Taping the seams

I have been taping the internal seams for what seems like ages. (I started on friday!) Still got to do the seams inside the end compartments but the majority is done. I am now behind on my schedule for 20th May sea trials! I will have to work extra hard this weekend to catch up. Glad it's a bank hol.

No pictures today, but will take some once taping is complete. (Hopefully tomorrow.)

all tacked up

Completed all the tack fillets between the stitches. Going to start taping the inside seams next. Progress is good, although I am a little behind schedule. May have to enlist some assistance to get ahead.

Stitching complete

It took a bit longer than I thought but now I have a garage full of Canoe!

Looks great. Stitched all the bulkheads in as well (after the pictures were taken) and have started to tack the outside chines between the stitches.

Really happy with how she looks. She is a bit wider than I had imagined and checking width against roof bars we may have a bit of a problem. The roof bars we have for the peugeot angle inwards from the uprights and there is no overhang like normal roof bars. And the boat is wider than the uprights. Looks like I will need to adapt the roof bars!

Stitching

Stitched the first two chines up. The first one last friday and the second tonight. (The picture shows the first one, haven't taken pics of tonight's work.) But haven't bought enough zip ties for the next two. D'oh!

It appears to be going together ok. However, after pushing in the centre former to get a feel for size, I think it's going to be a fight to get the shape right with all those joints. I may need to grow an extra 5 arms.

Glass taping.

Glass taped both sides of those panels. So much easier to do when not attempting to align them at the same time. Found an old plastic roller which helped to exclude all the air from under the glass. The joints look good and strong.

Cut out one of the bulkheads and have ordered two watertight hatch covers.

Deadline for sea trials is 20th May. Think it may be a bit tight....

Bonding 2

Spent the whole day at work thinking about yesterday's work as I didn't feel convinced it was good enough. And it wasn't. Out of 4 joints only one was to my satisfaction. So I pulled the others apart (see pic) and have started again.

I'm sure there must be a chinese proverb that states something like "if too much at once you do, again it will be done!" (although that maybe be a Yoda proverb!?)

So a different approach has been taken, thanks to finding this website guide

I have mixed some epoxy with filleting mix and bonded the butt joint. When this goes off I will glass both sides of each panel. A little more time consuming but better than having to do everything twice. and it should make the glassing easier, trying to align and glass was a recip for disaster.

Bonding

Started bonding fore and aft panels together last night. Used the epoxy resin and 75mm glass tape method as described on the plans. Was a little trickier than I thought, especially getting each matched pair aligned identically.

I lifted the plastic covering to adjust on one panel and lifted the glass at the same time. Quick check this morning and there was air under the glass, so I ripped it off.

A method rethink is required.

Pre-priming the wood with epoxy may be required. Will inspect the damage on the other three tonight.

Not the most satisfactory evening's work, but learnt a fair bit about the materials!

Long time since last update but here goes..

Quite a lot of time has passed since the last post, and not a lot of canoe construction.

The Pegosaurus is this design.

The wood was purchased in December 05. And then I broke my thumb so nothing happened whilst I was in plaster.

Then the first set of panels were lofted onto a sheet of ply sometime in Feb 06.

Then I got engaged and started to plan our wedding. That took a lot of organising, and not much time was devoted to the build.

We got married in sep 06.

The first set of panels were cut out in November 06 and planed to size December 06.

January 07, the shape of those panels was marked onto the other 3 sheets.

Then a chance purchase of a copy of Trail and a discussion of a summer adventure fired the motivation.

So the other 3 sheets were cut out last week, and all planed to size on saturday. A west systems A-pack and glassfibre tape was purchased and arrived last friday. More work is planned this week.

Things are moving on!

As for the Paddles, 2 pairs of these were purchased when on hol in Canada in Sep 05. about 8 quid for a wooden paddle? Bargain!