Caterpillar

It has been a good week.  Since Alice was born in July, this is my first extended period without the crew around.  I am a little shocked at my inability to sit still, I used to be an excellent loafer.  But I have made progress on the boat.  It's twelve years since I built the canoe, and my skills are more than a little rusty.  I am enjoying myself though, especially since I've started putting things together, not just cutting them out.

On Wednesday I cracked the seal on the epoxy.  I put together one nesting bulkhead, and made the fibreglass reinforced butt joints on the four hull panels.

I saved the bricks when I took the non-fireplace out of the basement, I knew they would be useful one day.

This went more easily than I expected, and today I found we had a good result.  The joints seem really strong, and don't appear to be so stiff that they affect the overall bend of the plywood panels.

I got a router for my birthday this year , and today I discovered the wonder tool that is the flush cutting bit.  Even though I cut out and planed these panels while they were screwed together, they did not match up perfectly.  Flush cutting router bit fixed that.  I already have plenty of applications for this tool in mind.

Today I added the stiffener pieces to the transom, and put together the hull panels for the butterfly process.  A short section at the bow is joined using the same fibreglass reinforced butt joint that is used to join the panels.  In a couple of days this should enable the "butterfly" unfolding process that is one of the key innovations used in several of B&B's boat designs.  

When I looked at the plans, and saw that I should be able to put two panels together, drawn and cut seperately, and they should form a smooth unbroken curve, I was dubious.  I didn't really expect that to work out.  But I put the pieces down, and I think it looks pretty good.

 So I joined them up the same way I did for the panels.

Supposedly, hopefully, this will fold up into a boat.

Tomorrow, I'll get this ready to fold, and try to rip strips to make the gunwales while I have help here.