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catsittingstillSo I've been making good use, so far, of my Fourth of July weekend. Most of it has been spent on boat stuff. I made patterns for thwarts, cut them out (the bandsaw does a much nicer job of that than the jigsaw used to), shaped them (used the router--I am getting a little better at controling it, I think, but will still be picking shavings out of the light fixtures for a week) sanded them with progressively finer grits all the way to 220 grit (wiped them down with water just before the final sanding--boy, I picked out some pretty cherry).
Now I hadn't meant to cut things as fine as I did with the bandsaw, but it turned out that when I rough cut the ends I happened to get them just the right length and almost exactly the right shape for the spots where my calculations said they should go (Note to self; next time leave a bit more room!). And I was in the middle of congratulating myself when I remembered what happened with Constance. One of these days I'm going to fix Constance by moving her seat and back thwart about three inches farther back (maybe even before my Dad and brother visit), but it's a pain in the hind end.
So I elected to do a water test onConstance. [later edit]--I meant Moxie; thanks to Keris for the catch! [/later edit] My last faked up, wingnut clamped thward didn't work all that well (source of the trouble with Constance, in fact) so I came up with another way to do it: I sawed out little plywood "collars" for both ends of each thwart (the hard part was angling the cutout to accept the fact that the thwarts meet the gunwales at a slight angle, not perpendicularly) and then c-clamped the collars to the gunwales to hold the ends of the thwarts in place but allow slight adjustments. Then I played my Invoke Spouse card, which I try to save for special occasions so I'll have one when I really need it, but loading a canoe with four c-clamps on the gunwales on the car without hurting either canoe or car is the sort of thing for which one really needs two people.
So I Invoked Spouse and Kip and I took Moxie gently off to the put in and floated her. I had Kip get in, so I could look at the canoe and see if she floated level.
And I knew you'd want pictures, ...so...
What do you think?
She looks ever so slightly tail heavy to me, which I'm okay with, as it is easy to push one's gear forward in the boat, and harder to shove it farther behind you. Plus owing to not measuring my layout carefully (hey, I got all the mortises and tenons lined up; what do you want?) I have a seat that is 13 x 12 3/4 inches instead of 15 x 12. So I'm putting the front edge 3/4 inch forward of where it should go, so the back edge will be where it ought to be. So scootching 3/4 inch will be easy (and you could put a bit of padding on the backrest, which I probably will do anyway, though I slanted the edge of it to match the slant of one's back, and even with only that few minutes in the boat I think that makes it more comfortable too
The front thwart, which I had intended to use as a footrest, was about four inches too far away for that to work. Oops. And I won't be moving it forward without another trip to Jeffries for more cherry--and frankly, I don't feel that strongly about the whole footrest thing. I just feel kind of stupid about measuring so wrong--I think I measured the belly-button to footrest distance while sitting in a chair that leaned me back more, so the natural extension of my legs was greater. But anyway.
I hadn't intended to get in her myself. But I just couldn't resist and took her for a very quick spin (like not even to those trees in the picture). I haven't compared her to Constance directly, obviously, and I was only out for a minute or two, but she seems fast, seems to track well, and seems easier to turn than Constance, probably because of the increased rocker in the bow.
Also Kip mentioned that she felt flimsy--in particular that resting his weight on his hands on the gunwales getting in and out, he could feel the boat flexing. This is because the collars simply hold the ends of the thwarts level with the gunwales but don't actually secure them, so the gunwales can flex away from the thwarts. Once the thwarts are actually screwed in, I think this problem will disappear.
I think this is going to be a great boat! I can't wait to get her done!
Now I want to work on her, but I had to open both big doors on the woodshop, twice, once to get her in and once to get her out. So it's 85 degrees in there (and more than 90 degrees outside) and I think I better wait until I have recovered a bit of my oomph. I had two big glasses of limeade and I'm thirsty again.
And in other news, I was very pleased to hear that Peter's and my collaboration, Wise Hands (a song about ship building, I would point out), won the Contata Song Contest, despite Ozymandias's trying to steal the stage during Peter's performance. I am sorry I could not be there to hear Peter perform it, but congratulations to him, and I shall sit and gloat a little over this success, on such a boat-y day.
