You gotta start somewhere

The Redfish ' King ' is an asymmetrical hull. The cockpit is a bit further back and the boat is widest just behind the seat. The stern is shorter and tighter than most symmetrical hull kayaks. I can't tell you the significance of this, but I'm almost positive it has to do quick turning and maybe a little less weather cocking. Somewhere online is the breakdown about the basic hull shapes. Guillemot or Bjorn Thomasson . This will be a very important fact to remember.

So I built the strong back. It is an external version that Joe at Redfish uses and it seems to lend itself to multiple builds. I really like Joe's designs, but he doesn't get into a whole lot of details in his manual. This is too bad, because he seems to have some great ideas. But One Ocean has a really detailed site, and Bjorns is good, too. They go into construction details that Joe only touches on. Dick Schade at Guillemot sells you his book along with the plan, or you can pick it up at your favorite big box book store. Or not. In truth, they all have good manuals, but if you read them all, you will have a pretty good understanding. When it comes time to squeeze out the glue, some details are forgotten. You will pay for these little transgressions. Ha ha on you.

They all say to build your strong back perfectly straight and level . This is pretty good idea, but ultimately, level is the important one as far as I can see. When the stations are attached to the upright boards at their required distance from each other, it will be necessary to align all the stations plumb and square. And you should constantly measure the distance between the stations to make sure this doesn't get away from you. Even an eighth of an inch will screw things up, especially if you're close to the bow or stern. I know this one from experience, and the experience sucked.

Leveling the stations without a self leveling laser must be difficult. If the plan has any rocker at all, you can't sight down the center lines on the stations for the whole length of the boat. Pulling a line taught is really good idea for the center line, but the horizontal level is not nearly so easy. I use lasers because they work very well, they can self level if you spend the cash, and because I like to work in the dark with giant red glasses on. Seriously, I can't stress the laser enough. Although, people have been building straight boats for a long time, so it can be done. And when the batteries are out of reach, I'm hooped.

Securing your strong back to the floor is really good idea if you are a klutz like myself, and prone to bumping into things. You can hyphenate a string of curses when you kick a leg of the strong back after 2 hours of leveling. You also learn to tap the strong-back into line the same way. The ' King ' has rather up swept ends, and you need to take this into consideration when setting the stations. Make sure you leave enough overhang on the front or you might have to cut it off later. Like I did.

So now you have all your wood cut and numbered and quivering with anticipation at the prospect of becoming a thing of beauty instead of fence around a McDonald's dumpster. You have your stations leveled and all at attention. The fairing boards are made, the glue is in the bottle, you have staples in the gun and are ready to start. Do you have any idea what you are getting your self into? I think not.

First you attach the internal stems to the bow and stern forms. I use inch and a half number 6 screws for this and will remove them as I reach them with the strips. Draw you lines for center and leave at least 1/4 inch down the middle to remain flat. This imperative for the later attachment of the outer stem. Don't bevel the stem yet, as the angle will change as you strip up towards the keel. Don't you just love these nautical terms?

I was lucky to have picked a few winners in the board department. I had one board that was a deep chocolate brown it's whole length. Apparently the dark wood gets that way from being close to or right along the coast. I didn't know that either. I also found some clear spruce for a fraction of the cost of the cedar. I found it at Home Depot where I have dug through all sorts of lumber to find the odd single prize. I bet they love me. I decided for a stripe right right off the hop, so I stapled the first chocolate brown shear board with the cove pointing down and a flat edge on top. Next I glued a 1/4/ inch by 1/4 inch white spruce strip along the shear. Then another chocolate strip with one flat edge and the cove pointing up. I have the bevel started on each stem and I commenced in stripping the remaining dark brown boards until I ran out. This gave me a bout a six inch wide stripe of brown with a single white pin stripe. I then continued with much lighter cedar that had stray flames of dark brown at the stern. I should have wet each board before I laid them at this stage as I think I could lined up the flames a tad more pleasingly. But I did not, and therefore things are not as pleasing as they could have been. Ask me If that bothers me. I dare you.

I was feeling pretty cocky along about now. Dick Schade suggests cheater strips and gives a bunch of examples of how to do them. Joe also thought they might be a good idea. I tried to make one, thought better of the idea, and decided to forge ahead without them. How hard could it be, really?

