Blog
July 26, My Other Kayak
Scott Brown who made a paddle with me last Saturday has arrived at his new station and has sent me a picture of his other kayak. That's a Kng Island paddle he's holding, not the one he made with me. That's his other kayak's harpoon that he's leaning on with his right arm. The kayak is non-traditional.
July 25, Double Baidarka Launched
We got another double out on the water just last week. Photos of the boat on the water are yet to come but in the meantime, here are some photos of the boat on land. Total length of the boat was 23 feet. Beam was 24 inches. Depth to sheer was 10 inches. Skin was 10 oz nylon with two coats of polyurethane. Total weight was 50 lbs. Not bad for that size boat. Flexibility as you might imagine was substantial. In this picture, you can see how the boat flexes over the roof of the car when inverted. When upright and loaded with paddlers, the boat isn't quite as curved, but the front does come up.
The major innovation in this boat was the sheer line. The few drawings of double baidarkas that are available show the sheer line to be almost straight. Historical photos of these boats on the other hand show the sheer line to be fairly straight up to the front of the first cockpit followed by a dramatic upsweep from there forward. At first I thought the boats had been warped by careless storage, but then it dawned on me that that probably wasn't true. Why would professional kayakers not know how to store their own boats? The answer had to be that the drawings were wrong. Why would drawings be wrong? Easy. Boats in storage get warped by shrinking skin and whoever draws up the boats has to guess at their original shape.
All this sounds great in theory of course, but how does the boat actually paddle? The answer according to its builder is "Great." He took his wife out in the boat and she stated that it was the most comfortable boat she had ever been in. This boat especially comes to life in rough water. The traditional baidarka hull with its rounded bilges and vee bottom sits upright no matter what the water does, seeminly impervious to chop. Even with waves coming to from the side, the boat continues to sit upright without any tendency to rock from side to side.
So what effect does the upturn of the sheer have on performance? The answer is that the effects are multiple. For starters, and this should especially interest the person who has to sit in the front cockpit is that the bow of this boat does not bury into waves the way that some other doubles that I have paddled have done. The front paddler as a consequence is not constantly sprayed by water and can enjoy the ride much more. The other consequence of the upturn in the bow is that on flat water, the first two feet or so of the boat are out of the water and make turning a little easier while at the same time offering reserve buoyancy for rising into oncoming waves.
July 25, A Breakdown Aleut Paddle
People have asked me before if I did break down Aleut paddles. Until a few weeks ago, I've always told them no. But then, I've done a number of breakdown paddles over the past year and gotten no complaints of breakage, so that I am gaining confidence in the carbon fiber ferrules that I have been using. So if you want any of the paddles that you see on the paddle page in a breakdown version, you can now have them that way. The only disclaimer I have is that the ferrule is 1-1/4 inch round and you will therefore get a loom that is mostly 1-1/4 inch round, but I can make it slightly oval in the area where your hands will be. All in all, the round loom is not that big a compromise. All the traditional paddles widen out just beyond the place where you put your hands on the loom, so that the root of the blade provides you with a clue of blade orientation even if the loom is round. So go ahead and order your favorite paddle in a collapsible traveling version. The broken down length of the paddle will be 3 inches plus total length divided by 2. So if you order a 90 inch paddle, the broken down length will be 3 + 90/2 = 3 + 45 = 48 inches. Lots easier to get on a plane than a fixed length stick. The extra length comes from the fact that one side of the ferrule is longer so it can stick into the other half of the ferrule.
July 25, Paddle Making Class
I got a call last Friday from a customer wanting to do a paddle building class the next day. He was just passing through town. I told him yes. So at night I went into the shop to glue up a blank and the next day, I had him carving away. We finished the paddle in a day. The way I used to do the class, I had people spending a whole day working down the paddle blank into a paddle using nothing but hand planes. The second day of class was taken up by finish planing and sanding. As I've discovered, most people aren't that good with hand planes and the carving is just a long tedious process during which the student does not learn much except that hand planing is a long tedious process. I now rough out the blank with a power planer, just leaving the student to do the finish planing and the shaping of the loom. The student then has nothing left to do except sand and rub on a coat of tung oil. So we now feature paddles in a day. Cost of the class is still the same; cost per hour has gone up, but you still walk away with a finished paddle for the same price as if I made it for you. Not such a bad deal.
July 25, More Boat Repairs
One of my customers left today with a stitch and glue boat that I repaired for him. Damage to the boat was not too severe considering that he launched it off the top of his car while the car was doing 65mph. Wind was too severe and the boat which was on one of those side mount racks simply tore the mounting hardware off the mounting bars. Admittedly, it gets pretty windy around the bay area, but this was not a tornado or hurricane that ripped the cartop carrier apart. I would say that the side mounting hardware just wasn't engineered robustly enough.
In any case, the boat is back on the car, this time with new mounting hardware, sitting flat on its keel. On the plus side, wood is strong, and I suspect that had this been a glass boat, damage would have been more severe. So yes, I might say that I am now in the fiberglass repair business. But I still prefer skin on frame. Why? For one thing, there is no sanding. Epoxy requires seemingly endless sanding and much of the effort goes into making a smooth hull and not much goes into actually building a boat. But people seem to like shiney. Several of the guys working in the shop commented favorably on the looks of the boat. Apparently their notion like most people's is that shiney is a mark of quality.
July 5, Solo Voyage Around the World
Roughly 100 years ago, Joshua Slocum sailed his sloop, Spray around the world. The Spray was a boat he had been given but then spent 13 months making it fit again, in the process of which he replaced nearly all the wood. So what does Joshua Slocum have to do with skin on frame? Nothing really except that he built his own boat and then took it on the water and had some adventures and found his boat performing admirably. We can only hope the same for our more modest creations.
