Chine bLog

I just test-drove three Chesapeake Light Craft boats: a Wood Duck 12 Hybrid kayak, a Chester Yawl pulling boat, and an Annapolis Wherry. You may recall I have written about them before. I really like what they are doing.

The Wood Duck is a pretty little kayak (the hybrid refers to it being part stitch-and-glue and part strip-built). It is too small and short for my taste (I do too many longer trips and want better tracking), but for a light, easy-to-manage boat, it is a nice option. It is way, WAY nicer-looking than I lot of light recreational boats.

The Chester Yawl surprised me - pleasantly - with its rowing capability. It is attractive, but not stunning, to my eye, but I liked its performance. It also has a really clean, flexible layout that strikes me as useful across a range of purposes. The center sent and foot stretchers are designed to hook into the floor-boards, basically allowing a myriad of configurations for different preferences. Very nice touch.

And then the Wherry. It is gorgeous and it rows extremely well and I made an absolute hash of rowing it. Complete embarrassment. I know it has been a while since I skulled, but geez... If I wanted a really nice rowing boat, though, I would definitely look at this boat.

One more thing...

And then, after a final push, in the gathering twilight, the Peace Canoe had a bottom. And that, gentle readers, means she is structurally complete. Houston, we have a boat!

Just a whole lotta planning and sanding, plus a mother lode of plastic wood, and we will be cracking open a paint can or four!

At long last, I believe I have the sheer clamps replaced in a working manner. Man, oh man, was that an mistake that added time to the project! Just getting the broken ones off took several nights of careful digging for the nails with a tack-puller and cutting the goop with a utility knife. Exhausting and frustrating. But, I persevered. And now, I am ready to move forward!

So it looks pretty good. That there is a boat. So let's see... what next...

At the beginning of Howard Chapelle's seminal tome Boatbuilding, there is a 4-page introduction in which Chapelle goes through the entire building process at a 10,000' level. After talking through getting out molds, cutting the rabbet, and installing deck beams, Chapelle devotes the final paragraph to a subject that one must assume is of equal importance to the others: the "moaning chair." He writes:

In every amateur boatbuilder's shop there should be a "moaning chair"; this should be a comfortable seat from which the boat can be easily seen and in which the builder can sit, smoke, chew, drink, or swear as the moment demands.

I raise this, obviously, because I have had to spend some time in my own "moaning chair" of late, and since I don't smoke or chew and had already had my nightly beer, it was swearing that was the business of the day.

You will notice two things in this recent picture. On the good news front, I finally have attached the seats to one side panel unit and then attached the other side panel unit to the opposite sides of the seats and brought both sides together at the stem and stern post. In doing that, I should have been working with completed side panel units, chine log and sheer clamp attached. So what are those clamps doing along the sheer, you may ask? Therein lies a tale...