Improvisation

So last week I glued in the mast step and despite my best attempts to mark out the correct placing I didn’t quite get it right, close but no cigar. So I had to find a way to shape the hole so that the mast will fit. Only problem is how do you reach all the way down a 80cm hole?

Well finally my hording paid off, I had kept all the cores from making the mast step. I had figured on using them as wheels on a trolley… So I got them all together, threaded them on to a big nail and wrapped them all in a sheet of sand paper and presto the perfect sander for the job.

 

With a few seconds of sanding the mast was fitting nice and snug.

Then it was on to cutting the top section into shape, aligning it and marking that position.

Then it was onto more glue work. First up was gluing some support struts to the underside of the seats. I decided to use strips of the remaining ash from the gunwales, it’s nice strong and light timber. Four pieces evenly spaced apart make a nice strong and light seat. So after neatly aligning on sheets of oven paper, I donned my gloves and mixed up a batch of epoxy to coat the underside. Of course I had to pick each piece up so all my efforts were for naught. Oh well.

With the undersides coated I mixed in my glue powder and attached the upper section of the mast support, filleted the front of the splash guard and glued on the two parallel supports that the aft seat will rest on.

Sunday morning I took her outside to check the mast fit… Again it was tight, so using the rubbing on the wood as a guide I enlarged the hole until I had a tight fit. I suspect that I’ll need to make more room as I intend to coat all the timber in epoxy to make it waterproof and prevent warping or rot. I’m also thinking of lining it in leather to protect the mast. We’ll see.

Checking the aft seat for fit:

Then it was off to the park for some family time.

When we got back I had enough light to drill holes into the side of the hull for the iako lashings, sand them smooth and coat the insides with epoxy. I’m also worried about the strength of the upper mast fitting so I laid a strip of fibreglass over its’ forward edge to reinforce it. I also glued in the support struts for the forward seat. Next week I will sand the top of the seats, fillet the supports with a wood and epoxy blend and then glue the seats in.

So at the end of week twenty four a lot of small fiddly bits have been completed and we are slowly inching forwards. On a side note it is looking more and more likely that I will not follow through with my original plan to install a middle bulkhead for extra storage, I like the un-interrupted flow of the hull as it is and have developed quite an aversion to blocking it off and compartmentalizing it. It’s so un-canoe like!