Finally, Some Progress

At last I can try and make some progress on the poor old canoe. She looked pretty forlorn out the back under her tarp. There were even vine type weeds growing through her (I feel quite ashamed).



I've been trying to work out how to rig a tarp to form a decent shelter that I can work under, but after my disastrous earlier attempts I decided to go for something a bit more elemental instead (namely, the big Jacaranda tree out back). Not very waterproof but it is light and airy.



So with the family out for the day I got stuck in and I'm happy to say that I had a really productive day. I was worried that the hull might have distorted because of having the outside glassed and the inside still raw timber, but it actually didn't look any different from the way it did when I last tucked her away. So lucky (the test panels warped horribly after a few weeks when I'd only glassed the one side). I was also stoked to find that the hull popped straight off the molds without any forcing or swearing at all.



With the hull removed, I quickly got the molds off and made up a cradle. I modified the strongback (made it more level and lower), then mounted the cradle to the strongback and fitted some carpet to protect the hull.



Then I flipped the hull over and placed it into the cradle. I used a grinder to trim the fiberglass/epoxy excess around the gunwale. It's so cool to finally have something that actually looks like a canoe.



I also managed to rip a scrap bit of timber for temporary gunwales, which I'll fit tomorrow. In the mean time, I've slipped the molds back into place to help maintain the shape. Once the temporary gunwales are fitted, and some spreader sticks installed, I can get on with scraping all that bloody glue off the interior (not looking forward to that).



After this eventful day I sat in the yard with a couple of beers, staring at my new boat and starting to think that it might just work out ok after all. Can't wait until tomorrow....