Rose Island

 I haven't posted a blog about a paddle in a while. so here I go.

Rose Island is another of the many islands around Newport, R.I. The last post I wrote about an island around here was Dutch Island, and it turned out that my exploration of that place was illegal!  I checked this one out a little better, and it looked interesting.

Put in at Jamestown's Freebody  Drive. A nice area with a calm gray sand beach. Paddled under The Newport bridge, to a pier in Newport. Pretty nice conditions, albeit a bit bouncy.

Passed this lonesome little island, which try as I may, I  can't find the name of! It must have historic/patriotic significance.

I wanted a shot where the bridge piers dwindled to "infinity", but I couldn't the the angle right.

Found a gravel beach on Rose Island. The Newport Bridge demands its picture taken:

The lighthouse. Met an old guy who "informed" me that the island was closed, and I wasn't supposed to have beached my boat, but I could take a quick walk around. Gee, thanks. Generally, when people start spouting rules, should they at least give themselves some identification, an some in charge of dispensing rules?

I like lichen

The cool stuff I saw on the map is of course. closed off.

These looked like barracks, but I think you can rent a room here:

In this area, I also saw a Sign With Rules. You can beach a boat where I did, and the island is open for walking around after August 15. Maybe that guy was the Custodian Of Special Lockdown Rules.

Complete

...on the absurdly early date of 4/2.

Now what am I going to do on "furlough? 😖
Weather is Early Spring-40's when cloudy, 50's when sunny. I know I won't be able to wait long before trying it out.
4/6....and so I couldn't! Waited 2 excruciatingly for two cold, cloudy days until today, when the sun came out, and it was near 60 degrees. Tried it at my Favorite Tryout Lake. Got a decent fit in the cockpit, after some adjustments. On the water, it seemed slow, but I had to keep reminding myself that I was mentally comparing it to the speedy Outer Island. Stability and tracking are good. I want to see how it acts in waves. 
6/8
After using it in a variety of conditions, I like it better than at first. The O.I. is faster at top speed-this boat seems to glide more easily at low speed. Predictably, a little more "bouncy" in waves.

Outfitting

Due to the "furlough", I'm already outfitting the kayak, and it isn't even April yet.
It occurred to me today, that I am much too used to doing things "fast", and that I now have plenty of time for details and do-overs.

I decided to actually do the drill/fill/re-drill thing on the holes in the deck. In the past, I had drilled the holes to size, epoxied the hole, and put the bolt through. On the Outer Island, I can see dark spots where water penetrated the wood. This time, I actually drilled the hole oversize, filled the  hole with epoxy, and drilled to size. When I drilled, I got only epoxy chips, so I'm thinking that it works better this way.
I decided that hatch the rim needs more sanding, and another coat of paint.

Skeg control. I had almost forgotten how tedious it is to put this together. I neglected to prevent epoxy & varnish from going into the holes, so spent quite a while reaming them out. Something didn't quite jibe regarding the length of the inner tube, and the travel of the cable necessary  to make the skeg go up & down-the inner tube popped out of the outer tube when the skeg was all the way down. I think it may be because this skeg is smaller than the design size. The little black gizmo on the right stops the knob from going down all the way and pulling the inner tube out. All this makes much more sense in practice than in print 😀

I decided on a new way of doing the deck rigging, besides the usual criss-cross pattern. I figured that all I really use the rigging for is to hold my wet bag & pump, and these will do the job. I got the through-deck plugs online. The bungee cord is simply knotted under the deck.

The backband was saved from the kayak that I donated to charity two years ago. I also saved the seat,  which with an adjustment to the width, worked out fine. The side braces seemed to have come out angled inward a little, which seems strange since I leveled the kayak and plumbed the braces. Made some fancy angle cuts on the table saw.

Varnishing In Winter

Work is progressing very fast. My workplace is closed due to the coronavirus, and I'm shut in.

I've never been as far as varnishing in the month of March. And wouldn't you know, the mild weather ended today, it was 35 degrees and snowing. My hygrometer in the basement read 44%, so I went ahead for a first coat. Seems to have gone adequately well.

