The long canoe build

[mattltm]

Thought I would start a thread about my first boat build. I'm calling it the long canoe as it's taken 18 months to get from drawing the plans on the plywood and cutting to actually getting it glued together.

The boat is a Hiawatha 16 from Bateau. It's a stitch and glue construction using 6mm ply.

I first got the plans 01/2012 and set to work ordering some wood. Being a novice, I asked the woodyard for some 6mm BS1088 and received this...



Not what I wanted. After a long chat with the woodyard, they agreed that it wasn't up to BS1088 (although it was stamped with it!) and decided that they couldn't get me what I wanted. They let me keep the sheets and refunded me.

I decided to go ahead and use them for my first build as I was sure I would make a bit of a mess with it and decided that I could build a Mk2 version after I had made my mistakes with this one.



It wasn't long before I had the sheets on the dining room table (very understanding wife!) and cut into the required parts...











And thats when I managed to get a whole load of new jobs to do at work and the parts were clamped together and packed up in the shed for 18 months.

We have now moved home and I have become self employed (running a B&B on the cliff top over looking the english channel) so it's time to get this canoe built and put to use...
   

[mattltm]

I managed to find some space in the garage and after a few days i've finally got the bottom, chines and upper panels epoxied together...





In all the excitement, I forgot that epoxy is very sticky stuff and managed to glue the floor panels to the concrete garage floor!



I managed to get it off OK with a small bit of damage to the floor (both floors!). I do have 2 spare floor panels so I may have another go at gluing them.

Chine panel turned over and cleaned waiting to be glassed and epoxied...



This is what the joints look like...



I'll need to clean them up a bit before I start to stitch it all together. I'm off to find some wood flour now ready to make some filler.

[mattltm]

Panels ready to be stitched... Chines stitched... Top panels stitched... Spreaders in place to hold shape... There is a small misalignment on the stern but I guess it's not bad considering the wood has been cut and in storage for over 18 months! "Spot welded" with epoxy and wood flour... Hopefully the epoxy will dry today and I'll be able to get the cable ties out.

[Gizzle]

Great.

It looks like a boat already so you are doing great :-)

[mattltm]

Thanks.

Progress has stalled for a few days because we are busy at work. Lovely weather for boat building, it's just a shame that so many people want to come and stay with us.

Hoping to do some more on it next Monday...