Homemade paddles, another camera stand, & whatever

When I got my first kayak I tried making a spray skirt, even tho I really had no idea what I was doing, and I started making a homemade wood paddle, just for the sake of doing it, I guess.  I had only a slightly better idea of how to make a paddle than I had of how to make a spray skirt.

 The shafts are from closet poles, and are probably douglas fir.  The blades are from marine plywood left over from an old project, and the blades' shape was traced from a cheap aluminum paddle.  The blades are epoxied to the shafts, and have a few stainless wood screws as well.  A length of aluminum tubing from an old paddle if fitted to the end of one shaft so that I'd have a two-part paddle.  The wood finish is tung oil, and there's epoxy on the blade tips.

Although I started it a few years ago it's never been completed.  The shafts ought to be thinned, and maybe the blades should be reshaped, and I don't want to bother with it. 

The back of one paddle blade.

The unfinished wood paddle.

The aluminum tubing joint thing.  The inner-tube cover was meant to retain a pin or clip that would hold the other shaft in.

The marine ply I used was old and stained, but doesn't look too bad.

I started making a greenland paddle just so I could try using one when I was finished.  I used maple, poplar, walnut, and teak scraps that were already hanging around, but next time I won't use as much hardwood.  The redwood was from a local home-improvement place.

This paddle (like the other one) gets put aside for long periods, and probably won't be done anytime soon.

Ugly scarf joint.  If the paddle ever gets done I might put
something on the middle of the shaft to hide it.

The homemade spray skirt was put aside when I got a nylon touring skirt, and I've been waiting for another old wetsuit to come along so I'll have enough material to finish the waist. 

Homemade spray skirt (with a too-small tunnel) that came with my first hard-shell kayak.

Homemade, still unfinished, inside-out spray skirt made from an old wetsuit.

The camera stand should be plugged with some kind of closed cell foam so it will float.  I'll probably use some foam sheets from an old life jacket for that, and then test it to see if it's buoyant enough to keep the camera from sinking.  If it isn't I can add foam to the outside of the stand, or put the camera PFD on the camera's lanyard.

The steel spring in the cheap plastic C-clamp will probably be ruined by salt exposure, but the clamp was already broken, so I don't really care.  The camera will be closer to the clamp (and so a bit less prone to going out of alignment) when I find a stainless or nylon screw the right length.  (And a retaining clip to keep the screw from falling out.)

I could also put the bilge pump on the deck forward of the cockpit, and clamp the camera to that instead of using a stand.  I think the convenience of using the stand will offset the annoyance of having extra gear, and the camera won't be in the way if I need the pump.

Camera, clamp, and PVC stand.

By having the camera mounted on the clamp I can also clamp it to the end of
the paddle and use it for self-portraits at more than arm's length.

And there's other stuff that I just never bother to write up, like the kayak seat made from an old PFD, the Seascape .5 project boat, canoe repairs, the folding kayak project, and re-purposed gear.  Is anyone else interested in that?

Tyne assembly part 2

How to assemble the Tyne tandem folding kayak, continued.  I'll add some photos when I have them.

The almost-assembled Tyne.  The coaming still needs work, and the forward seat back isn't done yet, and there are lots of other things that need attention.

To recap:

• Assemble the stern\back half of the frame and shove it into the skin;

• Do the same with the forward\front half of the frame.  The parts will overlap in the middle of the boat.

The Folbot Super came with a strap for holding the parts of each half together while they were put into the skin.  A length of nylon webbing will work if you tie the ends together.  It shouldn't be hard to make to a strap the right length with a loop at each end for this job.

• Now: take out ribs FRONT 3 and BACK 3 (if they were already put in to make the assembly easier).  Lift the the center ends of the floor boards up and look under them, and you should be able to tell how they lock together.  Put the ends together (still raised) and press them down towards the bottom of the boat.  Push firmly but don't force them; tug on the skin, push the floorboards and release and push again, and so on, to get the frame into the ends of the skin, and keep doing this until the floorboards are flat and locked together.

• Lock the sides together:  pull the ends on one side towards the center on the boat, and fit the short tab at the end of the aft side board into the notch under the metal thingy on the forward board.  Repeat with the other side boards.

• Get the stringers into their notches.  Make sure that there is a sliding ferrule on the end of one stringer on each side.  You need to put the ends of the stringers together and slide the ferrule from one over the end of the other.  It might be a little easier to get the ends together if you pull them away from the skin, and if you slide the ferrule out a couple of millimeters so that the other end can slip into it.