Another almost accidental "revelation"- Epiphanes varnish and thinner barely smell! In the past, I had been using Interlux varnish with their 333 thinner, and it made a mighty/scary/toxic stench. I made a coat, then fled the house for the day. I just made a coating with the Epiphanes a few hours ago, and can't smell a thing. 
The Hygrometer never went over 55%, so I went on with all coats. Varnishing is a P.I.T.A. no matter how well or badly I do it.😏

Sanding Outdoors

...On the ridiculously early date of March 20. I have no idea why the work is proceeding so quickly.

A chance to see the two kayaks side by side shows that the SLT is indeed "little", but mainly in length, not volume. This messy job went fairly quickly. 

Details

The skeg control box and footbrace kit went routinely, no photos necessary. Trying to figure out a really good way to paint the cockpit rim.
Normally, I don't like to digress much from the topics of building/using kayaks, but things have gone Somewhat Crazy due to the Coronavirus. My workplace is shut down for two weeks. As everyone is encouraged to stay home, I'm glad that I have a stay-at-home project to occupy me. However, I need to learn to stop multitasking and budgeting time! 😉

Bulkheads

I used junky 1/8" plywood from the lumber store. It was painted on one side, and I glassed both sides with 2 oz. Having no luck in using any station form for a template, I resorted to the plumbing solder technique. The seemed to go in crooked-I think that they were  too flexible. I seem to remember using 1/4" ply in the past. Maybe I'll give foam another try next time.

Cockpit Rim

I had originally planned on a molded fiberglass rim, but could not find plywood as flexible as the junk stuff they gave me at the lumber store years ago. I thought of a few options, then decided to fall back on a laminated plywood riser.

This seemed easier than I remember. I did have to waste a lot of plywood, so I used ultra-garbage underlayment.

The rim glued to the risers. The assembly still isn't glued down to the deck.

In place and painted.

Hatches

I decided not to use the hatch templates I've been using "forever", and go for something different-ovals. I couldn't find anything handy to use for a template, so I went online and learned how to mark out an oval using the compass. It was a neat thing, made me feel like a smart child.

It provided this groovy-looking template.
I made the spacers & lips in the usual way. These openings are going to be a little smaller than usual, almost for "show".

It all went fairly smoothly. I used fairing filler and painted.

Deck Work

Sanding the deck went fairly routinely. I decided not to go to extraordinary levels of perfection.

This guy is an onlay, not an inlay. I never seemed to get the "excavation" right when I've done inlays, so I went for this method. I'm hoping that everything will saturate all right.

I still had a few problems where the hull stuck out further than the deck, and I couldn't squeeze it in. I sanded it down right through to the bare wood in a few spots, but these will be covered by the deck overlap.
Glassing the deck went well enough. I stuck to my new "heavier coats" approach with some success, and didn't hit the glass much. As expected, the area of the onlay  needed multiple coats to even it out.

Joining Deck And Hull

I "got over" cringing about drilling holes in the hull, and put several more pull-together sticks in. I also tried pulling a double-sided piece of sandpaper between the halves, to attempt to align the joint.
This time, I put a full coating of thickened epoxy on both halves, instead of spot-gluing.

Quite a barrage of clamps, straps, tape, and shrink wrap holding it in place. The tension sticks made it easy to align the deck and hull. I fervently hope it holds once I remove all this stuff!
The kayak looks bigger than I thought it would. Vaclav's designs do.

Huzzah! I removed all the apparatus holding it together, and nothing moved or distorted!
I did try putting in the strips of 4 oz. tape, and it just wouldn't happen. The strips are hard to make in the first place, and they wouldn't unravel without going "out of control".
I "resorted" to fiberglass tape. I got (ridiculously cheap) 1-1/2" tape, and did the seams without problems. I think it was the 2" stuff that seemed to drink up mass quantities of epoxy.
All this makes me want to try a design that uses sheer clamps.

