Playing With Boats

We’re doing a construction diary of Harry Bryan’s double-paddle canoe Fiddlehead. In the last post, we were laying out the shape of the bottom, so let’s pick up from there.

A finishing nail is driven in at each point, and then a flexible batten is held against it with other nails to make  a smooth curve. This leaves a few small holes, but they tend to disappear as the project goes on.

It’s tough being fair in both life and boatbuilding. Before the curve is drawn, it’s important to sight down it and make sure that it’s “fair,” without humps or hollows or flat spots. The longer your view of the curve, and the lower the angle you view it from, the easier it is to spot unfairness. If you see a spot that looks flat or hooked, pulling the nail and watching the batten move will tell you if you have a problem. Sometimes I nail a line and go for a walk before drawing it.

The fair curves of the bottom are bandsawed just outside the pencil lines.

The sides of the bottom are then dressed down to the pencil lines with a block plane.

The shape of the watertight bulkhead is transferred from the plan to masonite to make a pattern.

The bulkheads are made up of two diagonally-opposed layers of ¼” cedar glued together with epoxy. Cut from random widths of cedar, they make economical use of scraps from the bottom planks.

A completed bulkhead with the pattern. The circular hole in the middle will have a screw-in watertight hatch.

Since we’ll be building this boat with classes, I’ve made masonite patterns for all of the smaller parts, including the midships frame, the stems and the coaming brace. These were made the same way as the bulkhead pattern, by pricking through the plan and then joining the points with pencil lines.

Finished spruce pieces for the stems and the midships frame.

Transferring the curved line showing the start of the stem from the pattern to the stem.

To be continued. . .