The sliding stringer ferrule.

• Put in all the ribs, then check to make sure everything is latched and the stringers are in their notches, and get ready to put the coaming on.

• The heads of the bolts in the coaming boards go thru the grommets in the deck and onto the brackets on top of the ribs.  Each of the screw heads on the coaming should go thru a grommet.  If the boat's skin has shrunk then this part can be a headache.  Spring clamps can be useful to hold things together.

Coaming assembly.  I still need to make the coaming brackets for the center rib.

I haven't managed to get the coaming done yet--the grommets, bolts, and brackets don't seem to all line up at the end of the cockpit, so I need to tweak the parts some more. And I kind of think there's supposed to be a cap on the front of the coaming, like there is on the Folbot, but I guess I can do without it.

A look into the cockpit.  You should take a moment to feel sorry for all those people who don't look at my blog and will never get to see this.

Tyne tandem folding kayak problems and repairs

I think the Tyne tandem folding kayak is somewhat like the Folbot Super.  It's a bit shorter--about 17'--and about as wide (36" or so).  It has wood dowels instead of aluminum tubes for stringers, a rubberized canvas hull (I think) with a canvas deck, and other differences, but I'd guess that when it's assembled it looks much like the Super.

The frame, assembled without the missing parts.  The skin can't be put on until the replacement parts are useable.

I bought a Tyne tandem folder at a garage sale.  It was missing some of the frame parts (including a bulkhead\frame), and had broken parts and a few parts that had plywood delamination.  Previous owners had, apparently, continued to use the boat as problems occurred, sometimes making adequate-at-best repairs when it was absolutely necessary.

Partial guide to terminology and part names.  It's meant for someone else who acquired a Tyne and doesn't quite know what to do with it.  I'm probably the only person who will ever look at this.

 Here are some of the problems the kayak had when I got it, and some of the old repairs.

Broken frame.  The missing wood was replaced with thin garden-variety plywood, and the fittings weren't replaced at all.

Broken side.  The parts weren't glued flush, and a patch of cheap plywood was glued (right on to the varnish) on the outside and seven or eight galvanized screws were added.

Side view of broken side

The old parts and the new replacement wood.  The new part is marine plywood left over from an old project.  It was clamped to the old side so that both could be cut at once and have exactly the same angle for the butt joint.  The holes in the old and new parts will be filled with epoxy.

The side with the old wrecked part cut off.  The bits of plywood that were cut off the replacement wood were glued onto bare wood with waterproof wood glue, and will (I hope) be thin enough to allow the side to flex like it's supposed to.  (I probably should have put them on the outside of the panel.)  Marine epoxy will be used to put the new part on, with a bit of fiberglass on the other side to reinforce the butt joint. 

Broken floor, and a broken stringer.

The plywood that went bad was probably wet for long periods.  Some of it has been replaced with laminated 1/4" white oak until I get some marine plywood.

The bottom of part of the keel\floor.

Plywood removed from under the floor

There are two coaming boards on each side.  The connector shown at the bottom in the next photo joins the forward and after coamings on each side.  I've made a temporary aluminum connector to replace the missing brass (or bronze) one.

Coaming parts.  The parts on the right are missing from the coaming on the left.

Coaming back right and back left parts.

Old and new coaming boards and couplers.  The new parts still need some work.

Replacement center rib.  This is probably supposed to have a seat back on it.  For now it's made from good exterior plywood sealed with epoxy.

By the way, here are a few places to get supplies for a project boat in my area (west Contra Costa County, California):

• MacBeath Hardwoods in Berkeley (and San Jose, San Francisco, and elsewhere) has marine plywood and every other kind of wood, and woodworking supplies.  They're right across the street from
• Urban Ore, which can be a good place to find used things that can be cut up or re-purposed.  At various times I've found very cheap used lumber for stands and temporary structures, stainless steel and brass hardware (sometimes in unopened packages), aluminum tubing, hardwoods (including walnut, cherry, maple, rosewood [once], and tropical woods that I couldn't identify), shock cord, nylon webbing, Yakima roof racks, a canoe paddle, boardsailing equipment, wheels for a kayak cart, an unused spray skirt, and loads of other things.  Sometimes you can go there and find nothing at all useful, and sometimes you can actually find the thing you were looking for.  Take some time and get your hands dirty and you'll probably be much more successful.