Fixing Hull "Issues"

I think I figured out why the hull expanded:
1. Weather. There were big fluctuations in temperature/humidity when I was ready to glass the hull. I was too intent on Getting It Done, and didn't notice the expansion.
2. Short kayak, lots of small strips, and new-to-me wood. I think that the low-density pawlonia absorbs/desorbs moisture quickly. The ease of heat-bending is a clue.
3. Timing. I'll have to, in the future, find a way to put the halves together while everything is still fair. I may try glassing the hull exterior first in the future.
I went on that Favorite Message Board for suggestions, and as expected, plenty of response. This is one of the suggestions:

Ratchet straps and blocks of wood pulling the hull back into the forms. Fortunately inexpensive, $10/4. Very glad to see that when the gunwale is pulled in, the hull conforms almost perfectly to the shape of the forms.
Of course, now that both sides are glassed, the wood won't react to temperature/humidity changes, but I hope that the whole thing "takes a set" while the epoxy continues to cure for a while.
Nope. 😒 I left the above arrangement in place while I glassed the deck underside. When I removed the forms, the hull sprang right back out to its original shape.
I tried getting the deck to fit by using the straps and blocks of wood, but the hull was very much wider than the deck, and the deck kept diving down into the hull. On to Plan B:

I put the forms back in with the straps holding them in place as in the above photo. I made these sticks of lumber to pull the hull back into the forms. After I got over cringing about drilling holes through the hull, I did several of these. I'm hoping that they will hold the hull in shape enough to be able to work with the straps & blocks.

Glassing The Hull

As usual, sanding the hull was more work than expected, and every flaw is staring at me. 😉
Interesting: I did set the hull up with several forms hot-melt glued in place. They fit snugly. While sanding, they had a tendency to fall out, and today I noticed that they don't fit snugly any more-the gunwales have expanded back out to where they were before I glassed the interior. The epoxy shrinkage is temporary? I'm interested in seeing if the hull shrinks back to the forms after glassing. The hull now sticks out as much as 1" from the forms, and that will make the fit "challenging".
After setting the glass in place, I only needed to cut one small dart in the end of the stern. I decided on two 3' x 2" reinforcing strips at the bow & stern.

The strip in place. I find it easier to place the strip on the wet epoxy, after the main sheath of glass is saturated, than to try & saturate the  two layers at once.
After the first fill coat, I noticed that the hull is definitely not  shrinking back to the forms-on the contrary, it spread out. On my favorite message board, one guy suggested that it was more about the wood being affected by temperature and humidity than about epoxy shrinkage. It's going to take some "serious doing" to fix this. Come to think of it, this is the same problem that I had last year. Maybe 3/16" strips aren't really a good idea?
Almost ironically, this is the best epoxy coating I've ever done on a hull. I went for a thicker fill coat, and the weave is mostly filled after the first coat.

Hull Interior Work

 After removing the deck, once again, the Bow and Stern forms wouldn't come off the hull-just like the last time I built a strongback without internal stems. Again, I had to "get medieval" to remove them. Oddly, I didn't really find any spots where the forms & hull were glued together badly, but I guess it doesn't take much. The wood glue on the duct tape seems to stick just enough to make it difficult.

I filleted the ends. In the past. I had left these wet, and put the fiberglass on the wet putty. This time, I'm going to let them dry, sand, and possibly use some more before fiberglassing.

I did sand the fillet basically, and skim on another coating of dookie. I placed form #3 back in the hull, by way of experiment to see if I can use the forms on wet fiberglass to prevent shrinkage. Form #5 is in the dry area.
I decide not to go "nuts" fairing the interior of the hull this time. If the glue residue is so tough, and so resistant to everything, some of it can stay in.

After 'glassing the interior, I placed three forms in the hull, and noticed that the sheer of the hull was actually wider  than the forms. The forms are (supposed to be) there to prevent the hull from shrinking too narrow, but there was a gap between the forms and the hull. I decided to tape them together & see what happens. This might have been the problem last year.

The usual end caps. I kept them as small as possible.

The skeg box in place. This turned out to be a bit of a finagle, because the center strip is covered in dookie, and I couldn't see it for alignment. I got around it by marking the center with two small holes. 
I'm also trying to pull the gunwales together with tape while the epoxy (supposedly?) shrinks. I placed a few forms in the hull, pulled the hull to them, and placed tape across the boat. I'm going to try this with hot-melt glue when I 'glass the hull exterior.
Interesting. After the third coat of epoxy cured overnight, the pieces of tape that were tight  became  slack. It seems that the epoxy takes a day or three to shrink. I'm definitely putting several forms in the hull while I 'glass the exterior.

