the canoe--it's not in any danger of getting dinged on the nice, soft lawn, but some of the landings in Quetico are not going to be so nice and soft.
Then I put the canoe on the canoe-lifter and took out the thwarts and seat so I could start sanding. The varnish has worn off on some parts of the gunwales, and the ash wood underneath is weathering grey, so I sanded the grey off those spots. Also some parts of the hull have been scratched--a rock hiding just under the surface of the water in Cherokee lake, a crab trap some careless soul discarded on the Barrier Islands, the times I've had to set it down on gravel because it was too far from the water to the grass. So I got 400 grit sandpaper and wet sanded those.
I also wet down the yoke to raise the grain, and then sanded it down with 400 grit. I think I'll be ready to start varnishing tomorrow. I need to finish the outside of the gunwales (half a gunwale to go) and sand the insides of the gunwales, and then I'll be ready to varnish the gunwales. I probably won't get to varnishing the hull until the gunwales are done.
Plus there's one spot on the hull where there's a teeny little delamination of the fiberglass from the wood. I probably ought to sand that all the way down and put on a fiberglass patch. I am not particularly anxious to do that--not that I think it's something I can't do, but it's on a tricky spot, and it's not very big... and I'm going to Quetico in August, and maybe I should wait till I come back... but golly, wouldn't it be a pain if it got worse in Quetico, or caused some kind of problem when we're fifty miles from anywhere.
(Though realistically we're not running white water or anything; I'm having trouble picturing it causing a problem duct tape can't solve for long enough to get home.)
.
So that's what's up with me.
Anyway, one of the things he did to help me was let me show up and help out in the shop when his class fiberglassed their canoe, so I could have done it once with company before I fiberglassed my precious canoe all by myself. And the next week he let me come back and help fiberglass the inside.
So when Launch Day for the class came around, he invited me along, and I chased canoes full of kids all over the lake. He invited me again this year, though my major contribution had been to sand a little when I dropped by with the stations for my first canoe so he can build an Osprey sometime if he likes.
It was a glorious day. He brought one of his old canoes, and his wife came, and brought their grandson (about three, but has his own paddle and darn well wants to stick it in the water) and Henry, who had been working on a wooden boat (small-ish motor boat) in the shop brought his boat, and there was the boat the kids had finished, and my boat, and we had a bevy of beautiful boats tied up at the dock.
Martin and the kids had to leave about 1:00pm, but I figured I might as well stay a little longer. I paddled up and down the convoluted shores of Tellico Lake, passed the recreation of Fort Loudon (which apparently only lasted four years), found a couple arms of the lake with pretty fierce headwinds, admired my beautiful boat as it gleamed in the sun, and enjoyed the rich blue of the sky and the vivid greens of the trees.
Eventually I went in, to find that Fort Loudon had a constumed re-enactor/interpreter: I talked to him for a while (which is how I know Ft Loudon only lasted four years). He offered to tell me all about medicine in that era. I was suitably appalled. He suggested another good place to go canoeing (full of stumps so the big boats and the fast boats stay out.) Eventually it was time for him to pack up and go home; the park rangers only work till 4:30 (though considering what time they start this is a full work day.) Deprived of further entertainment I loaded the canoe on the car all by myself; there was a certain amount of panting and grunting involved, but it felt more fully under control than when I've done it before; this spring's weight training has been working, I think. Though I need more shrugs and front raises; my shoulders and upper arms were still pretty tired..
Today I got the hardware I needed to finish the clamp-in yoke and clamped it in and figured out how to get the canoe on my shoulders myself (it turns out the secret is to turn it upside down on the ground, then pick up the stern over my head and "walk" my hands up the gunwales while balancing the canoe on its nose, until I can lower the yoke onto my shoulders. I marched up and down the lawn (once, for proof of concept) with the canoe on my head, then took it off by reversing the process. I think I'm going to bring a closed-cell foam pad for the nose of the canoe--it's not in any danger of getting dinged on the nice, soft lawn, but some of the landings in Quetico are not going to be so nice and soft.
Then I put the canoe on the canoe-lifter and took out the thwarts and seat so I could start sanding. The varnish has worn off on some parts of the gunwales, and the ash wood underneath is weathering grey, so I sanded the grey off those spots. Also some parts of the hull have been scratched--a rock hiding just under the surface of the water in Cherokee lake, a crab trap some careless soul discarded on the Barrier Islands, the times I've had to set it down on gravel because it was too far from the water to the grass. So I got 400 grit sandpaper and wet sanded those.
I also wet down the yoke to raise the grain, and then sanded it down with 400 grit. I think I'll be ready to start varnishing tomorrow. I need to finish the outside of the gunwales (half a gunwale to go) and sand the insides of the gunwales, and then I'll be ready to varnish the gunwales. I probably won't get to varnishing the hull until the gunwales are done.
Plus there's one spot on the hull where there's a teeny little delamination of the fiberglass from the wood. I probably ought to sand that all the way down and put on a fiberglass patch. I am not particularly anxious to do that--not that I think it's something I can't do, but it's on a tricky spot, and it's not very big... and I'm going to Quetico in August, and maybe I should wait till I come back... but golly, wouldn't it be a pain if it got worse in Quetico, or caused some kind of problem when we're fifty miles from anywhere.
(Though realistically we're not running white water or anything; I'm having trouble picturing it causing a problem duct tape can't solve for long enough to get home.)
.
So that's what's up with me.
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Date: 2009-05-21 02:24 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-05-21 09:02 pm (UTC)Portage Tip
Date: 2009-05-21 07:28 pm (UTC)Re: Portage Tip
Date: 2009-05-21 09:02 pm (UTC)Thanks for the tip!