Another weekend, a bit more progress on the Lazy Weekend Canoe.

I didn’t have a lot of time, but I did manage to put together just enough time to put the chine logs on. Bending the chines did reveal that one of the pieces of lumber that I hoped to use as a chine log had a big knot it in near the end. I broke the piece testing it. There is no way that it would have bent to the shape that I needed. That means that I am going to need to scarf some lumber. I am currently drawing up a jig in Librecad that should allow me to easily cut the scarfs that I need. We will see how that goes.

The mostly knot-free pieces that I actually tried to bend into place went on without problems. Actually gluing the chine logs on took about 20 minutes per side. I screwed the chine into the stem piece at either end, and then used lots of clamps. I did have to wait about an hour between sides so that I could reuse my clamps. When you are building a boat there is no such thing as “too many clamps.”

I am excited about the progress. The canoe looks more and more like a canoe all of the time. I am, however, a little bit worried about whether or not the chines will bend to their final position. As you can see in the picture the chine logs and the gunnels are currently the same distance apart. The gunnels are at approximately the right width. The chine logs, on the other hand, need to be about 10 inches closer together. I tried bending the boat into the right shape, and it was actually pretty easy to do. Unfortunately, doing so broke the chine away from the stem or stern piece in both places where I had already removed the sheetrock screw. The problem was easy to fix, and it is easy enough to simply leave the sheetrock screws in the boat until the bottom is on and the shape is finalized. Still, I am starting to wonder if building on a temporary frame is actually required.

We’ll see how it goes. When I am done I hope to be able to provide improved plans, and a more comprehensive build manual. If these boats are as easy to build as I am hoping then I imagine that other people will be interested in my experiences.