Aaaagh. The problem with having once been an expert at something is that you don’t always notice when you’re losing your edge.
If you remember, (and I hope that you don’t because nobody should be that concerned with anything I’m doing), late last summer I set aside an East Greenland kayak build because I had screwed up the rib shaping and the lines were wrong.
Well last week I dusted off the deck of that kayak and finished the frame, updating a bunch of my building course videos in a process. It was the right thing to do, and yet even as I was feeling smug about my standards and integrity, I somehow managed to rebuild the kayak wrong, AGAIN. Of course I didn’t think I was doing this and only realized my mistake at the very end of the build when I bothered to check the lines on the survey drawing that was sitting 5 feet away from me the entire time!
The problem is that the keel line deviates 3/8 of an inch from the survey lines in the foot area, projecting the angle of the keel downward resulting in a strangely obtuse intersection with the bow stem. I was also a little sloppy on the stem angle and shaping which are quite nuanced in the original.
Not a huge deal in the broader scheme of things. I was able to update the videos I needed to, and the shape above the waterline is correct enough to get the on the water video I need, but I have to be honest that looking at this error just burns a hole in my brain. It’s the kind of thing that would’ve caused me to toss the entire frame on the burn pile behind the barn and go on a 20 hour building marathon to replace it in my younger years. Unfortunately the canoe building course is 100 times bigger priority than this right now so I’m just gonna have to let it go and move on. Dang.
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