Rushton Princess sailing canoe

[Roger Wickham]

This design was suggested to me by Adrian and Pete - thank you both. It is a glued ply lapstrake hull, 15' 8" LOA. I'm using drawings supplied by John Floutier. The inner stems are laminated sapele, outer stems will be sawn sapele. Keelson is a piece of douglas fir full length. Planking is 4mm marine ply (Robins). I'm finding the hull to be quite challenging, in so much as the ply is very flexible and can easily be manipulated to lie in a fair curve in a range of positions. In many ways, a larger hull using thicker, wider planks, and where more force is required to bend and twist, is more obvious when you have it 'right' and in a 'fair' line. It's crucial to cut each pair of planks exactly the same and try to apply the same clamping sequence to both sides. There are only 7 moulds spaced quite wide apart. Anyway, it progresses and will no doubt float, but it may have a tendency to track one way.
Scarf joints cut with a router on a simple tapered jig. Area each side of joint sealed with quick dry varnish to combat staining from resin squeeze-out.

[AdrianG]

Looking good, Roger - thanks for posting the build pictures - we look forward to seeing her develop. She should be a beaut.

Have you tried a test sample to see if epoxy staining is an issue? With the clear epoxies I’ve used in the past any staining just disappeared once varnish was later applied. Could save you some effort if you don’t have to pre-varnish parts?

Kind regards
Adrian