Duckworks Magazine - Of Sweat and Sanding Dust

Of Sweat and Sanding Dust

by Steve Lansdowne - Austin, Texas - USA

I got the urge to build a double paddle canoe several years back when I paddled a Charlotte built by Tom Hill while in Maine at the WoodenBoat School – a great place, but that’s another story. I liked the feel of being so close to the water while at the same time not having to struggle to balance on the rim of the cockpit while snuggling my legs forward toward the foot rests as I entered the boat, as one my have to do to enter a kayak.

The Wee Lassie was at the top of my list for a while, but I wanted to be more versatile and try a sailing canoe. I’d heard a lot about Iain Oughtred’s designs, and my experience in a cedar strip kayak-building class told me that this was a way to get a good looking yet functional boat with minimal mess if one only follows Ted Moores’ advice about scraping off excess epoxy before it hardens. After considering various designs, I opted for the Wee Rob, partially because SailRite makes a sail kit for it, and also because the plans indicated that it could optionally be built in cedar strip. A friend had built a somewhat-beamier MacGregor, which is a sailing/paddling canoe as opposed to the Wee Rob’s paddling/sailing status, but I wanted a ‘paddler’ more than a ‘sailer’. After debating about the length, I opted for the 13 ½’ version to be sure my 180 lb. weight would allow a margin of safety when it came time to sail.

I picked up some well seasoned western red cedar and a bit of mahogany, supplementing my wood supply with ash, some leftover Sitka spruce, mahogany marine plywood, and a bit of scrap redwood rescued from a dumpster. Since I enjoy the building process as much as having the boat, I opted to start from scratch, REALLY from scratch. First, I spent most of a year building a shop in the backyard to allow me to keep my cars in the garage (I always wanted to build a house, but I figured that a shop was realistically all I’d actually end up building).

First, I spent most of a year building a shop in the backyard to allow me to keep my cars in the garage

Next I started work on the canoe by ripping 14 foot long, ¾” wide cedar boards into ¼” strips, creating a lot of dust, and then built a small router table to cove and bead these. The router once got out of adjustment and I didn’t reset it quite right again, which led to problems later on as the cove/bead connection was not fully centered on some of the strips, leading to more sanding than I would have liked.

Next I started work on the canoe by ripping 14 foot long, ¾” wide cedar boards into ¼” strips, creating a lot of dust

Boatbuilding, if you aim for perfection, can get harried. Getting the plywood forms set up squarely on the strongback, built of ¾” MDF, was difficult.

Getting the plywood forms set up squarely on the strongback, built of ¾” MDF, was difficult.

I cut thin strips of mahogany for the forward stem and soaked them in boiling water for several hours, adding more water every half hour or so as the water cooled, then bent them over a jig to try to get them in the proper shape. Once they’d dried I glued them up on a jig using epoxy.

I cut thin strips of mahogany for the forward stem and soaked them in boiling water for several hours, then bent them over a jig to try to get them in the proper shape

I later found when removing the tape, clamps, and bungee cords from the strips (I built stapleless) that they were not in fact always as close to the molds as I’d have liked. Once a strip was glued and positioned away from the mold, gluing and clamping subsequent strips to it didn’t solve this problem. When I was done, some of the strips were perhaps ¼” or more off the molds, but if I hadn’t told anyone about this I’d be the only one to know.

I later found when removing the tape, clamps, and bungee cords from the strips that they were not in fact always as close to the molds as I’d have liked

I sanded the strips initially to remove saw marks, then several times later again, using a longboard constructed of plastic sheeting and wood handles, an orbital sander, and a rubber sanding block. Overkill, but, hey, I like the process!

I sanded the strips initially to remove saw marks

My outer stem at the bow was not quite accurate, due perhaps to springback, so I cut off the upper 10” or so of it and glued/screwed on a solid replacement piece that, to my surprise, actually fit. Luckily (skillfully?) I had better luck with the stern stem, which was from a solid piece of wood, and was quite pleased and proud of how well the bottom of this fit into the end of the skeg.

Despite turning down the air conditioner in the shop as far as it would go all day (I’ll admit it, I’m spoiled, but it does get hot and humid in Austin in the summer) I found that the Raka clear coat epoxy and 5 oz. cloth cured too fast (no fault of theirs) and thus at 10:30 one night I abandoned the project and, much later when the weather cooled, cut off the excess cloth and completed the remaining 60% of the glassing job. A few small bubbles show, but nobody but me and other folks who look really close can tell.

I found that the Raka clear coat epoxy and 5 oz. cloth cured too fast and thus at 10:30 one night I abandoned the project

I had John Hupfield at Lost in the Woods Boatworks in rural Canada make some simple pintles/gudgeons for the rudder. I made the spars, backrest, floorboards, thwarts, and even a caned seat (Mac McCarthy tells how in his Wee Lassie book). I made the paddles from left over spruce and a bit of mahogany. I finished it all of with a douglas fir/tricycle wheel canoe cart and a SailRite web site inspired cover to keep the bugs, birds, and dust out while my Wee Rob is stored up high above the car in the garage.

I made the paddles from left over spruce and a bit of mahogany

I finished it all of with a douglas fir/tricycle wheel canoe cart and a SailRite web site inspired cover to keep the bugs, birds, and dust out

I discovered too late that in stretching the canoe, as plans show, I didn’t take into account the sail’s center of effort, which now was in the wrong position in relationship to the leeboard’s position, though I’d calculated pretty well where to put the maststep. The leeboard was to far aft. I remedied this by adding a double leeboard arrangement on a removable thwart placed forward of where it first was. Todd Bradshaw describes this in his book, Canoe Rig: The Essence and the Art. It was then I realized that the kick-up rudder would not stay down as I had it arranged. Sailing in a small canoe with essentially no rudder is not my idea of fun. I later weighted the rudder with lead/epoxy mixture. That done, I was off to the lake. I later added a V sail from some left over sail material to experiment with when going downwind.