My Way, or disregarding advice...

Seized by a fit of builder angst, I called Xabier with silly questions about the lashing of deck beams. A frequent procedure is to place the lashing on the fore edge of the beam on one side and on the aft edge on the other. Well, in my case rib mortise locations prevented that for a good number of beams. The idea of lashing on the same edge on both sides did not appeal to me, as it evoked images of beams slowly removed from their postions by the cord's constant pull in one direction. I thought that by making two holes on the beam, instead of one I could center the lashings and avoid that, but wanted to check with an expert first. Xabier sort of favored the traditional arrangements, even if it meant lashings on the same edge. I said ok.

However, when the time came and, drill in hand, I approached the qajaq, an evil, innovative spirit must have possessed me. I suddenly found myself going with my idea and drilling two holes on the beams (sorry for bothering you for nothing, Xabier...). The pictures show the resulting lashing on the ash isserfik. I am now convinced I will pay for this folly.

And that was not all. Prey of the fever of the alternative, I tied figure-eight knots instead of half hithches for all the stopping knots and the knots around the bitter end of the Eskimo knots in all the lashings. In this case however, I seem to recall that Xabier said he had done something similar and the figure-eight are supposed to be a better stopping knot.

In any case, now there are nine deck beams in position. Two to go.

Bigfoot and the qajaq

The qajaq's deck is missing the masik and deck beam #5, but otherwise complete, lashings and gunwale joining included (still "terrific job" simetry-wise. Pics in some entry to come soon). That seemed a good time to play around with the positioning and height of those remaining pieces to ensure not so much comfort, but that I'll be able to actually get into the boat and that subsequently remaining inside for a while will not be torture. I was quite worried (by now it should be clear that I am good at finding stuff to worry about...) that such a thing would require substantial alteration of the deck that would ruin the gorgeous lines of the boat.

It turns out that, by the well-known-and-not-terribly-frowned-upon cheats of moving the masik slightly forward and pushing the aft edge of the coaming a bit behind the fore edge of the isserfik I could have pretty much used the original height of the masik. However, in order to accommodate my feet while wearing some mukluks I really enjoy, the foot brace required spacers and the bow end of the foredeck stringers needed to be moved closer to the stem, probably laying upon deck beam #3. I don't really have big feet. Average leaning to smallish, actually, but, obviously, those of the original user were even smaller.

Once it was clear this modification was unavoidable, I also decided to raise the masik slightly. I think the deck actually looks better that way and it should give me an extra bit of much appreciated comfort (and margin for error).

The picture shows the qajaq's original profile below and the one with the modified deck above. I must have compared them about a thousand times, not without some anguish. Perhaps it is just resignation (this has to be done if I actually want to use this boat) and self-deception, but I am slowly accepting that the aesthetic damages might be relatively minor.

Just Like that ... (Santander I)

... only bigger and, perhaps of a lighter color, is how, in my more optimistic moments, I expect my qajaq-to-be to end up looking.

What you see above is a miniature replica of the same boat I'm building, the DNM lc. 43 (KOG plate #31). It belongs to the growing qajaq collection of naval miniaturist extraordinaire, fellow paddler, angler, cook (his mahi mahi sashimi has become a bit of a legend...), SOF builder (what he paddles in the pic below) and nice guy, Rafa.

Rafa is a true expert in traditional sailing craft from the Mediterranean coast, particularly llaguts and the like, and he's reproduced at reduced scale quite a few of them. Then, he discovered traditional qajaqs and turned his talent to them, producing outstanding miniatures of different types at a truly remarkable pace. He brought them to the past kayaking gathering in Santander and checking out the latest additions, chatting about design features and the reasons behind them and generally admiring the beautiful little boats was one of the good moments of the long weekend.

As usual, I didn't make the pictures. They were taken by Javier, a new paddling friend I met in Santander. Another highlight of those days.