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I faked up a back thwart and a foot thwart the day before yesterday. (Even a piddly old 10 inch sears bandsaw bought second hand is still pretty darn cool.) I used a piece of 2 x 4 to have enough extra height to have a lip hanging over the gunwale (and besides 2 x 4 is cheap) because I didn't want to waste hardwood until I knew exactly where I want the thwart to be. I need to be able to lean back against the back thwart without having it skitter away when I'm testing out proper positions, so I added a wooden lever to pinch the gunwale from below against the lip above. The wooden lever is worked by a carriage bolt with a wingnut. I needed the lever to slide in and out, because the distance between the gunwales changes as I move the back thwart back and forth to find the right position, so instead of a hole in the fake thwart, I made a slot so the carriage bolt could slide away from, and toward, the end of the thwart when the wingnut is loosened.
It's rather a clever idea, actually; I may use it for the clamp-in yoke I will make for this boat. The nice thing about it is it doesn't require taking anything all the way loose to clamp and unclamp,, so I'm less likely to lose an important piece of hardware forty river miles from the nearest hardware store. If it works out I will probably redesign Patience's yoke.
I spent most of the day today faking up a seat. I needed something that would sit stably in the bottom of the boat but that I could shift backward and forward to find the correct position. I ended up taking the mold for the middle of the boat, and the mold for a foot back, and tracing the last 3 1/2 inches (the bottom of the boat) onto a two by four. I cut it out with the bandsaw, sanded it back to the lines with the shopsmith, and cut notches in the ends to take 1 1/2 by 3/4 inch slats. I've epoxied the slats in place to give me a sort of wooden box, with two sides that exactly match the bottom of the boat. I'll wrap duct tape over the top of it (it worked in Quetico) and have a quick light movable seat. A pad of that nonskid kitchen stuff between it and the bottom of the boat, should keep it from skidding around.
So tomorrow I expect to put it in the water for a few minutes to position the seat, back thwart and foot thwart. Then when I know where the middles of the thwarts need to be, I'll be able to design curves that put the ends of the thwarts at parts of the gunwales that have spacers. Seeing as my original spacer design didn't work out so well.
I'm also going to have to custom make a seat, I can tell. I want the seat so low with respect to the gunwale that it's going to end up a bit narrower than usual.
It's rather a clever idea, actually; I may use it for the clamp-in yoke I will make for this boat. The nice thing about it is it doesn't require taking anything all the way loose to clamp and unclamp,, so I'm less likely to lose an important piece of hardware forty river miles from the nearest hardware store. If it works out I will probably redesign Patience's yoke.
I spent most of the day today faking up a seat. I needed something that would sit stably in the bottom of the boat but that I could shift backward and forward to find the correct position. I ended up taking the mold for the middle of the boat, and the mold for a foot back, and tracing the last 3 1/2 inches (the bottom of the boat) onto a two by four. I cut it out with the bandsaw, sanded it back to the lines with the shopsmith, and cut notches in the ends to take 1 1/2 by 3/4 inch slats. I've epoxied the slats in place to give me a sort of wooden box, with two sides that exactly match the bottom of the boat. I'll wrap duct tape over the top of it (it worked in Quetico) and have a quick light movable seat. A pad of that nonskid kitchen stuff between it and the bottom of the boat, should keep it from skidding around.
So tomorrow I expect to put it in the water for a few minutes to position the seat, back thwart and foot thwart. Then when I know where the middles of the thwarts need to be, I'll be able to design curves that put the ends of the thwarts at parts of the gunwales that have spacers. Seeing as my original spacer design didn't work out so well.
I'm also going to have to custom make a seat, I can tell. I want the seat so low with respect to the gunwale that it's going to end up a bit narrower than usual.
