Old Man Takes Up Rowing

I needed to get the Honda prepared to use as a carrier: new battery, wipers, some indicator lights, inspected, registration renewal (only 1,000 days late), new tag, used rear rack for canoes, appropriate ratchet sockets, a 200-mile shakedown cruise to Johnson City and back. All’s fine. It’s good to go (except for that ignition wiring…

OK, make some choices. Get it in the water. I bought some hardware at Lowe’s today, and when I got home I installed the eye-bolt that will anchor the bungee cord I intend to use in place of the inclined plane that sliding seat arrangements use to reduce effort during the recovery phase of the…

I attacked the aft deck with the orbital sander and 80 grit pads, went over it again with 220 pads and then with ScotchBrite (just because), wiped it down with a fresh tack cloth, and then applied varnish using a small foam brush. “Wet edges, anyone?” This small deck will be a laboratory for how…

Today is the first anniversary of starting this project. One day of project time is just about four calendar days. I really wanted to have the boat “completed but not finished” today and I almost made it. I got dizzy working out the light-bar clamps and tilts to mount the rigger on the vertical member…

I’ve roughed up the bottom of the clamps that will attach to the mini-deck, and I’ve drilled two 5/16-inch holes through the plates to be epoxied. I drilled 1/2-inch countersinks into both sides of each, thinking that epoxy would fill the resulting hour-glass shaped channels and enhance the bond. I plan to fillet these pieces…

Epoxy is finished! Except (there’s always an “except”) for the wooden parts I’ve yet to make to attach the rowing machinery to the minideck and the bonds to hold some of them together. [Not so fast! See next day down below.] Yesterday, I did the decks. Today, I put a conveniently-sized cardboard box in the…

It’s been 10 weeks since my last confession. So “Day 83” is a term of art just to keep things more or less consecutive. The basement (aka “the boatyard”) got chilly, epoxy turned slow and slightly unpredictable, the winter lake was not especially inviting for a total rookie, the sky invited me back out under…

First, the “traditional marine epoxy” had not set decently even after 16 hours and even after aiming a space heater at it (it’s down to 66 in the shop). But when I went over the suspect surface lightly with some sandpaper, the remaining finish was fine. I gather that I slathered it on too heavily.…

Take a deep breath and repeat this until you believe it: the rigger can be moved to wherever it needs to be moved. There is plenty of adaptability in the design. For example, new mounting threads can be placed in the “deck;” the mounting plates on the bottom of the slide can be relocated; the…

Now at last I have to commit to some decisions about the rowing machinery and the layout of “the office.” Here’s a diagram from AngusRowBoats.com that ought to help keep terminology straight. That site acknowledges that some lunatic might be making his, her, or their own sliding machinery and provides some hints and recommended dimensions.…

While waiting for the epoxy behind the first side rail to set, I made a sudden executive decision: maybe I’ll eventually build the foam composite rigger as shown in the drawings many days ago (start here — it is a tedious journey) but (1) the temperature in the boatyard has fallen back into the middle…

The instructions say that the coaming is “tricky.” I dry-fit the bits that sit on the foredeck several times and adjusted their lower contours. I avoided doing anything that would compromise the front joint which is beveled on at least two and possibly three planes. I thought it best to put that part of the…

My screw ups continued. After I replaced the not-quite-right bright brass screws with wooden dowels, I wanted to stain the dowels. So I used MinWax Espresso on a 1-inch band all the way around the boat. Looked good! Then I wanted to clean up a few of the edges using mineral spirits. That looked better,…

Yes, you can use Black Diamond pigments in thickened epoxy. In thin applications of unthickened epoxy, “liberty copper” is not opaque. But add Cell-o-fill and you’re in business. I am a bit stressed by boat work today — did a couple of “misguided” things, recovered. In retrospect, quite a lot worked out. “What happened?” you…

