Lofting

So far, Claire is neither sick of me, nor my crazy project. I think she's pumped that we're clearing out our basement; it's a step towards the eventual renovation. Lots of old furniture is going for free, but believe it or not, the ancient papasan chair is going for 50$ (with delivery).

More than one person has commented that they're concerned I might not be able to get my kayak out of the basement. Rest assured I've measured the space provided and can get it out through the double french doors I installed in the fall. I think Gibbs from NCIS is responsible planting this idea. As several people have pointed out, he's hell bent on building boats in his basement with no clear escape plan. I guess they just accumulate. No, I plan to enjoy the result of this project, and I'm looking forward to building the "little auk" for Karl, and another boat for Claire. But that's for another day (or year!).

Here's a picture of the lovely Claire happily working away behind my freshly built stands. I used the wood from the truck frame to build them and rabbited slots for what's known as the strongback, a 12 foot board used to hold the forms. I'm going to put dowels through these rabbits in order to hold it all together.

My kayak book included the dimensions for these stands, and they work out perfectly; very easy to build. I had them done around lunchtime. The cool thing about them is that they can function as perpendicular stands after the hull is stripped.

After lunch with the fam, I cruised up to the Depot and sifted through dozens of boards to find the perfect strongback. I'm getting some weird looks and questions given some of the idiosyncrasies of this project. Looking for a perfect 12 foot 2x4 in the middle of a Tuesday is unusual enough on its own to draw a few questions.

Skipping ahead, here's a picture of the bow forms dry-fit onto the strongback.

The savior of the day is loctite spray adhesive. I had rough cut my forms based on a trace of the paper cut-outs (lofting!), but glueing them to the wood helped me to get the shapes perfect with nothing but my dad's decades old jig-saw, no band saw needed. This was cool because I can recall him showing me how to use it when I was 8 or so.

Here's a sneak peak of the stern forms. By tomorrow night I hope to have it all ready so I can start stripping the hull on Thursday.

This project is super fun, interesting, and easier than you think, and when it's over, you get a boat you can take fishing, exploring, get exercise etc... If you've got an inkling to try it, I highly recommend it.