Well, pretty hard as it turns out.

Making the transition from vertical to horizontal at the bow was not really a problem because of the long bow lines of this asymmetrical boat. Remember when I said to remember? Well the transition from vertical to horizontal at the stern happened over about 24 inches and the board was curving to follow the hull plus sweeping upward. This is a lot to ask of a cedar strip even after it has been steamed within an inch of it's life. The end result was a bulge in the hull on both sides that wasn't even close to symmetrical and the strips lifted off two stations in a few spots. This error was over the course of about 4 boards. When I realized what I had done, I was mortified. Truly.

Ripping the strips

Whoever said that ripping and milling the strips would take an afternoon is the same guy when asked if the water is cold, says " the waters beautiful!"

Dork.

If you start your afternoon at around seven AM and end when you're done the next day, maybe. These folks must love to lie. It's just around the corner, you'll see. You can't miss it. It must be a seriously twisted puppy to want to lead some poor, unsuspecting moron into the depths of strip ripping hell. As an experienced carp, even I knew glue vapors permeated this ridiculous assumption. At $3.95 a linear foot for 1 by 6 cedar, you don't want get it wrong or rush through it.

Heres a couple of tips that I didn't find on line, but relate to table saw use. You can use a standard ripping blade, but it will have an eight inch kerf. You can use a thin kerf ripping blade at 3/32. The thinnest saw blade you can find is a 7 and a quarter thin carbide tipped thing for about 15 bucks. 24 teeth should do it. All blades will run truer if you try to find oversized blade stiffeners. I use a device called a blade truing disc that is no longer available from Lee Valley. Too bad, 'cause it works like charm. It is a disc with about 8 pug screws it that push on the body of the blade and bring it back into true. You need a dial gauge micrometer and about 45 minutes to set it up correctly, but it's worth the effort. Seeing as it is now currently made of unobtainium, I'm really just gloating, because, like, I got one and you don't. In truth, the super thin kerf blade didn't do so well. I liked the idea of loosing less wood because of the tiny kerf, and I also had been advised that this would work well from a trusted if somewhat misguided associate carpenter. I will use my brand new Freud thin kerf ripping blade with the 3/32 tooth width on the next sawdust making session. That will be thin enough. The thinner 7 and 1/4 inch blade had the tendency to follow the grain when things got twisted or the grain got weird and I think it may have heated up as I got near the end of twenty foot rip. I ended up with the odd thin board and this is a nightmare come fairing time. Consistent strip thickness is imperative. This is now some thing I know from experience, I'm afraid to say.

Another good idea is to build a feather board with about 5 - 1 inch rare earth magnets. It sticks like bugger and can re adjusted with the tap of a mallet, even when the saw is running. ( blade guard removed for clarity ) Feather boards or some kind of hold down is good on the fence, too. I built a birch plywood extension cap for my fence, and screwed strips to it to pin down the boards. A thin splitter mounted into a purpose built zero clearance insert into the table is a great idea, too. I used maple for the splitter and MDF for the insert. Try to cut from one side of the board to the other in order. Number each piece so you can sequence the boards if desired. Trust me on this one. If you have to flip a board over, make sure your marking system reflects this. Each board gets a letter. Each strip gets a number. If you flip the board, add a letter 'R' indicate cutting from the other side. If you have warped boards, which strangely enough can happen, I recommend a dry run to see if you can force the boards flat. If not choose from the following ideas. You can face the board cup down and start ripping while applying pressure. You will probably end up with some pieces that are less than perfect over their length, but with useable bits. You can face the cup up and try to force it flat while trying to keep the edge square to edge of the fence. This will not be successful and wasted material will ensue. Because warped means twisted, twisted is usually cupped. I always find that cup down is better. If both of these axis' are seriously wonky, try ripping that baby right up the middle making it easier to muscle flat, or try cutting out the twist if possible. The twist is sometimes just at one end. If you're lucky. If it's summer and hot and sunny, soak the board down, put it out in the sun and weight it down flat. Rinse, repeat. Presto. Straight board. It was february in Winnipeg when I ripped the boards. No straight boards for me.