Late last night, very early this morning, I did a BOTE calculation (appropriate, eh?). The forward deck takes the form of an isosceles triangle with a 2 foot base and a 9 foot height; the aft deck has a similar shape and base but a height of about 6 feet. A single layer of the…

I flipped the boat and allowed barely thickened epoxy (the consistency of melted vanilla ice cream on an 80 degree day, not a 90 degree day) to seep into whatever gaps remain between the deck and the hull. The oversized, upside-down deck panels form funnels and guides to put the goop where I want it.…

Last night, I finished painting the sculls and spent some time prepping for today’s deck work. I got one actual task accomplished — I marked the spots for deck screws on the fore deck — and then got prematurely concerned with aesthetics. In particular, the screws already installed in the aft deck caught my attention.…

One scull is structurally finished. It’s not aesthetically finished, but all the parts are drilled, cut, epoxied and assembled. It is curing, and that won’t take long since I used all fast hardener (15g + 30g resin) in the interests of seeing how this works out tonight. I’d earlier cut the sleeves into identical lengths…

The last pieces are here for the sculls, but I wasn’t expecting them (Labor Day…), so I plunged ahead on a different project: I put the afterdeck on the boat. The kit directions seemed a little sparse, and many otherwise helpful YouTube videos give short shrift to this step. It’s a busy little while, and…

Scroll to the bottom for a flash of sanity. That didn’t go well. I measured and cut off one oar shaft, set up a drilling jig, and put a pilot hole about 4 inches into the discarded end of the shaft — for rehearsal, experiment, and practice. I chucked a 1-1/8 inch forstner bit into…

The decks are epoxied — I rolled on resin mixed with mostly slow hardener but added a little fast hardener to one batch just to see how it worked in that application (quite well, actually). It takes about 150g total to do the foredeck, less than half that for the after. The boat would like…

I started cleaning up the oars I bought back in the long ago. They’re made for rafting or for utility work on bass boats etc. They are not only inelegant, they are anti-elegant. For the record, they are 9′ 0″ long and end in narrow, heavy blades with no spoon. The blades are too thick,…

It took all of 15 minutes to plane the sheer clamps with an economy-model power planer picked up on sale from Amazon (real hand planes cost more and take real skill; this thing just takes 110 volts and some nerve). I screwed the thwart into the bow, then epoxy-coated the parts I had just assaulted…

It’s mid-August, and it’s been far too long since my last confession. This has real consequences. Today, I selected the deck panels fore and aft. I coated the bow scarf joint (about a foot or so from the tip) with wood-thickened epoxy and clamped the two deck pieces. I’ll leave it alone until tomorrow and…

After a ridiculous amount of time spent dithering about this and that (all of it devoted to the rowing unit, actually), today I just said stop that and got on with it. I didn’t get on with much, but I got on with something. To wit: I installed a handle on the rowing unit, the…

After a couple of weeks of thinking, drawing, and holding metal in my hands considering what it can do and what I can do with it, this is what I have in mind: God knows, I’ll do photos and so much commentary along the way, so let’s just leave it right there for today. Day…

There are lots of options for mounting the slides to the cabinet. I think I will standardize on 10-32 machine screws. A single hex key will suffice for maintenance of the slider. I am taking care to avoid the need to cut or thread stainless steel: all the metal work is in aluminum (mostly 6061).…

Overthinking continues and gets a little wild. I haven’t heard anything from RowRigs and have been having dangerous thoughts fed by Internet examples of others who have suffered similar ideas. Out on the net, plenty of off-the-wall do-it-yourself sliding seats and sliding riggers seem to work and have their fans. Some don’t look particularly finished,…

While waiting for the internal glasswork to cure, I measured and marked the position of the front deck beam and sanded its top surface flat. I cut it to length and then trimmed the bevels on both ends (twice, alas, so it now fits about one inch forward of its designed station). There will be…

Overthinking is the order of the day. How about putting together a “long board.” That’s a reasonably rigid sanding pad 16-20 inches long and a few inches wide with a couple of handles on top. One might do wonders for smoothing the hull (where drips, runs, and assorted other infelicities are breeding). I discovered this…