More Decking

As usual, more scarf jointing, and heat bending to make the curve from the front of the cockpit to the rear. 
I used cedar for the outside edges, and the center. I was considering using cedar for the entire deck, but it would have been too boring, and I didn't know if I had enough material.
I plain-sawed the rest of my pawlonia, tuned up the surface planer, and made 8' x 3/4" strips. 

The plain-sawed wood yielded  some interesting grain figures.

I extended the center deck strips to a form beyond the extent of the cockpit opening. The "whiskey plank" on this side is heavily clamped/taped/wedged into position. I hope it makes the transition from the bottom to the top work.

The final, Official Whiskey Plank-more like a splinter than a board.

Starting The Deck

I flipped the boat using the usual "rope" technique.
Everything looked pretty good, except that there was a little "hump" in the design of the ends of the bow & stern. I puzzled for a while about how to strip around it for a while, then decided to sand it down. I know  that I can strip fairly without sticking to the forms 100%,

 I had to move form #5 in the bow, and form #14 in the stern to make the center strip run fair. I actually considered leaving them out, but it looked like a long stretch between forms. Again, I can manage to run fair strips without "slaving" to the forms.

Again, I used scab boards to straighten the narrow center strip. 
Observation and Revelation 😉 : If it looks straight, it is straight. In the end, your eye will tell you if something is or isn't straight or fair. In the past, I have come up with involved methods to align things by measurement, that looked crooked when done. Let the straight strips be straight! 😉

Hull Work

I hadn't milled enough pawlonia, so back to sawing. This time I plain-sawed the 1" board and split the 1" strips in half, rather than making a 5/8" strip and wasting 1/4". 

This saved wood & gave me a lot of slim strips. Progress across the hull seemed very slow!
Stems. I sawed several 3/4 x 1/8" pine boards, and made a bending jig of Masonite:

Didn't work well. The strips tended to crack instead of bending, when heated.
I found that the strips I was using for the stem lamination were really too thick to make the curve, and I had to re-do the stems with really thin strips. 

Shaping. Going routinely.

Working With Chairs

"And now for something Completely Different"...A 70's joke 😏
I acquired some old kitchen chairs, and decided to try my hand at weaving rush seats. They were in need of refinishing, so I cleaned & painted them.
Of course, found a video on YouTube. 

I painted this one with glossy polyurethane paint. The weaving was much more confusing than expected-many back-up-and-do-overs, and redo's seemed to redouble my confusion. I had a problem keeping the laps square, so I ended up with a nasty space toward the middle.

Second chair. This one is painted with a more sensible Rustoleum spray paint. This time I got the whole thing covered. I learned how to unravel the material a little bit & make it wider to fill spaces, and finally got a feel for the weaving pattern.

Third chair. A little better. I got the strands in a little tighter on the edges and fewer noticeable gaps in the weave. I now realize that it takes more than three chairs practice to get the weave looking  neat. 😏

Redux of the first chair. I learn a few more details every time. This time I discovered that I can wet the material more than I previously thought, for "molding". I kept the tension on the strands  throughout the process.

Sawing

Interestingly, it seems that all of the wood for this build will be plain-sawed.

Sawing a cedar 2 x 4 in the driveway. The 14' board was too long & heavy to control on the table saw, so I tried this arrangement. This is the first time that I actually used that edge guide for the circular saw to good effect. 

Cheaters in Pawlonia

I ran the usual full-length strip out to the ends of the form. I got it all the way out to forms 2 and 16 before letting it run out. The 3/16" x 5/8"   pawlonia strips are more flexible than cedar.

On the stern, I only needed two cheaters to fill in the gap. It seemed easy to plane & sand the pawlonia. As far as matching the strips for scarf joints, etc. goes, it all seems to be about the same color, except for some brownish grain pattern.
The pine and pawlonia are almost the same color. I'm hoping that they will contrast  more after finishing and ageing.

Filling in between the sheer and waterline strips. I think that the waterline strip may be visible where the differently-grained pawlonia strips end at it. 
Pleasantly surprised that the pawlonia responds to heat bending even better than cedar. The only theory I can think of is that it contains less lignin than cedar, and "less lignin" is easier to heat up than "more lignin"?