Building my own Kevlar - Carbon canoe

Project Finish (the gunwales)

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Canoe Project Home - The Strongback - The Form - The Mold (part 1) - The Mold (part 2)
The Layup (part1) - The Layup (part 2) - The Layup (part 3) - Project Finish (gunwales) - Project Finish (floats) - Project Finish (seats)

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10-31-2005 - unable to find the recommended Mahogany for the gunwales I decided on the use of Ash. My dad has a little sawmill and workshop and help cut and plane the strips of Ash (actually not having skills with woodworking I was the one to 'help'). The gunwales were planed to 5/8" width and 1 1/8" depth.

I had to settle on use of the children's swing set as a platform for which to glue the strips of Ash together so that they would reach from bow to stern. I used Titebond II to glue the joints

11-01-2005 - In my first attempt to attach the starboard gunwale I made 'T' sticks as guides to hold the boards up, whenever I positioned the gunwale at the stern or bow of the hull the T-sticks would shift or fall causing no end of aggravation. 11-05-2005 - I decided to make a framework on which to mount the T-sticks. Use of the frame worked better to hold the guides. Of course this step did not go as described in the book. As per the book's instructions I started with #4 5/8 steel screws.

The screws were too short even to get a good hold on the inner gunwale to the outer. Before starting I thought this might be the case, however, had hoped that countersinking would have made up the difference. Both inner and outer gunwale are 5/8". Our local Home depot ran out of #4 5/8" steel screws so I tried brass which snapped immediately. I ended up using #6 1" steel screws which worked well. To make matters even more frustrating my hand clamps were not strong enough to hold the cure to the ends.

The book suggest 17" high bow and amidships 2" lower than the bow. It also suggest a 16" stern. I cut the bow and stern both to 17" and the amidships t-stick to 15". This is a view of the mounted gunwales from the bow. These measurements further distorted the bow and stern profiles. As I have said over and over, this is going to be a UGLY boat.

This is a view of the mounted gunwales from the stern. I was not able to close the ends of the gunwales. This is yet another thing I will need to fix when I am able to return to the project in the spring. Another thing you may notice in the last couple pictures is that I did rough trim to remove the layup above the gunwales.

I turned the hull upside down on the cradle to get it ready for covering for the winter. It is now to cold for the epoxy to set and work will cease until spring. It is much more heavy than I expected. This might be due to the excess epoxy in places or the use of Ash. I very much wanted to get the boat on the water this fall, it was just not to be. The book suggest that the boat may be build in a weekend, Mr. Moran must have longer weekends than do I. .

02-05-2006 - I just thought that I would show you the latest update on the progress of the canoe. Here is it. As you can see it is covered with snow and no work is being done. I removed the tarp to check on the boat only to see the unfinished gunwales have started to get spots of mildew on them. More sanding this spring.

Project on hold until spring

06-2-2006 ~ Today I finally was able to continue my project. We have had a very wet spring and some family matters delayed the project. When I removed the tarp to see the Ash gunwales have a fair amount of mildew on them. This does not concern me as much as it could since they need to be shaped and sanded before I varnish the boat.

The book instructs the builder to build a temporary center thwart to hold the canoe shape when putting it the bracing. I did this and notice the bow and stern were too narrow so decided to put temporary thwarts there as well. Of course when I put in the bow and stern temp thwarts the amidship temp thwart was too small. wedging a piece of scrap wood between the inside gunwale worked great as a temp thwart. I had to use two sets of claps to keep the temporary thwart from moving.

For the amidship temporary thwart I used a scrap with long screws on either side of the gunwale. The screws are not attached to the gunwales, they are just used to brace the amidships gunwales in place.

Here is a picture showing the hull with all three temporary thwarts in place. I am glad to be working on the boat again. The next step will be to glue in the foam braces.

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