The saw arrived this afternoon. It’s just a grip for a hacksaw blade without the extensive framework of an actual hacksaw, exactly what I needed. I traced around the skeg receiver at the specified distance from the stern and then drilled four small holes side by side through the hull along two sides of the…

I think I’m counting days of work on the boat consecutively, not calendrically: that is, between the last post and this one, two sunrises and sunsets have taken place, a rocket launch, and a syslunch. I’ve gone two full days and nights without touching the boat, but I’m going from Day 25 to Day 26…

I put a second coat of epoxy on the fiberglass last night and a third this morning. To review: the first coat is to bind the glass to the wood and begin filling the weave. The second coat might fill the weave if the first was sufficiently uniform, but the need for a third is…

This morning, I watched some videos about wetting out fiberglass on plywood hulls. Here they are, in case you, too, need inspiration and encouragement: Jenkins Boat Works video glassing a CLC Chesapeake 18 Nick Schade’s video glassing a Guillemot Petrel OffCenterHarbor’s video includes tips on the tips. I trimmed the fiberglass to leave only an…

Here’s the entirety of the instructions in the Book of the Oxford Shell about how to glass the hull: Cover the outside of the hull with fiberglass cloth. Drape the cloth over the entire hull then saturate it with unthickened epoxy; work from the center toward the edges with brush or roller. When the first…

As promised: I used some epoxy thickened with recent sanding dust to fill in small gaps near both ends of the hull. This goop is very dark, like chocolate rather than peanut butter, but it will do. After it hardened for a few hours, I moved the boat off the table, put down a sheet…

I released the clamps holding the hull for taping and flipped it keel-up. Pressed paper inserts from shipments of wine make excellent pads between the boat and the tabletop. It’s miraculous how rigid these floppy strips of plywood have become. That’s engineering, boys (not mine, but engineering just the same). There were ~180 stitches in…

I laid the second strips of seam tape this morning — all morning, or so it felt. I sanded the originals to get a rough bonding surface and to level the lower edges. Epoxy apparently migrates to the lower edge of fiberglass tape by gravity or by wicking, cures, and leaves a substantial ridge there.…

And suddenly… it’s a boat! It’s a long way from lake-worthy, but it’s rigid and shaped right and looks like what it is. I’m going to let it sit mostly undisturbed until tomorrow, because the epoxy holding the seams really needs to be completely cured, and the pieces need to stay exactly where they are.…

That little fish-tail thing the stern is doing bugs me. It’s above any reasonable waterline, so it probably doesn’t actually matter. And in any event the skeg will control any yaw it might introduce (which means that if it does come into play, the combination will exact a drag penalty). It bugs me. It’s a…

Tightening the stitches worked wonders. Most gaps disappeared. The larger gaps at the bow and stern shrank, especially at the bow. Some judicious extra stitchery helped. I’m telling myself that thickened epoxy, aggressive sanding, and fiberglass can make all things right (the stern alignments concern me some, but I think nothing is so far out…

The stitching in “stitch and glue” is done (or all but done: the bulkheads are unstitched, but that’s 8-12 stitches to go, 4-6 per bulkhead). Adjusting the stitching, that’s yet to come, but drilling, squinting, threading copper wire through plywood is largely at an end. Considering the 3mm thickness of the side panels and the…

The tape to pull the side panels inward to help with stitching was an interesting notion, but it didn’t help. The trouble turned out to be that the bulkheads were simply too large. The directions say to trim or move them slightly if needed. I needed. I put the 20-inch spacer back in halfway from…

As threatened, I ran screws through the sheer clamps near the bow and stern to hold them securely together while I pushed and pulled to try this and that to get the hull panels stitched together. I stitched the side panels together at both ends to get the curve started. It’s clear that the side…

