KJ,
Your comments are
always welcome, solicited or otherwise.
I understand what you are saying about the relative "lack" of spacers. What you might not be able to see from the pictures is that the boat was built with the designed rub rail, per plan.
My addition of that inside rail was for two reasons. One being I new I'd need some way of tying things to the boat, but being a fly fisherman, I wanted to avoid any line-grabbing cleats, if I could.
The other reason I added it was because I saw so many pictures of boats with that inner rail or "in-whale," and I loved the look it added. To tell the truth, the
second reason came first, the other was a happy little coincidence that kept me from adding extra weight to the boat just for "looks."
So for this boat, I'd have to say that the boat was sound enough without that inner rail, and any strength gained is a bonus.
That said, I have used the inside rail to lift the boat and it held up just fine. But when I did, I remember thinking that it was "stronger than it looked." I'm not entirely comfortable with that.
Right now, the rail is supported by the 5 frames and a single spacer in between each frame. I'll add another spacer between each frame and existing spacer, effectively doubling the number of supports.
It won't have as much contact with the sides as you suggest, but since that rail is in addition to the standard rub rail on the outside, I think it will be more than enough.
Progress report:
Finished off the night by temporarily loosing the use of my right hand! :roll: Seems you can spend too much time with a death-grip on a random orbital sander. When I put the sander down, my hand retained it's shape. All better now! :lol:
Both seats are ready to be assembled. One came out perfect, the other is a little "suspect" in that I somehow managed to make the rear part of the seat support not quite as wide as it should be. Got too carried away trying to adjust for a slight difference between the two, using the jigsaw instead of a sander. The results being the upper dowel is much too close to the back edge, so close that I'm going to run some FG tape along the back edge, just in case.
Ah, and of the 4 bolts I got for the seats, two of them are too short! The bin I took them from must have been mixed, and I foolishly only measured the first one. I'll have to take another trip to the hardware store before I can put them both together.
My epoxy IS here!
I had just enough to wet out all the glass cloth on the bottom and sides, with less than an inch of the resin left in the jug. Called Raka yesterday morning and another gallon of resin was delivered just a few minutes ago! I live close enough to them that there's no point in paying for "next day" delivery, UPS ground gets there just as fast.
The guys at Raka are great!
I'm normally up all night on Thursdays, so I can be ready for my next three day "work week," starting with a 12 hour, 7p to 7a on Friday night. That means my boat-work begins in a few minutes and can run right up to daylight-something, tomorrow.
To do:
Epoxy coat and assemble two Pirogue seats, and apply 3 or so coats of epoxy to the outside of the hull, filling the weave. If I can, I'll see about adding the additional spacers to the inner rail. I
think I can do that with the boat upside down, while the epoxy cures. Compared to the last couple of nights, this is almost a relaxed schedule.
With that, it is done. :!:
I'll only have one job left for those mornings when I get home from w*rk. That would be to finish the truck rack. That's an easy one, as I've already got everything I need and I made a start on it, yesterday.
I'll get in some picture-taking and posting during the next few days. That and some weather-watching. I'm hoping for a break next week in the usual afternoon thunder-boomers. Boat's going in the water and nothing short of a hurricane is going to stop that! 8)
Mike S.
Spring Hill, FL
