Day 5, Skin-on-frame rower-sailer. Build time: 7hrs.
Spent the morning making new stems and briefly reconsidered changing my whole stringer strategy and even cut a fair amount of wood before coming to my senses. In the afternoon Liz and I worked together tying on stringers which took about three hours to finish the whole boat.
This is always the moment of truth where I get to see the effect that scale and various material choices have on my planned rocker and sheer. In this case I lost all of my rocker which isn’t unsurprising considering that I didn’t start with much to begin with. There’s a tiny hollow in the keel that means nothing to the water but isn’t exactly pleasing to look at either. Ironically this wouldn’t have happened if I had followed the instructions in my own plans! The chubby quarters continue to vex me, pressing undesired tension into the shape.
With the whole shape finished in front of me I’m getting a stronger sense of what this boat wants to be, and I think that is a 38 inch wide, 15’6” 14.5 inch deep ordinary canoe. That would let me stick with five stringers per side which is really all the stringers that I want to lash, it also improves material-yields in a variety of ways. At 38 it would work as a normal canoe but is still wide enough to accept 7 ft guide boat oars for more pleasing propulsion. 14” deep was my preferred guideboat depth anyway so I feel good about that as a rower. 35 ft.² lug sail with a single reef. Forward seat with a little jaw on it could be the partners. Simplicity. Utility. Versatility in a size I’d be more likely to actually use. Anything bigger should be built a completely different way.
I’ll finish up the frame tomorrow hang it from the ceiling and then start over. .
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