West Greenland Kayak Time Lapse: steam bending test ribs.
I’m not adding today’s work to the build time because this wouldn’t normally be part of the process (unless you’re designing your own boat!). If you followed the last build you know that the giant leap of progress that I made on this design was ditching the fixed rib lengths I’ve been using for 15 years and figuring out a formula-based rib length system for this kayak (like I use on all my other boats).
The advantages of formula-based rib measuring systems are that they are much easier to use, the shape ends up fairer, it gives you the freedom to move individual ribs a little bit if you need to, and it gives a lot more freedom to easily scale the kayak to a variety of different sizes.
The problem is that on this kayak I changed the rib spacing and the scale of the kayak, which sent the new rib measuring system into total disarray.
Trying to figure this stuff out can be pretty tricky. The basic idea is to create the boat shape that you’re looking for and then subtract the length of the ribs from the width of the boat at that mortise location, and then look at what’s left over and see if you can identify a mathematical relationship thats simple enough to turn into a measuring system. It’s OK to have a few weird random adjustments in a formula but when you start loading it up with all kinds of bizarre arbitrary measurements at some point it gets too cumbersome to teach or use. It’s not uncommon for me to go through 10 or more sets of test ribs when I’m figuring out a new design.
Today was pretty frustrating and it seemed at one point like I wasn’t going to be able to make the formula work at this rib spacing, but by the end of the day I figured out a reasonably elegant measuring system that I think is going to work. We’ll find out when we bend in the actual ribs tomorrow!
___
This post was originally featured on our Instagram feed.
See the original post and discussion here.
