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The bonus canoe is no bonus today.
Oct. 17th, 2010 09:11 pmI had a couple of not-very-productive days around the Candidates' Forum, which isn't really a big surprise.
Today I got a late start but actually sat down and wrote out a list of what had to happen before what and with how long a wait in between (for instance I want to seal the gunwales with epoxy to close the grain so when I have to refinish them the dust won't end up in the grain and be impossible to sand out and make the wood look funny but you have to wait until epoxy FULLY cures before varnishing which in my case means a week.) And discovered that it will be two weeks before I can finish the canoe if everything goes well. Which is a bit of a disappointment because I was hoping to be done sooner than that, but there it is.
I sanded the burn marks out of the gunwales, and sanded the gunwales with 120 grit sand paper, preparatory to sealing them with epoxy.
But then I was fiddling around with turning the canoe over so I could finally get a good look at the underside of the decks (which I also want to seal with epoxy.) And during the adjustments phase I slipped, and one side of the canoe slithered down the outside of the cradles. it didn't hit the floor--couldn't really, since the upright of the cradle was *inside* the upside down canoe--but there was a curious cracking noise, where I expected more of a booming. So I turned it back right-side-up and investigated.
A part of the inwale between two spacers had struck the plywood reinforcement on the outside of the cradle. (I can tell by the shape of the dent, and a corresponding dent on the edge of the plywood.) The spacers on both sides of the dent have cracked diagonally part way through, and the crack runs into, but not through, the inwale behind the stern spacer.
I think--I hope--I can mend it on the boat by injecting epoxy into the cracks and clamping the spacers to the hull and using a couple of teeny spring clamps on the cracked part of the inwale. At least, when I dry fit clamps there, the cracks close up.
If I can't mend it on the boat I doubt I will launch before spring, as I will have to completely remove the inwale, which will destroy it, since it's glued on, and make a new one--which means making new decks too, as *they* are glued in between the inwales. It may be hard enough to make an inwale to match the one on the other side that I have to remove *both* inwales and make a pair of new ones. It will just be an enormous pain in the butt.
I am kind of bummed. Not as bummed as I would have been if this had happened with Patience, but bummed.
Plus even if it is fixable, it suggests this boat may be too delicate for Quetico. Although in normal use I would expect any blow to the hull to hit the outwale, which is much thicker, or the inwale and outwale together, so they could support each other. I bring some epoxy on these sorts of trips, but not syringes and needles and clamps and so on.
Anyway, I can't try mending it until tomorrow when the feed store opens.
And even if I can mend it on the boat, this sets back launching by another day.
Today I got a late start but actually sat down and wrote out a list of what had to happen before what and with how long a wait in between (for instance I want to seal the gunwales with epoxy to close the grain so when I have to refinish them the dust won't end up in the grain and be impossible to sand out and make the wood look funny but you have to wait until epoxy FULLY cures before varnishing which in my case means a week.) And discovered that it will be two weeks before I can finish the canoe if everything goes well. Which is a bit of a disappointment because I was hoping to be done sooner than that, but there it is.
I sanded the burn marks out of the gunwales, and sanded the gunwales with 120 grit sand paper, preparatory to sealing them with epoxy.
But then I was fiddling around with turning the canoe over so I could finally get a good look at the underside of the decks (which I also want to seal with epoxy.) And during the adjustments phase I slipped, and one side of the canoe slithered down the outside of the cradles. it didn't hit the floor--couldn't really, since the upright of the cradle was *inside* the upside down canoe--but there was a curious cracking noise, where I expected more of a booming. So I turned it back right-side-up and investigated.
A part of the inwale between two spacers had struck the plywood reinforcement on the outside of the cradle. (I can tell by the shape of the dent, and a corresponding dent on the edge of the plywood.) The spacers on both sides of the dent have cracked diagonally part way through, and the crack runs into, but not through, the inwale behind the stern spacer.
I think--I hope--I can mend it on the boat by injecting epoxy into the cracks and clamping the spacers to the hull and using a couple of teeny spring clamps on the cracked part of the inwale. At least, when I dry fit clamps there, the cracks close up.
If I can't mend it on the boat I doubt I will launch before spring, as I will have to completely remove the inwale, which will destroy it, since it's glued on, and make a new one--which means making new decks too, as *they* are glued in between the inwales. It may be hard enough to make an inwale to match the one on the other side that I have to remove *both* inwales and make a pair of new ones. It will just be an enormous pain in the butt.
I am kind of bummed. Not as bummed as I would have been if this had happened with Patience, but bummed.
Plus even if it is fixable, it suggests this boat may be too delicate for Quetico. Although in normal use I would expect any blow to the hull to hit the outwale, which is much thicker, or the inwale and outwale together, so they could support each other. I bring some epoxy on these sorts of trips, but not syringes and needles and clamps and so on.
Anyway, I can't try mending it until tomorrow when the feed store opens.
And even if I can mend it on the boat, this sets back launching by another day.