Now I hadn't meant to cut things as fine as I did with the bandsaw, but it turned out that when I rough cut the ends I happened to get them just the right length and almost exactly the right shape for the spots where my calculations said they should go (Note to self; next time leave a bit more room!). And I was in the middle of congratulating myself when I remembered what happened with Constance. One of these days I'm going to fix Constance by moving her seat and back thwart about three inches farther back (maybe even before my Dad and brother visit), but it's a pain in the hind end.
So I elected to do a water test on
So I Invoked Spouse and Kip and I took Moxie gently off to the put in and floated her. I had Kip get in, so I could look at the canoe and see if she floated level.
And I knew you'd want pictures, ...so...
What do you think?
She looks ever so slightly tail heavy to me, which I'm okay with, as it is easy to push one's gear forward in the boat, and harder to shove it farther behind you. Plus owing to not measuring my layout carefully (hey, I got all the mortises and tenons lined up; what do you want?) I have a seat that is 13 x 12 3/4 inches instead of 15 x 12. So I'm putting the front edge 3/4 inch forward of where it should go, so the back edge will be where it ought to be. So scootching 3/4 inch will be easy (and you could put a bit of padding on the backrest, which I probably will do anyway, though I slanted the edge of it to match the slant of one's back, and even with only that few minutes in the boat I think that makes it more comfortable too
The front thwart, which I had intended to use as a footrest, was about four inches too far away for that to work. Oops. And I won't be moving it forward without another trip to Jeffries for more cherry--and frankly, I don't feel that strongly about the whole footrest thing. I just feel kind of stupid about measuring so wrong--I think I measured the belly-button to footrest distance while sitting in a chair that leaned me back more, so the natural extension of my legs was greater. But anyway.
I hadn't intended to get in her myself. But I just couldn't resist and took her for a very quick spin (like not even to those trees in the picture). I haven't compared her to Constance directly, obviously, and I was only out for a minute or two, but she seems fast, seems to track well, and seems easier to turn than Constance, probably because of the increased rocker in the bow.
Also Kip mentioned that she felt flimsy--in particular that resting his weight on his hands on the gunwales getting in and out, he could feel the boat flexing. This is because the collars simply hold the ends of the thwarts level with the gunwales but don't actually secure them, so the gunwales can flex away from the thwarts. Once the thwarts are actually screwed in, I think this problem will disappear.
I think this is going to be a great boat! I can't wait to get her done!
Now I want to work on her, but I had to open both big doors on the woodshop, twice, once to get her in and once to get her out. So it's 85 degrees in there (and more than 90 degrees outside) and I think I better wait until I have recovered a bit of my oomph. I had two big glasses of limeade and I'm thirsty again.
And in other news, I was very pleased to hear that Peter's and my collaboration, Wise Hands (a song about ship building, I would point out), won the Contata Song Contest, despite Ozymandias's trying to steal the stage during Peter's performance. I am sorry I could not be there to hear Peter perform it, but congratulations to him, and I shall sit and gloat a little over this success, on such a boat-y day.
no subject
Date: 2011-07-04 06:29 am (UTC)Pretty pretty! Yes, possibly a little tail-down, but not that I'd notice if I weren't looking for it. How much will that be influenced by the weight of the person? And weight distribution, longer/shorter legs etc.?
Congratulations on the song as well...
Oh, and while I'm here, happy the day!
no subject
Date: 2011-07-04 02:45 pm (UTC)Yes, she is pretty, isn't she. You are a man of discerning taste :-) as I may have had occasion to mention.
A person's center of gravity is roughly at their belly button, depending a bit on the person, and the position. It shouldn't move too much with longer legs and so on (I think; at least none of the bits about seat location make any mention of that--they say "put the front edge of the seat at the center of the boat" or the more sophisticated ones say "at the center of buoyancy" which is not necessarily the center of the boat.
Thanks for your kind wishes about the song; I'm very pleased with how the lyrics came out and Peter did a great job on the melody (and the performance, I am sure.)
And thanks for wishing me a Happy Independence Day--may your day, though not a holiday, also be happy!