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 it could still use; should be here later this week, and YouTube will show me how to install it). I still need to modify the cross-piece of the carrier to accept the shell rather than a canoe, but that should be easy with a pool noodle and some accessory bits.
So, picture a man with a wooden boat and marine varnish in the basement and time on his hands. I honestly don’t know if nature will take its course, or if I’ll resist and do other things instead. There are plenty of those, too.
I waited a week, but the inevitable happened: two more coats of marine varnish. They’ll take a while to dry all the way, and the hand is still healing, so it works out.
The canoe / kayak cart I bought years ago needs to be cleaned up and its wheels replaced (the cost of tires is similar to the cost of new wheels altogether). Larger wheels would be good; larger wheels are on the way. With a bit of associated hardware, put me down for another 52 bucks. Should make loading easier and might even make launching from our community dock possible, if not easy.
The varnish on the boat is not perfect. That is not a surprise and is not particularly troubling. More aggressive sanding is called for along the edges of the deck followed by more varnish (varnish is like exposure in astrophotography; more is always better). I might or might not attack the finish again before launching. I’ve ordered some Interlux “Original” varnish for additional coats in the hope and expectation that it will flow better than the ultra-thick Schooner Gold ($35). The interior can use a coat or two, in any event. Some trim tape ($10) is also on the way to see if I can make the overall aspect more “finished” with a 3/4-inch line below the deck at the top of the hull.
The hand is coming right along and I will need a new excuse soon.
OK. On to prepping the transportation hardware until the other goodies arrive.
Varnishing act
(Saturday, June 3) Interlux “Original” varnish came earlier than promised. I got reasonably aggressive sanding down some uneven bits along the edges of the deck — ScotchBrite everywhere then 150 grit long board work where the surface was clearly uneven– then brushed on a coat of this thinner varnish everywhere, including the inside surfaces of the hull and the deck of the first class lounge. It is vastly thinner than “Schooner Gold” and spreads effortlessly. We’ll see how well it self-levels shortly. SG does build thickness much more quickly. Depending on how quickly this dries, I may slip a few more coats on there.
Vanity tape, cart wheels, and shaft collars for the cart wheels should be along on Monday. I meant to install the ignition wiring in the Honda today but got busy putting an eclipse kit together instead. It had to be done some time in the next ten months, and today was the day. Later, looking at the October annular eclipse, I found a decent room near some picturesque landforms at a great price with excellent reviews, fully refundable, so that’s done, too. It’ll add a day to the much-anticipated next trip to Rodeo. Now get the Honda ready for the boat and ready for the west.
(Sunday, June 4) After applying 8 or 9 coats of varnish (lost count) and sanding off most of each, one after another, to provide “tooth” for the next layer, I am finally beginning to cop to some of the zen of varnish. It’s all easily stated but means nothing until you’ve done it over and over, wrong, and finally see it begin to work. Use a tray; don’t try to dip the goop out of the can (consistent loading is much harder, and it makes a mess). Work in one direction. In my case, that’s side to side, never end to end. Catch drips early. Work from wet to dry. Keep a wet edge. Draw the varnish TO the edges of the deck, never from the edges. Did I mention catch drips early? If you really have to touch up “a spot,” recoat the area instead. Don’t be too abstemious; it takes a certain amount to self-level. Don’t use too much; it will sag and run. “Tipping out” to break tiny bubbles is an elusive talent; “tipping out” for me is still “introduce more brush strokes.” With the right brush-loading and consistent pressure you actually get very few bubbles, so try to do that. All this advice is subject to revision after another coat. As you were.
The misadventure of oil-based stain is, finally, all but behind me!
(Monday, June 5) OK, so there are still some patches of alligator hide along the deck edges on the bow. I’ll live with them at least for now. I can always apply more varnish if and when the spirit moves me. I put 14-inch wheels on the cart, added some lock rings to take up the extra hub space (the new wheels’ hubs are 1.75 inches wide, the originals were 2.00), and applied 3/4-inch black pin-striping tape to separate the deck from the hull. All is looking good. Eventually, I’ll need to experiment to see what happens when I flow varnish over this tape. Wire rope, ferrules, a clamping tool, tie-down straps, and a couple of carabiners are on the way later this week to complete the portage- and car-topping kit. Meanwhile, the varnish hardens, the tape bonds.
(Tuesday, June 6) I spent all afternoon (noon to 7:30!) removing the ignition switch wiring from the Honda. Most of that time was devoted to unhooking a single stubborn plastic wiring connector. Geez.
(Wednesday, June 7) Fifteen minutes to put the new wiring harness in, half an hour to reinstall the beauty panels. It works! I have a boat transporter. I was in some danger of draining the battery enjoying the fact that the Honda fires on the first hit, every time, and keeps on running when I release the key, just like the old days. (Next: fix the instrument cluster and finish the power center in the Honda. Then isolate and fix the noise coming from an a/c pulley in the Subaru.)
