A Slow Boat To Nowhere

[BuckeyeDennis]

If the diagonal grain is not strong enough for kerfing, you've already identified a possible solution. You could first make a kerfed deck with the grain transverse, and then top it with a converging-grain veneer layer.

[RodJ]

Al, Another way of approaching it is if you want a curved deck, you might want to look at developing your deck camber using a pair of sticks joined at a slight angle of a few degrees off 180. There's also a mathematical way of doing it. The curve will be a lot more aesthetically pleasing and less barrel-like This is a lot easier to strip plank. The flat bird's mouth is also very traditional.

Here's a link to a kayak so (strip) planked. http://www.fyneboatkits.co.uk/photos/pr ... -kayak.jpg

EDIT - here's a video showing the method being used to draft an arched doorway. You can adapt the dimensions for your canoe and how much rise you want.
http://www.finehomebuilding.com/item/74 ... llipse-ish



This is the exciting part - not knowing where you're going, having at best a ghost like vision. Eventually you get there and you're 1000x more experienced for it.

Thanks for posting all your ideas and alternatives. It's really helpful to see and learn from your work, and it's also very beautiful. Good luck!
Rod

[algale]

Al, Another way of approaching it is if you want a curved deck, you might want to look at developing your deck camber using a pair of sticks joined at a slight angle of a few degrees off 180. There's also a mathematical way of doing it. The curve will be a lot more aesthetically pleasing and less barrel-like This is a lot easier to strip plank. The flat bird's mouth is also very traditional.

Here's a link to a kayak so (strip) planked. http://www.fyneboatkits.co.uk/photos/pr ... -kayak.jpg

EDIT - here's a video showing the method being used to draft an arched doorway. You can adapt the dimensions for your canoe and how much rise you want.
http://www.finehomebuilding.com/item/74 ... llipse-ish



This is the exciting part - not knowing where you're going, having at best a ghost like vision. Eventually you get there and you're 1000x more experienced for it.

Thanks for posting all your ideas and alternatives. It's really helpful to see and learn from your work, and it's also very beautiful. Good luck!
Rod

Thanks Rod. I will check these out. I probably won't be experimenting for another week or so which gives me time to research.

[shipwright]

Hi Al. You've been getting lots of advice and options I see and almost all will work however you may be making this a lot harder than it needs to be. First of all I'm pretty sure canoe decks are usually flat (I could be wrong) but if you want one with camber the standard boatbuilding method would be to simply "fashion" it from a thicker piece by planing / sanding a convex surface on one side and shaping (likely grinding) a concave on the other.
You should be able to get a decent surface on the concave side of the piece you have with a 4" mini-grinder if you want to go that way or you should also be able to do it with the original glue-up. It's a pretty simple piece. You just may be over-thinking it. :-)

[algale]

Hi Al. You've been getting lots of advice and options I see and almost all will work however you may be making this a lot harder than it needs to be. First of all I'm pretty sure canoe decks are usually flat (I could be wrong) but if you want one with camber the standard boatbuilding method would be to simply "fashion" it from a thicker piece by planing / sanding a convex surface on one side and shaping (likely grinding) a concave on the other.
You should be able to get a decent surface on the concave side of the piece you have with a 4" mini-grinder if you want to go that way or you should also be able to do it with the original glue-up. It's a pretty simple piece. You just may be over-thinking it. :-)

Hey Paul,

Some canoe decks are flat, some aren't. It is purely aesthetic. As for methods, easier is usually better so I'll give it a go with thicker stock and having at it with various implements of torture at my disposal. As always, thanks for checking in and helping me stay on the path of the straight and narrow.

Al

[dlewis]

I have an 18.5. ' shoal-draft skiff called Pilgrim.
I built her 14 years ago. I'm looking at her now at the dock.
A story about her is the lead article in the online magazine Small Boats Monthly.
Building and maintaining a wooden boat is not work. It is a Zen experience. Keep going!
Lots of help is available on the Wooden Boat Forum.
Don Lewis
On the Rock River in Illinois

[algale]

I have an 18.5. ' shoal-draft skiff called Pilgrim.
I built her 14 years ago. I'm looking at her now at the dock.
A story about her is the lead article in the online magazine Small Boats Monthly.
Building and maintaining a wooden boat is not work. It is a Zen experience. Keep going!
Lots of help is available on the Wooden Boat Forum.
Don Lewis
On the Rock River in Illinois

Don, thanks for the encouragement. I'm still working on my Slow Boat to Nowhere. I'm this close to being finished with the sanding and fairing of the inside -- but my SWMBO has found other projects, like rebuilding a fence, that are eating up my precious summer weekend hours, which are really the only time I can work on my canoe. I will get there, slowly.

Meanwhile, I took a look at the article on your boat, Pilgrim, and it is a beautiful boat. For those who want to see it: http://smallboatsmonthly.com/article/pilgrim/

[RodJ]

I have an 18.5. ' shoal-draft skiff called Pilgrim.
I built her 14 years ago. I'm looking at her now at the dock.
A story about her is the lead article in the online magazine Small Boats Monthly.
Building and maintaining a wooden boat is not work. It is a Zen experience. Keep going!
Lots of help is available on the Wooden Boat Forum.
Don Lewis
On the Rock River in Illinois

Don - Nice work and great encouragement! This Slow Boat to Nowhere thread is fantastic. Hadn't read the current issue of SB yet so this is a pleasant surprise to find the actual builder here on this forum and thread. I remember reading the WB article on Redwing way back when and may have the original issue with a few others saved for reference. It was something I thought would work great on the Texas coastal bays. Beautiful job on her and inspiring! The forward berth looks like a wonderful hidey-hole to escape one world and day dream your way along in another world. Just perfect. Thanks for posting this up.

Question - did you use your shopsmith to build her?

[charlese]

Hi Al! Been following your progress and doing lot of head scratching without a good, or better/safer/stronger way to make your deck. I have been wanting to help, but had no better ideas until reading shipright's recent post. It was predictable he would have methods under his hat to solve this deck issue.

I'm all for making the deck from thicker material - sanding the top to the curve wanted and grinding the bottom. He suggusted a mini grinder. I don't know what a mini is, but I lately used a 4 1/2" angle grinder and a kutzall disk to do seat and arms of rocker. This method may work for you.

Maybe a Mini Grinder is a Dremel with a Kutzall burr disk.

[algale]

Thanks, charlese. I also think that's the right way to go.