Mistakes

I'm just marking locations of things on the gunwales and already I'm learning a lot. The kind of things that can't be told on construction manuals, be them books, or even the amazingly detailed qajaq building blog by Paco.

Proof of that, I guess (I hope!) is the number of mistakes I've already made, decisions I've reversed, etc. I'm slightly surprised. Realistically, I probably shouldn't be.

Good news is that I've caught those while no major harm was done. What worries me now is whether I could say the same when the ones I haven't noticed (and there will be some of those...) surface...

Shape

Another picture taken by yours truly. It does a great job of showing why relying mostly on other people's photographs for graphical illustration of this blog is such a wise course of action.

It also does a not so good job of presenting the set of forms which should shape my future qajaq. Sheer line will come from the gunwale flare those forms will kindly suggest to the gunwales. The (untested and regarded with sincere worry) slots for chine and keelson stringers should help me achieve the desired hull shape. I couldn't readily find plywood of adequate thickness, so I cut the forms from an MDF board. MDF seems to stand for Medium Density Fibreboard and appears to me like extremely compressed sawdust. We'll see how they work...

I don't actually expect the pieces of wood to fit on the slots in the first try, but that's what files and rasps were invented for, weren't they?

Knock on Wood

Yeah, I took the pic above. The place where my kayak usually rides on top of my car was then occupied by another (or, at least the frame, of another) one. Only, this one was in a very early stage of development.

By that time, the kayak-to-be was a 4,90 m x 20 cm x 5 cm piece of what is called around here "pino melis", which could actually be, shortleaf, loblolly, longleaf or slash pine (and reasonable likely to have come from "my" state, Georgia), and a 2'40 m x 15 cm x 10 cm chunk of American ash. Now the pine has become two future gunwales, two future chines, one future keelson, a piece to be cut into straight deck beams and some remnants and I hope to start working on them in a couple of days.

Masik and arched deck beams are still inside the ash piece and will remain there for a while yet.

Paddling

Passtimes...

Still not really working, so I keep spending (possibly just wasting) time in the small side projects. Namely, and since I want to build a semi-replica, I've been thinking (possibly just worrying) about ways to ensure as much a faithful reproduction of the hull as reasonably feasible.

What I've come up with are the modifications of the forms that determine sheer and beam that decorate this entry. I've extended them so that, besides the gunwales they will receive and, hopefully, keep in their proper positions the chine stringers and the keelson too.













I have to admit I actually have some mild fun doing this sort of things. They may even be useful, for example, they help me to keep track of the changing angle of the gunwales along the length of this qajaq. A feature that does scare me a little bit. Well, maybe more than a little bit, to be honest.

I really, really wonder whether this will actually work.

Fooling around

While I wait for the wood and for the weather to mellow enough to allow extended stays in my unheated workspace, I cannot help it and play around with various software and sets of measurements.

Among other things, I've been taking a look at the location (theoretical!) of the centers of buoyancy and gravity, deciding the location of the forms and producing ideal distributions of deck beams and ribs on the gunwales. I've ended up with 10 beams + masik, which happens to be what Brian Schulz of Cape Falcon Kayak used for his semi-replica of this same boat. Ribs have come up to 19. Which is more than Brian's numbers (but, from the pics, I'd guess he used wider ribs), but two less than the 21 (of the same dimensions as I intend mine to be) that Paco García put on his latest qajaq (whose gunwales are some 0'65 cm longer than mine will be). So, it seems about right, doesn't it?

I know all of this may be a bit heretical and run quite against the spirit of Skin-On-Frame construction, where you abjure plans and patterns, because "the process is the pattern" and all that. But I tell to myself that, after all, the very idea of building a semi-replica is probably abandoning "the path" anyway. So a bit of additional heterodoxy...

Truth is probably that it simply beats just waiting...

Antropomorph? (Building II)

I said I was going to build a traditional Skin-On-Frame qajaq. It was a while ago, yes, but I've actually started moving. I've made lists of materials needed, I've ordered the wood that should become the stem and stern pieces in a nearby shop, potential bending stock has been found through a friend's generosity and I've gone ahead and done the balancing act and accompanying measuring to find the location of my center of gravity in a paddling position and to record some antropomorphic measurements. This is to adjust the placement of some structural elements so I can actually enter and fit into the qajaq. This is what I obtained:

Isserfik at 300 cm from the bow

1. Isserfik to Sit Bone 19,6 cm
2. Isserfik to Center of Gravity 31,0 cm
3. Isserfik to Masik 58’5 cm
4. Isserfik to Knee Brace 75’6 cm
5. Isserfik to Heel 107,4 cm
6. Isserfik to Foot brace 117,1 cm

And even this seemingly innocent, simple task provided some anguish. Somehow I came to think the figures didn't seem right and I started doubting my measuring procedures. Fortunately, a quick consultation with Xabier and some fooling around with the image of the stick where Alapala recorded his measurements (good he published it....) and the dimensioning tools of some software dispelled much of that worry. My data gained some plausibility and I some peace of mind.

I'm afraid this building thingie is going to be quite emotional