It really helps to have at least one smooth face to start with. In the ripping process, this isn't crucial, but in the routing stage, it is. A small surface planer can make all the bad dreams go away. If the surface of the board is rough, it will not mill true. The thin strips are harder to control and you don't want the router to take off too much wood, so you will have to set the bit to take the shallowest bite. This is where the rough surface can mess you up. You don't want to make more than one pass over the bit per strip. A rough surface on the board becomes the edge on the strip, and even a little bounce will reflect in the milling. Hold downs and featherboards are a must in this operation, and another good idea is to under cut a featherboard by 1/4 inch and place it immediately behind the router bit.The undercutting will pin the strip to the table and to the fence simultaneously. Route the bead first in all your strips. If you have a few lengths of scrap maple, cut some hardwood strips, too. When you are ready to mill the coves, do a strip of maple first. I use the cove in the maple strip as a guide for the cedar along the router fence. This is where you can set the fence to allow the cove cutter to size each following strip to a consistent width. This is very important for symmetry, grasshopper. And it almost works, too!

Bursting the bubble

I started researching on line. I knew I liked the lines of the greenland style boats, so I decided to find a handful of designers who were having good luck, and start with some tried and true designs. I settled on 4 similar boats thinking that I would probably learn more about the subtleties of the craft than 4 entirely different boats. I also figured if I got stuck with too many boats, I had better like them. A solid marketing plan if I do say so.

I ordered plans for a Guillemot 'Night Heron', a One Ocean 'Expedition', a Redfish 'King' and Bjorn Thomasson 'Hunter'. I started a file on related websites and found that people really do blog about everything. The hard part is seeing who actually knows anything.

Just because you know JAVA, FLASH and HTML, doesn't mean you actually know boat building. This was an early enlightenment. Just because someone makes a pretty web-page doesn't mean they are actually human. Consider Myspace. There was one bit where the builder said, don't worry about that glue dripping down in long lines, it will come off later. No mention of a wet rag to mop it off, or possibly of using a tad less glue or that fact that the shear strength of the glue is greater than the shear strength of all soft woods and most hardwoods. Who is this mental giant? As the blog wore on I could see that the project was not going well. Not our intrepid builder though, he soldiered on. The final pictures were kinda special, in that he looked rather terrified to be in the boat.

But there are also many really great resources out there, too. One Ocean has a fabulous construction guide chock full of great ideas. All the above mentioned designers have some sort of website with some being far more extensive than others. Each one offers some unique construction tips, and a thorough search is advised. If there is one thing I know for sure; in carpentry, there are many solutions and approachs to each construction problem. I always look for the elegant way. ( read quick, slick and easy ) In my research, I found some long time builders that have streamlined their techniques and details. Some guys gloss over filleting details where some obsess. There are great ideas about stapeless construction, and some great hardware/hatch solutions. Everyone has a different idea what is correct, so use an open mind to absorb all ideas and sort through what seems right for you.

I settled on building the Redfish King first because I like his external strong back technique and it lends it self to multiple builds where as internal spines can be very boat specific. I built my strong back to heavier standards with this in mind, and with 4 supports to aid in leveling and staying level. I'll let you know this works out.

Purchasing the supplies was far easier than I anticipated, although the cost wasn't. I found a supplier of 20 foot clear cedar boards. I found a Marine repair supplier for glass and epoxy. All here in the true north. I ordered a rudder kit from One Ocean, and if I can't find a minicell foam supplier, I'll order a seat from Redfish.

I built all the sections for the strong back, and put them in a pile. I then built a few fairing boards out of eighth inch and quarter inch Luan plywood. I also made one out of three eighths wiggle wood. This turns out to be the best one. I use the cheapest, biggest belt sand paper that I can find from the chinese import hardware store. 50, 80 and 120 grit. Next I constructed 16 feet of out feed table to sit on my sawhorses for the ripping process.

A word about my shop. It is L shaped with the short leg being 10 by 16. The long leg with the door to lean-to shed open, is 42 feet. Just enough room with my table saw and router table set up in the middle. There is no direct entrance either. That means the 20 foot boards had to come in a second storey window and angle down to the first floor shop. The structure I live in is half gutted, which means that half of the half storey floor is gone. Which is kinda like an atrium. The fire inspector was slack jawed. I'm not thinking about getting the boat out at this point because it hasn't been built. Sound logic.

