Wednesday 24 May 2017

Solid Air - The Canoe Build


When did you first paddle a canoe? It's a wet May day outside; the smell of the rain reminds me of waking in a tent with a day on the river in prospect - as fresh a memory as a teenager and twenty-something as it is being a sub four foot kid in a eurocamp with my family. There's always been three consistencies - food, friends, and the peace of the river. In our teens, my friend, Josh, let us use one of his dad's old boats (one plywood craft that he'd made in his younger days, and one gorgeous ribbed Canadian that he'd bought second hand and refurbished). Another friend, Andy, had an Old Town and a couple of dagger kayaks that would sometimes complete our crew for trips near home.

Years pass, cars take precedence; trips that were once long enough to fill a week are curtailed early to drive a thousand miles to Amsterdam. I got in boats less frequently but my love and fascination for rivers never abated. It's always been rivers and trees over beaches or anything else.

Ray Mears I am not (maybe one day, when I grow up), but I wanted to try and make a canoe. I looked for plywood kits like the one that Josh's Dad must've used years ago, and found Stanley Small Craft. I bought their 10 footer - perfect for one full sized human or a couple of smaller ones. It arrives, flat packed and wrapped up, just as below. 


The instructions the Stanley guys provide are very thorough with good pictures - there's nothing terribly complicated, it is a matter of remaining patient and working methodically. John Martyn helped me along with this, and his first album ended up becoming the name for my canoe - Solid Air. Listen.

Butt Joint the Lengths
Lay flat, pre coat the areas to be jointed with epoxy resin, apply wet, webbing tape, cover with plastic sheeting, weigh down.



Stitching
Lay your panels in rough order, drill a little way in from the mating edge and slowly pull the sides up using cable tie stitches. I think you'd describe this as a hard chine hull, referring to the sharp angles created by the flat ply at the joints. I worked on the sides first, loosely stitching each end while I got my chines symmetrical.

Stick the gaffa tape on and call it a day?

Finalising the Shape
Once the sides are up you can concentrate on the bow and stern. The yoke goes in next, after which I think I had to shuffle some of my stitches to get everything even again. Great fun seeing it take shape around this stage. 




First Fillets
Epoxy resin goes neat on the bare surfaces around the joints, before adding silica and fluffy sawdust to create a filler to slide into the gaps on the outside. I did a low profile first fillet on the inside joints, and then removed the stitches. 




Sanding
All holes filled, fillets built up and outside joints profiled. Then the first of many sanding sessions - this one quite mild in preparation for the taping. I used abranet (80/180) on a flat velcro block.


Taping the Joints
Laying the wet tape flat and without creases was easier than expected, even on the bow and stern, but you still end up with a small ridge at the sides of the webbing. Below is the first fill using the original epoxy filler mix, maintaining a high resin content for strength. I bulked out the fillets on the bow and stern as much as possible at this point too.



Bulkheads and Decks
Once all my taped joints were well covered I prepared the bulkheads and decks. I had to cut the deck lengths down quite a bit to fit as the shape I'd defined got broader toward the yoke than the boards did. The boat is stiff in the right places but I probably wouldn't go any shorter.




I fitted the bulkheads and sanded the excess epoxy all over prior to positioning the decks.


Then filleted the underside and top, building up the filler at the apex.


Shaping the Deck Head (if it had a figurehead, it might be called the 'Prow')
I'm sure what I've done could be achieved with a delicate touch on the epoxy and a lot less sanding, but at this point I got the abranet out again to smooth and contour.



Surface Finishing and Final Seal
Next up, to get a smooth finish on the external joints I ran two coats of a much finer epoxy wood filler using 180 grit in between. The final task before paint was another seal with pure resin.



Paint
I debated over paint - both type and application - for ages. I am liable to overthink. The choice made was for 2K - a two pack epoxy based paint which is commonplace for car manufacturers - something used everyday in the body shop next door. I went for 2K in a can which has a separate reservoir at one end from which you pull a release pin to mix the activator with the paint. It was expensive at ~£15 per can but went on great, has dried rock hard, plus mixing it reminded me of Dennis Nedry's covert shaving can in Jurassic Park. Colour is Raven - 18B29 from British Std colour chart 5252.




First ride out on the Leicester Line of the Grand Union Canal, leaving the truck and floating off from North Kilworth boat yard. I went down as far as Welford locks before the marina and then back up to the entrance to Husbands Bosworth tunnel.




Gunwhales 
First attempt at bending my gunwhales below. I've never steamed before so thought I'd see how far you can get just stretching while damp - not far enough. I purchased some polytubing from ebay to slide my gunnels into, and then fed them with a wallpaper steamer for about ten minutes, when everything is hot and flexible. I didn't have enough clamps to keep everything tight while bending up and in from midships, so I have a second steaming session to complete. D4 woodglue on it's own? Button head rivets to secure? I'll add photos when they're done.