Portland has a law that older homes slated to be torn down must be deconstructed which has given rise to an entire salvage industry here. A couple days ago I headed over to Reclaim NW for a smoking deal on some pine and fir for a couple new sets of catamaran boards.
I’m not obsessive about it but I like to work with salvage lumber when I can. I guess there’s an environmental benefit here but what I really like is that each stick comes with a story which adds another layer of richness to the project.
For the next catamaran trial I’m spreading the kayaks 4 inches wider in the hopes that it reduces the pressure wave between them (see yesterday‘s video) for a dryer ride and faster surfing. Of course every inch further apart they are the more stress there will be on the attachment points so I don’t really know what is possible or safe until I just get out there and stress the system.
As with all trips to anywhere that wood is sold, I went out in search of something specific and came home with something more. The pine is what I actually needed, but it was pretty hard to pass up this nearly clear flat grain full dimension Douglas Fir. As soon as I saw it I knew I was going to be making a ridiculously wide experimental kayak catamaran.
These boards are long and HEAVY, but they should let me do something ridiculous like put a platform between the boats. This is probably a bad idea…
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