(Thursday, June 8) Wire rope, ferrules, a crimping tool, a couple of carabiners, and four tie-down straps are in hand. So far, so good: I took the wire rope and used the ferrules to make a short (~20 inch) cable with a loop on both ends. I cut notches out near each end of an 8 or 9 inch length of aluminum conduit. To make a grab loop, just thread one end of the cable through one of the pass-throughs near the bow and fit the wire loops into the notches. Voila! That’s a grab loop. Unhook the grab bar and instead bring the end loops down below the hull and connect them with a carabiner. Now run a tie-down strap through the carabiner, pull it tight, and you have just the ticket for car-topping (use another two-loop cable and do the same back at the stern). Too long, too short? The tie-down strap allows a great deal of adjustment, but if it’s not enough, no harm: there’s 165 feet of wire rope here and plenty of ferrules. Make what’s needed.
(Friday, June 9) Another tie-down strap attaches neatly to the cart. It will hold the boat in place for portaging to and from dockside. Once again, my excuses run short!
(Saturday, June 10) Nothing spectacular, but let’s keep progress going, however unexciting: I rigged a clamp to hold the tie-down to the cart and added a spacer to the carrier on the rear bumper of the Honda, the better to cover the bolt and nut that extends above the cross-piece and would otherwise rip hell out of a deck or hull.
(Sunday, June 11) Some aluminum channel and a piece of conduit provided the spacing to elevate whatever the crosspiece carries above the bolt and nut at its center (cut, drill tap, tape…) and a short piece of pool noodle (orange, of course) slit to go over the bar finishes the job. A few loops of black plastic tape hold the noodle in place. (Later, I deployed some of my newly acquired facility with epoxy and wood to try to repair the front storm door’s attachment to the doorframe. I’m sure about the boatly bits; the door… we’ll see. The common feature of these two projects is that the final bits are easily replaced if they are insufficient or if a better notion comes along.)
In other non-boatly news, the Subaru’s whine is gone with the replacement of the A/C idler pulley. I had to buy some tools to do that, but nothing specialized. Next, see about fixing the A/C clutch, too.
(Monday, July 17) I didn’t really want any excuses, but my shoulder obliged anyway. An old torn rotator cuff injury (or some new kind of nerve impingement) has sidelined my right arm for a couple of weeks. Jeffrey, who’s been long promised a ringside seat for the launch was off with Bea on a weeks-long 11,000 mile western camping trip anyway. They’re back, the shoulder is on the mend, and we’re planning to throw the boat in the water on Thursday afternoon.
Today I finally installed the skeg, and I sprayed some red paint on the inside faces of the oar locks so that at a glance I can be sure I’ve turned them with the stems where they belong (toward the bow). Beginners! Then I made a start at cleaning up the shop.
Between now and launch day: Inflate flotation bags / charge action cam, set up car carrier, set up “portage” cart to reach the dock, ETC. Thursday morning: put it on the car!
(Tuesday, July 18) I realized that there’s a lot to adjust on the sculls. D’uh. This confirms my beginner’s bona fides. Where experts adjust the sculls to a few mm and several arc minutes, I spent some of the afternoon getting mine set to the nearest couple of inches and with the blades vaguely upright and flat in their sleeves. Speaking of which: I’m leaving the sleeves pretty loose for the launch so I can adjust on the fly and because I don’t expect to exert any force to speak of on day one. It also appears that the kayaking blades are perfectly fine in all ways but one: when I rotate one of them into feathered position, the power face will be toward the water; the back of the other will be toward the water as any proper blade ought to be. I’m not sure this will matter for a while yet, and I am not sure that I could resolve it by buying another double blade and using the “other” blade — I think then the front/back symmetry would be fine, but the longer reach over the shaft would be inverted. I think. That’s what Thursday is for: get some experience to replace or to enhance thinking.
(Sunday, July 23). The weather forecast for Thursday called for thunderstorms (“some severe”) so rather than convene the crew at the dock only to pack it in, I called off the launch until one day next (this) week. But that’s almost certainly not going to happen either.
That shoulder… it’s not better. It is much worse. On the one hand, terrible timing. On the other, excellent. If the joint had gone south after messing about in the boat, I would, of course, have blamed rowing. As it is, I know perfectly well that my prospective and certainly awkward first strokes will have had (what tense is that?) no causal effect on my shoulder. I have an appointment with an orthopedist on Tuesday. More when I know more.
(Tuesday, August 8). The ortho says it’s “just arthritis” from which you may infer that he is at least 20 years too young to appreciate that there is nothing “just” (“mere” “inevitable” “business as usual”) about arthritis. I have a follow up in a few weeks. In the meantime, Meloxicam does wonders for the shoulder (though it may play hell with my blood pressure). Another few days of steady improvement, or at least lack of pain and some sleep, and we’ll try this again.
(Saturday, September 23). The prescribed meds have done wonders for the shoulder pain (as for the blood pressure, we’ll deal). In the meantime, one of my intended partners in the launch messed up his knee. The other, well, I’ll tell you about Captain Maier some other time. Anyway. Facebook today happily informed me that today is the one year (one freakin’ year!) anniversary (redundant, I know, but what are you gonna do?) of the great oil-based stain broohaha. The one that set me off my timeline and required so much work to put a decent deck coat on. And gave me plenty of time to think through, build and rebuild the rigging and the sliding mechanism, cheap sculls, etc. So, it evens out. But a year? Gah. There is some chance of a launch this coming Thursday. Maybe. I make no predictions any more.