• For new boat building and maintenance supplies go to Whale Point Marine and Hardware in Richmond.  They have regular Ace hardware stuff, and they have almost anything West Marine has, including marine-grade stainless steel fasteners, and stuff WM doesn't have, and at more reasonable prices than WM.  There's a West Marine a couple of blocks away if you want to do a shop-to-shop comparison.

• Eagle Marine in Martinez doesn't have nearly as much good stuff as WM and Whale Point M&H, but they have epoxy, fiberglass cloth (ask someone behind the counter), and other useful stuff.  (If you're there on a Saturday morning you might be able to see the guys who are restoring Joe DiMaggio's old Chris Craft in a nearby building.)

• The reuse room at the Contra Costa Household Hazardous Waste Collection Facility in Martinez has gallons of paint, lots of wood stain, and I've found paint thinner, spar varnish, teak oil, and other useful stuff--and it's free.  You probably won't find the good stuff if you just go once, and the stuff you take may turn out to be useless, but if your budget is tight then you need to check it out.

I'll add to this post when I get more of the wood parts and metal fittings done, and get the photos taken.  I might make a new light(er)weight skin for the Tyne if I can ever get the right material for cheap.

More Folbot notes - seats, longerons, plywood

The seats were modified by some prior owner, maybe because they wore out or mildewed.  The renovated seats have that terrible cheesy open-cell yellow foam rubber--the stuff that absorbs water like a sponge.  A seat that doubles as a sponge doesn't seem like a terrific innovation to me; sitting down on a seat with an unexpectedly soaked cushion is only fun for the spectators, not for the poor dork who has to use the seat.

The just-plain-stupid foam cushion in one of the Folbot's seats.

The seat has a passable (but poorly glued on) vinyl cover, so what it needs now is some kind of closed-cell, durable, cushiony stuffing that will remain buoyant in all circumstances.  Some PFDs--maybe all of them, who knows--have sheets of white closed-cell plastic foam inside, and it seems like this stuff could be cut and glued to make a passable seat cushion.  Another alternative would be to use pool noodles or pipe insulation, maybe cut into a bundle of strips to make the seat less lumpy.

Foam sheet from a PFD.

PeteS on the Folbot forum suggested a boat cushion--which could be a Type IV PFD, which is a useful thing to have on any boat.  It could be held in place over the plywood seat bottom with (for instance) some simple clips on shock cord, in such a way that it could be easily and quickly detached if necessary.

The bottom of the seat and the brace.

I think the seat plywood is original, and I'm not sure about the braces.  If the brace is original, it may have come off when the glue failed from old age--which is a problem that affects the paddles and the boat's wood frame--and the screws pulled out of the plywood.

The bow assembly.

The longerons are the aluminum tubes that run the length of the hull and support the skin and the sides of the deck.  The flattened ends of the middle longerons are cracked where they attach to the bow and stern assemblies, maybe because they need to be shortened; page two of the Folbot Super assembly manual at John Burch's site says something about shortening the tubes if they are so long that they aren't in contact with all the frames.

The forward end of a middle longeron from the bow assembly.

I suppose the best solution would be to replaces the tubes; the next best would probably be to weld the crack shut.  I don't consider replacement an option, and I don't know how to weld (yet), so I sanded the cracked area inside and out and put epoxy putty around both sides of each crack in the forward tubes.  When I get around to the stern tubes I'll clean with a solvent after sanding and then work some liquid marine epoxy into the crack and add the putty when that's dry.  Wrapping the tube end with fiberglass tape and epoxy might be another option if it doesn't add too much bulk to the tube.

The longerons are supported at the bow and stern by bolts that runs thru the wood and thru the tubes. Rather than try to shorten the tubes I might try move the hole forward by drilling a new hole for the bolt a bit forward of the old one at the bow, and epoxying a hardwood dowel into the old hole to fill it.  If that doesn't seem to make it harder to get the bow into the skin, and if the tubes are still too long, I could try the same thing at the stern.  This trick is reversible--the old holes can be drilled out and the new ones filled--but it would be harder to lengthen a shortened tube.

The edges of the tube at the flattened end seems a bit sharp, and I'm going to sand these down so they won't be able to gouge the inside of the skin.  It seems to me that if the tube ends had a slick surface that didn't cause friction with the skin then assembly might be just a bit easier--but maybe not enough to justify the effort.  Or maybe it would help a lot; I'll just have to try it to find out.

The end of the stern assembly. 

