14' Strip plank canoe update 2

With the Solo dinghy restoration complete and other off-site jobs done I've added some decks, bulkheads and seats to the canoe. The seats have laminated ash supports and are scalloped in the middle for comfort.

 The bulkheads are 5mm elite ply with cedar strip on one face. They have one skin of cloth and epoxy over them and are bonded in with an epoxy fillet.

 The decks are ash and cedar. The combings on the decks are laminated 4mm strips of ash bonded in with thickened epoxy and shaped up with a curved sole spoke shave.

Next up is a lot of sanding and finishing. To get the best results I obviously need a dust free environment which may prove to be most easily obtained by moving the canoe somewhere else for varnishing.

Ash strips clamped up on formers to make the seat frames

Solo dinghy restoration final update

The GRP solo dinghy refurb' is finally finished!

1980's solo dinghy after having all the visible woodwork replaced.

The hull was sanded through the grades and polished up nicely.

So that's what the back looks like!

The owner of the Solo dinghy I have been working on collected his boat today. It was a great feeling to finally get the dinghy out in the daylight and see it properly. In the end I re-bonded all the deck beams, renewed the deck ply, replaced the gunwales, re-made the centreboard case capping, the thwart had a new layer of ply, the bead around the inside of the cockpit and the trim across the transom, inside and out. The workspace available meant I spent a lot of time squeezing past uncured epoxy and fresh varnish for hours on end. I had to work on the transom using a head torch as there was only 150mm between it and the back wall of the workshop!

 The Elite okume ply turned a golden colour once epoxied and varnished and we were both very pleased with the end result. I used West resin with the 207 special coatings hardener. It is clearer and less orange/yellow than the regular stuff. It's also less susceptable to going cloudy if the conditions aren't ideal. It's been a fun project but it took me far longer than I had predicted so now it's time to finish off the canoe as soon as possible.

It's a nice feeling to give something a new lease of life

Teak pads and lifeboat holder

A local rigging company contacted me about making some teak bits and bobs for a yacht on the marina. They needed 3 winch base pads and 2 blocks to strap the lifeboat down onto the deck with. 2 of the winch pads were over 300mm diameter and 45mm thick on one side and 15mm on the opposite side. The winches are mounted on the cockpit moulding and bolted through alloy plates in the moulding. They had to be tilted to get the best angle of pull. The cost of teak in thick planks like this is huge and making all these parts used quite a length of a thick and wide board.

The lifeboat holders were needed to hold a new 8 man lifeboat on the foredeck. They were made by using a thin MDF template and I used a router with a bearing cutter on it to follow the edge. They required some fettling on the marina which meant having to remove 10mm from the middle of a 52mm wide piece of teak to fit the deck curvature without making a mess on the pontoon. Next time I will template the deck and do it all off site!

Solo dinghy refurb' update 2

The weather here in the UK is pretty cold (for us) and working outside isn't much fun, but progress has been made...
The Solo has been glued back together again. I used 5mm elite ply, primarily for cost reasons but its also really light. I managed to get the original deck off in mostly whole pieces so I used it as a template for the new one. The new ply was bonded on with thickened epoxy and weighted down with sand bags, with spring clamps on the outside edges. Once cured it was planed back to the sheer line and the new rubbing strake offered up. As I was replacing like for like, the rubbing strakes are laminations as before. The class rules say minimum width of 30mm over most of the boat so that was three 10mm laminations. Where allowed, I reduced this to two. Where the sailor will be hanging over the edge I added an extra one.

On the GRP hulled boats like this one you are allowed to add a wooden bead along the inside edge of the deck. That's next once the rubbing strakes are shaped up a bit more. As you can see space is extremely tight and verging on the ridiculous!

Seine Boats

The local rowing club has four Seine Boats that need annual maintenance. They live on the beach all year round without covers and soon look unloved. Over the Christmas break I got cracking with sprucing two of them up. They were all originally varnished and this had to be removed by sanding, scraping and heat gun. The club's chosen finish is Deks Olje. It's a two stage process, D1 that soaks in and D2 that forms the varnish like surface. A couple of years ago we tried leaving the boats with just the D1 on them which initially leaves a satin finish. By the following year all the wood was silver and faded. They are less concerned with getting a gleaming gloss finish than keeping the boats serviceable but using both parts does give better protection. The oil was applied with a foam roller for the first coats. Subsequent coats were just wiped on with a cloth. This gives a decent layer of protection for the wood and is easy to sand off and re-coat next year.
The insides had some of the mouldings repaired. Then they got a clean and a lick of paint and non-slip. The keels on both boats have a few chunks missing from being dragged around and they could do with being repaired first next year.
Now these are done, it's on with the next two...

River Teign Rowing Club boats

Solo dinghy refurb' update

With the centreboard seal replaced, I turned the boat over and started to remove the rubbing strakes. They were 4 strips of spruce 10mm wide and with at least 40 screws on each side, mostly hidden. I also removed the trim inside the cockpit to expose the edges of the ply decking. This too had about 35 screws on each side. I managed to prise the 4 ply pieces off without breaking them. The number of fastenings used was serious. The deck had been pinned down with 2 kinds of panel pin, bronze screws and stainless screws in an attempt to tighten everything up.  

Old failed glue joints

All the glue holding the deck on and holding the deck beams together had failed and I literally lifted them out with 2 fingers. I scraped all the joints clean, dried everything out and bonded them back in place. The old ply will be used as rough templates for the new deck.

Joints cleaned up

The mast partners are wet, rotten and will need re-making before the new ply deck goes on. 

The next step is to order the 5mm ply for the deck and some timber for the rubbing strakes and trim parts. The new rubbing strakes will be quite a lot slimmer and smarter.

One side dried, cleaned up and bonded back together.

  

Solo dinghy refurb'

The latest project in the workshop is a 1980's Solo dinghy. The local sailing club has quite a few of these boats and they race regularly. This one is in to have the ply deck and possibly rubbing strakes replaced and everything else stripped and re-varnished. The boat has seen better days and the GRP hull is faded and chalky with a nice layer of algae.

The deck is really tatty and needs re-doing

First I had to get the ancient gold pinstripes off with a heat gun. Then I washed and sanded the entire hull through the grades of abrasive discs. Next I polished it up with a lambswool mop on a polisher. I gave it a coat of wax polish to help keep future muck off.

The seal on the centreboard slot needs replacing too. When that arrives and is fitted I can flip the boat and take the deck and fittings off and see what lurks beneath!