I hoped that stitching the bottom panels to the side panels would be revelatory, that all would become clear as the process progressed, but I am flummoxed. I verified the measurements; I pushed here and there; I took the spreader out and put it back; I dry-fitted one of the bulkheads, and I do not…

I set the stitched bottom panel on top of the still-inverted side panels and hoped that the bottom panels would open up undramatically. They did not! All the stitching along the keel line was much too tight to permit the panels to open. On the bright side, this did wonders for my confidence that the…

Here’s the plan, but I have no idea how swiftly or sluggishly it will unfold. Much of this could happen on one or two good days, or it might drag out. You know how it goes: I’ll edit this post as it unfolds and see about providing telling photos. I made quick work of smoothing…

The next big step should be joining the side panels at the bow and stern. I’ll need to set the bottom pieces aside to make enough room on the work table and will wait to do that. I glued the scarfs in the bottom panels late yesterday afternoon. Since then, the air has been its…

I laid out the bottom panels and glued them together. I meant to do this earlier today, but I got flummoxed and thought, rather than make a big mistake, just do nothing. Wait until you’re settled about what you mean to do. A few hours later, I decided to do this: (1) stretch the string…

I told you yesterday that I was a little hazy on the order of operations. The bottom panels need to be built up just like the side panels were (but with reference to the “ship’s drawings”). Maybe the instructions were meant to suggest that I could have laid up a thicker Dagwood and done them…

I think I have hit upon a strategy to keep momentum going and avoid the feeling of being overwhelmed. When setting about the work you mean to accomplish on day N, do the prepwork, insofar as you can, for day N+1. You can do it first, during, or after. Today I aim to glue up…

Let’s start actually building a boat on April Fool’s Day, shall we? Encouraged by overnight experiments with the original epoxy, I glued up the sheer clamps. It’s tough to pour so little epoxy. I wanted 10 grams of resin and 5 grams of hardener, but though I was pouring slowly, I still got 16 and…

Let’s get started. FedEx handed me the epoxy from MAS on Monday morning. In the afternoon, I straightened up a little more, lined up some tools and supplies, and dry fit the sheer clamps. They were each shipped from Chesapeake Light Craft as two bundles of three sticks. The middle stick is scarfed at both…

Proper ratios of epoxy resin and hardener are almost always specified by volume (for example, 2 parts resin to 1 part hardener; or 5 parts resin to 1 part hardener; etc). The mix can also be prescribed be weight. To convert from volume to mass, you need to know the densities of the components. The…

The problem began with how to mount cameras to the aft deck. I was thinking of notching the sheer clamps and epoxying in some small steel plates to which I could screw whatever I wanted. Making that neat and structurally sound while not adding too much gratuitous weight kept me up nights and woke me…

I’ve been reading the instructions over and over to internalize many of the steps. Along the way, I’ve been taking note of the tools and supplies that I will and may need (in addition to the epoxy which should arrive tomorrow). Herewith: Marine varnish (Interlux Y96 Schooner varnish, at least a quart, for the deck).…

It begins to resemble what it will be. I went through the plans while sorting through some of the pre-cut wood. With apologies to Henry Reed, today we have naming of parts. These are the sheer clamps, by which the deck is attached to the hull, and these are the bulkheads by which flotation is…

Plastic to replace the incomplete and increasingly fragile curtain separating the work area in the basement from common storage areas arrived yesterday. The old plastic will provide plenty of shields to keep epoxy from grabbing what I do not want it to grab. This new, heavy (6 mil) translucent plastic was intended for farmers who…

Today I just swept up and shoved some stuff around. I moved some stuff away from the future bow-end and just moved some stuff that had been stashed under the tables out where it can be dealt with tomorrow. Mostly I just wandered around overwhelmed. I need a 22×6 foot work area. I can see…

Getting there. I spent about an hour hanging four LED shop lights and another half hour to excavate the kit from beneath a decade’s neglect. I found the third table, moved a ton of mostly RV leftovers, did a half-assed job of vacuuming wood- and aluminum shards. Then I pulled twenty feet from a tape…