Though the solo circumnavigation of the globe is an extraordinary feat, more impressive to me is the fact that Slocum was a good enough shipright to rebuild a wreck and do a good enough job that it survived the trip around the world in the process of which she had to endure numerous storms. In any case, the book is an entertaining read for anyone interested in things nautical.
July 5, The Shop Radio
Michael Perry in his book, Truck observes that every shop should have a shop radio. The shop radio provides the sound track for the shop experience. Our shop has a number of occupants and so, several shop radios. Some of our shop radios are pictured below. All the radios are not always on at the same time. However, sometimes two or three are on tuned to different stations and when the blacksmiths have their power hammers going, the effect always reminds me of a carnival where every ride has its own music.
For more on Michael Perry's book see www.sneezingcow.com
June 21, 2007 Goat Packing
While waiting for the ferry in Pt. Townsend, see below, SSTIKS trip report, we talked to a guy who uses pack goats to carry his stuff while hiking. Never heard of this before. But I approve. If we could get dolphins to carry our stuff for us while kayaking, that would be good.
Want to find out more about goatpacking? Go see the video at the Wind River pack goat site.
But I have heard of goatwalking before in a book by Jim Corbett. I read the book some decades ago and was quite impressed by it. Made me want to get goats and take them goatwalking, but I never did. Got a kayak instead. Get the book from your library or from Amazon.
June 19, 2007 SSTIKS Trip Report
I went up to SSTIKS with John Petersen and Lee Shurie. Lee did all the driving. I just sat in the back seat and vegged. Though the first 50 miles were rough cause a hellatious wind was blowing in the Central Valley and wanted to keep jerking the kayaks off the roof of the car. We stopped at a gas station and got them all tightened down with extra ropes and such and then things were better. Driving til midnight got us up to Grant's Pass Oregon. The next day we pushed up to Washington State and camped right next to Dececption Pass.
The next day, Warren Williamson gave us a tour of Deception Pass which is his backyard. Current was moving about 7mph in the pass, but Warren showed us how to move up the back eddies. This was the first time I had done moving water. The moves you had to do were kind of counter intuitive to a still water boater, but we got the hang of it and had some fun ferrying back and forth across the great swirley boils of water.
The day after that we drove down to SSTIKS which was to the south of Deception Pass. Caught a ferry and had to wait some since one of the boats was out of commission and all the traffic had to be handled by one boat.
Had a late lunch in Pt. Townsend. Hot tip: Don't buy Mexican food in Pt. Townsend. Matter of fact, if you can help it, don't buy any food on the road. Eat out of your cooler. Maybe I'm just spoiled by the variety of good food in the Bay Area, but the road food on the way up to Washington was a definite disappointment.
We got to SSTIKS just in time for supper, which we ate and which was good. Bob Kelim had made some excellent clam chowder. Then off to set up camp.
More pictures and some videos of the event here.
Saturday was the big day at SSTIKS with rolling demos, classes, etc. etc. Of course it rained all day. I sat in the picnic shelter with the intention of working on the presentation I was going to give that night but ended up talking to people instead. Before long, it was lunch.
People sitting in the picnic shelter eating lunch and looking wet.
As usual, there were lots of boats on the beach built by various people, the three in the foreground by Harvey Golden.
And here is a boat all tiedye and everything, even the coaming rim. I especially liked the use of bamboo for stringers.
In the afternoon I got some work in on the talk. At 6 it was dinner, grilled Salmon by Bob Kelim. Again very good. Then my talk. I am ambivalent about the talks I've given. Hard to be too specific with a general crowd. Hard to tell ahead of time what people are going to be interested in. I think I have to work up a routine. If I could do standup, I would prefer that, gets the audience more involved and is more universal. Much harder to talk boat.
Sunday we watched Dubside's rope demo and then headed back for home. Another day and a half of driving. Big country.
June 19, 2007 Skin on Frame
The other day, Tom Gulbranson stopped by the shop to show me a model he had made of a boat he was going to build. The idea was to come up with a design that could take advantage of the short waves that blow up in his part of San Francisco bay. The bow should be high enough not to bury in the trough of a wave and the stern should be broad enough to get a good push from a following wave. For good measure, the boat should have a skeg that will keep it tracking when running before the wind.
So here's the model a little closer up, exhibiting the various design features. Tom is going to test it by wrapping the frame in plastic film and floating it in his bathtub. Some weights in the cockpit will give an indication of where the loaded waterline will be.
I'm a little conflicted on the building of models. You can build a full size kayak in just about the same amount of time that it takes to build a model. The time spent building the model could just as well be used to build a full scale boat. But if you are building a greatly modified version of a proven design, making a model might be of some use. You can then check positioning of the cockpit and trim and make modifications to the design as needed before committing to a full scale version.
Aside from the issue of whether to use models or not, skin on frame construction is probably the easiest way to prototype a new boat. Construction is fast of course, but the best part is that since components are lashed together, if you don't like how the boat handles, you can rearrange or move components this way or that.
Imagine trying to move the cockpit back three inches on a stitch and glue or cedar strip kayak. The procedure would be tricky and the results would likely look ugly. But with a skin on frame boat, after removal of the skin, relocation of the cockpit is almost trivial. Want more vee in the bottom of your kayak? Remove the skin and install a deeper keelson. Want more vee on a stitch and glue boat or a stripper? Good luck. You have to start on a whole new boat and then figure out what to do with the old one.