More Internal Fitout

A bit of dancing around the usual work/family commitments and weather, but managed to get a bit more done. The main push at the moment is to get all of the internal bits finalised, so that they can all be installed in one go. 

The ends of the waes (crossbeams) terminate in saddles at the hull, and I had a bit of a think a bit about the best way to do this. In the end I decided to use the 2mm ply (salvaged from an old, junked wardrobe). I want one square at the end of the beam to spread any transverse loading, and another square with a slot cut for the beam, to help with any shear forces that might get applied at the beam ends.

To reduce any break out of the fragile ply when cutting, I used masking tape along the cut lines and a hack saw blade in my jig saw. This seemed to work well, since there was minimal damage. 

Then I clamped the resulting saddle squares together and cleaned them up on the sander.

Job done.

They seem to fit ok too. 

Even finish flush with the inner gunwales. 

Of course I also had to notch the ring frame, so it would fit around the saddles. One annoying oversight on my part was failing to allow for the 'lashing' holes for the Iakos (beams that connect to the ama) at this station. 

The hole size at the aft beam should be ok, but now it looks like I'm going to have to make up new (bigger) saddles for the forward beam. Spewing!

Anyway, I also made up a better breasthook (out of some scrap pine) to beef up the stern.

One milestone that I'm looking forward to is strip planking the decks. Because they're reasonably flat and small enough to handle easily, I'm hoping I can actually fibreglass them to a good enough standard to be left varnished. Its a shame the hull will have to be painted, but that's the way it has to be. At least with beautiful varnished decks and gunwales (and eventually seats), the canoe will retain a bit of a traditional/classical look. 

I admit that this has had me fretting a bit. I'm paranoid about cocking it up, and I'm constantly fiddling and pondering how I'm going to do it. One potential issue I think I've discovered is the height of my forward watertight bulkhead. It seems a bit high. Gary's book details how the gunwale should be cut to receive the planking of the deck, but planking over this bulkhead wouldn't even touch the gunwale. So I sanded it down a bit and it seems better now. 

So far so good. I think I've gotten these components as ready as I can get them now. 

I turned my attention to the seats and stringers. I cleaned up the stringers that I had cut earlier. They look good. Just need to radius the lower corner a bit and they'll be fine. 

I'd like to use some nice varnished timber for the seats, but due to the complete absence of any disposable cash at the moment I've decided to use some 18mm ply (I think it might even be marine ply) that I've had laying around for years. I'll bolt these in place so that I can replace them with the proper solid timber versions further down the track when I can afford it. 

Still need to radius the forward and aft edges, but looks ok. 

I'm planning to keep the stringers full length because I'd like to be able to adjust the aft seat position to trim the canoe when paddling alone. The forward seat will remain in the same spot because this is where the leeboard will be secured when sailing. Hopefully the stringers won't intrude into my 'knee room' too much. I figure my knees will probably be reasonable close together anyway, because my feet will be sitting on the steering pedals (which are the next bit to sort out, and can be seen laying in the bilge). 

I'm enjoying being able to make some progress with this build at the moment. I'm trying to get as much done, as fast as I can, because my work roster has me pretty busy around Christmas/New Year, plus it looks like being a bloody hot summer this year. And it would be so damn good to actually be out on the water for a change, instead of just fantasising about it all the time.