The Wooden Boat Project

1/21/13

I really don’t like sanding, especially in the tight corners of a boat. I again sanded the corners and joints trying to smooth them out and make them nicer not only for looks but also cleaning after trips. Lots of work with 60 grit sandpaper. After a couple of hours I got them to the point that I was at least satisfied for now. I’m sure later I’ll go back in and do a better job but it is tedious work and not that much fun. I did go back in with more thickened epoxy in the corners of the ribs and sides because they were two pitted and just plain ugly.

I also flipped the boat and sanded down the outside and smoothed and shaped the prow. I was pretty happy with how this turned out. I flipped the boat back and drilled two holes at the top of the prow. My friend (flatswalker) suggested that I put in some copper or brass pipe to make it nice and smooth for the ropes so that’s what I did. I bought some nice strong 5mm rope to use. The original design for the boat only had one hole for the rope I wanted to have two so that when it was retracted back into the boat it would simply be a smooth bump so that it would be less likely to catch the fly line.

It was also time to attach the boards that the benches will sit on. The original design was to have the seats about 2” from the top but I knew that I wanted to lower the middle bench because I want to put a nice big fat seat in the middle while I’m rowing. I thought about it and decided to lower all of them as my plan is to make removable casting platforms that sit on top of the seats. I also added two front boards that will be used to rest the front casting platform on. I also want to make a knee brace which will be attached to these boards. My friends boat does not have this so I get to be the guinea pig on this piece. When I added these boards I screwed them both from the front and back to get them nice and tight to the sides.

The last thing I did was to attach the triangle at the front. After thinking about it I decided to cut a hand hold in the triangle and also attach a lip for additional grip. I then filled in the gap with thickened epoxy. I’m a little nervous about getting the screws out of this section because unlike most of the joints where I used screws to get it tight these screws are encapsulated in epoxy.

Next week I’ll sand down what I did this week. I will also flip the boat and begin to add fiberglass to the bottom. I hope to get the corners covered that way it is ready to receive the glass on the bottom and sides. In the meantime my father is making the bench boards. Since I want them 10” wide he is going to splice two boards together and also brace the bottom of them. I think these will be fairly strong and good base for the casting platforms.