Old Man Takes Up Rowing

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,…

I’ve ordered the polyurethane foam (6 lb / cubic foot, TotalBoat) and a release agent (Rocket Release) to build the rigger. I think the slider design is pretty well finalized, so just do it. After I attach the deck, and maybe fit the slider, I’ll set the hull aside and get to work on the…

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…