The stern assembly looks like the bow assembly (pictured above).  There's a rotten spot on the stern, maybe from a damp garage floor.  In the lower left you can sort of see where the lamination of the plywood is uneven.  I think that this is caused because wood shrinks as it ages less in the direction parallel to the grain than it does perpendicular to the grain, and since the grain of each ply in the plywood is at right angles (or at least at a different angle) to the grain in the surrounding plies, the odd plies are either higher or lower than the even plies.

I suppose the edges could be filled with epoxy instead of being sanded down and then sealed with epoxy or oil or whatever.  They ought to be sanded when the wood is re-varnished every n years anyhow--plywood edges can look really good if they're sanded properly before being finished. If the boat's skin has shrunk (I hear that's a common problem) then sanding the edges, and some extra off of the foremost and aft-most extremes, should be mandatory.

The rotten spot ought to be cut out and replaced, preferably with some more marine plywood, since it looks too deep to just sand away.  It would be nice to have some kind of abrasion-resistant patch under the ends of the longerons so that the varnish wouldn't be scraped away.  (Or maybe the longerons could be fixed so they don't scrape.)

Project boats

I'm outfitting an old fiberglass river kayak for flat water.  This boat's a lot like the one that I used for a couple of years before I got the Necky Looksha Sport LV, so I didn't have any reservations about adopting it.

The red river kayak

I got this as an almost-bare hull (it had foot pedals) and I added deck bungees fore and aft of the cockpit, a temporary seat made from an old PFD, a temporary strap-in skeg, carry handles at the bow and stern, and shock cord (from a ruined tent fly) to keep the handles from flopping around.

Deck rigging and the temporary seat

Grab handle on the bow

I also added grab lines along the gunnels.  The forward ends are connected with the same bolts that anchor the foot pedals, and the after ends are just tied around the stern.  I plan to eventually replace the lines (which are currently cheap braided plastic rope from Harbor Freight) and add some kind of anchor points for the stern end of the lines.

Stern rigging

There are holes thru the bow and stern ends for lines to use for carrying the boat.  I used some thin cord thru these holes to anchor the carrying handles because I wasn't able to disassemble the handles and run the attached cords thru the holes in the boat.  This arrangement seems to work--for now.  Like everything but the deck bungees this is likely to be temporary.

The kayak before its first sea trial.

The kayak on the Carquinez Strait.

The Tyne folding kayak

I bought a Tyne wooden-frame folding kayak at a garage sale a couple of months ago.  (The boat was made be Tyne Canoes Ltd., or Tyne Folding Boats Ltd.--I don't know which is correct yet.)  The seller mentioned that it needed work, but neglected to mention that one of the bulkheads was missing.  I've managed to replace or repair many of the parts (both wood parts and brass parts; some of the new parts need more work), and because I was sufficiently distracted by the missing or broken things I didn't realize that the center bulkhead was missing altogether.  I can make a replacement bulkhead, but after having done the rest of the repairs, and thinking I was almost done, finding that a major part of the frame was missing has killed my enthusiasm for the project.  If you want to buy a project boat (wood frame and hypalon skin, for what it cost me so far), let me know.

Note, November 2012:  I bought a Folbot Super at another garage sale.  It's similar to the Tyne, but newer, and complete as-is, so that it's not really a project boat.  I'm probably going to sell one or the other of them if I ever finish making parts for the Tyne and get it on the water.

Flying fish apocalipse

If you haven't seen one of the Asian jumping carp videos yet, take a look at this--the fish that makes ecological disaster fun!

Posted on youtube by dorlandtgroup at http://youtu.be/F37GA8I3gBQ.  

 I don't know where this was shot.  There are lots of jumping carp videos, from different parts of the Mississippi River basin, none from the Great Lakes--yet.  The fish is the silver carp, which has been introduced to and is well-established in the Mississippi and is working its way north. These aren't small fish; according to the Wikipedia entry, silver carp "can grow to over 40 lb (18 kg), and can leap 10 ft (3 m) in the air. Many boaters traveling in uncovered high-speed watercraft have been injured by running into the fish while at speed."

I can't stop watching these videos: they show dozens or hundreds of fish jumping, and people in open motorboats being pelted with fish.  I've seen one with a little kid standing in shallow water, surrounded by tiny jumping fish, and one with kids on water skis, in carp-hunting costumes, trying to hit fish with swords.  There are a couple of videos in which the guy holding the camera can't stop laughing, and in some the scene jolts once in a while as the cameraman is hit by a fish.

And, of course, the silver carp has a terrible effect on the environment.  I suppose the videos won't seem as funny if the fish ever get to the Sacramento River.