How hard can it be, really ?

How hard can it be, really? 

 

I was perusing a chi-chi bookstore, wandering through the craftsman section when I first saw it. That idyllic scene. A beautiful cedar strip canoe, perfectly framed and illuminated by daybreak on some quiet backwater somewhere begging to be paddled by...you (read: me ). I bought the book, and then discovered just how insane these guys were. It sure seemed like the hard way to do things, but I continued to simmer the daydream. 

She said "get in the boat."

"No, I don't think so.." that's me.

She said "you already look like a dick with that pink spray skirt on, so with your dignity gone, the adventure is all that's left. Get in the boat, pussy."

I don't like when women talk to me like that. It's so...common.

The boat was a 12 or 13 foot roto-mold cigar shaped kayak with a clip on skeg, white in color, but faded through to almost transparent in high exposure areas. I figured it was only a matter of time when stepping into this kayak would actually be stepping through this kayak. But the drug took hold immediately, and I fought the urge for seven years. 

A couple of years ago, holding a small wad of cash in my hand and thinking if I was smart, I would wipe out the remaining credit card debt, I chose not to be smart. It was easy for me. I Googled 'used kayaks, Winnipeg', found a plastic red one for $600, paddle and skirt included, hardly never used at all. Seemed like a real good deal, and it was red. 

Water levels were high that spring, and the mighty Red River was intimidating as hell, so I stayed to the smaller run-off swollen streams. The water levels stay higher now than previously. There has been much higher agricultural land cleared and wetlands reclaimed in the downstream watershed which brings added access to the smaller waterways. I'm not so sure all those folks like us paddling through their backyards, but if it's navigable, it's crown land. Or some such rot. I really enjoyed those leisurely paddles, but I quickly realized that this boat was short, 14 feet, fat, 24 inches and slow. Thus I began the education.

Two months later, I had the 18 foot fiberglass greenland style skeg boat with a carbon fiber crooked paddle. I was totally spoiling myself. This boat  was so much faster than the plastic one, I could actually cover some distance relatively quickly. So I paddled. And made bigger credit card payments.

I live in a somewhat gang ridden neighborhood that resists gangs in a rather demonstrative style, so I don't spend a lot of time walking the streets. But the cost of living is just above squatting, and I'm five doors from the river bank. It's a bachelor paddlers heaven. I built a collapsable cart that stows in either boat, and one that actually works that I lock to a tree. I keep my boats in the old store front attached to my squat, ( dumplex is also appropriate ) and can just squeak them out the door without dinging the Harleys and Escalades parked in front. I strap on the cart and it's quick drag over the levy to black mud of the Red. It's not the cleanest entry and the mud is thick and pungent. Did I mention 5 doors down? I had a door screwed to a milk crate attached to an 8 foot 2 by 6 as a dock. It wasn't so great. I started collecting plastic pallets and 2 litre pop bottles so I could construct a slightly more usable platform in the spring. If the glue sniffers don't cut it loose to go on a Huck Finn adventure, it should be a good summer. Older sister is renting a cottage in la-la lake country, and we shall live like the exalted ones for a brief fortnight. I am seeing myself in my newest boat, the yet be built pile of disposable income in my  humble workshop.   

Some where at the end of paddling season here, I started thinking about doing some thing other than what I was doing because now that I make enough money, I'm bored. My job is wearing out my hands through joint deterioration, athritis and trigger finger(s). I figure If I have to contribute to these things, I might as well build something special for me before I completely change gears. 

I'll build myself a boat. I actually thought it might be a good alternative income. HA! Going online will show you that there are quite a number of builders out there and the ones doing well are selling plans to guys like me. They also custom build in their boatshops by the sea. They are sea kayaks after all. I live in the geographic centre of Canada. Almost. I'm closer to Arctic Ocean than the other two. There are like a zillion builders in Washington state, and none here. ( well, that I know of, and what do I know? ) So, at worst, I will have a few boats more than when I started. At almost 20 feet long, they're not hard to store....