Cotton...whatever is started

[Jeff Horton]

Thanks Vaughn.

Will there be a rudder on this? Seems like with the length and light weight it looks pretty fast...

Rowing boats typically don't have rudders. With a sliding seat your feet are strapped down and with two hands full of oars there is nothing free to control a rudder. Sometimes a skeg is added and often it is just part of the hull design. If you look at the renderings the stern of the boat is very thin and should act like a rudder. I am expecting (that is a nautical term for assuming) this boat will track like train and want to go straight and not turn.

It should be pretty fast, but not racing speed fast. It is a recreational boat and I will be the only one on my lake I am almost certain! So no one to race anyway. With a sliding seat if you don't have a long enough waterline, when you slide your weight around the boat starts to rock, robbing speed. I discovered my strongback is barely adequate. I really need a longer one if I ever build another one of thesw.

[Jeff Horton]

Then there's the book.

I just looked at the Amazon page. Have not looked at in a while. Did you see the prices on USED copies? Higher than new ones!

I sell autographed copies cheaper than that off my web site. That is crazy!!

[Doug DeVore]

Here's a good start, Doug:

http://www.kudzucraft.com/

Jeff's done a few other build threads here, too.

Then there's the book.

LOL! I feel a little stupid now. Jeff I must apologize, I did not know how serious you were about building them. I guess I need to hang out more :-)

My shop time has been a little limited these days because of my self inflicted busy schedule.

[Jeff Horton]

Between work and sprained ankle I have not been able to work on this much. Went to the shop for a while this morning but ankle made me give up after an hour. So I took some photos and worked on an update instead.


I got in the shop a little bit yesterday and got to work on lashing some of the stringers in place. I built the stands I work on and one of the great things is I can can off the top bar and lower the boat down on one of the cross braces. This allowed me to sit in a chair and work. Was nice to be able do something besides watch TV. Trust me, there is nothing on TV!




I like to lash the center of the boat together leaving the stringers long. Once I have this done I will move to the ends and start on them.



As you can see the stringer were very long on this one. Other than being in the way it's not a problem and I can use the cutoff by scarfing them together into longer pieces for use on the deck or seat stringers in another boat.



The transom is going to be interesting to build! A little harder than I anticipated but I am not surprised either. Once I get the bow done I will start on it.

[Jeff Horton]

Latest update.

http://www.kudzupatch.com/blog/2012/...omes-together/

[Vaughn McMillan]

Looking good, Jeff.

[Jeff Horton]

Have not made much progress but I am really close to taking the frame off the strongback. Between the ankle and other things going on I just have not gotten to spend the time on this project I really wanted too. But today I finished lashing everything but the deck beams. I needed to scarf some of the cutoffs together to get the lengths I needed for the deck. Those are clamped and letting the glue dry. Tomorrow I may be able to get it off the strongback.

Really anxious to get it off the strongback and flipped over. It’s going to make fitting the transom much easier. Here is a couple of photos.

[Chuck Thoits]

Jeff I was just wondering if ratchet straps would work better than the bungees? Tighten them loosen them any length and could put more pressure on them if needed.

[Jeff Horton]

They would be to strong and cumbersome, for me anyway. I tried 'pull' straps I use to tie the boats on the rack and didn't like them, so I just use bungees now.

[Jeff Horton]

Frame came off the strong back and I took out in the yard for the obligatory F.R.O.G. photo. (frame on the grass) I still love that raked transom.

I took it back into the shop and placed it on the trailer just to get it out of the way so I can clean up around the stands.

I noticed there was more flex in this frame but there is also more wood, so it is heavier and skinning always stiffens them somewhat so it wasn’t a big deal. Then I was on the other side of the shop, turned around and I could see the frame was hogged. No doubt about it, the bow was lower than the center of the boat. I could not believe it! I took and string and tied it to the boat stretched it along the keel, found that the bow was 1″ lower than the center of the boat.

After a lot of double checking and measuring I still didn’t have an answer, just a couple of ideas. After removing a few lashing, forcing the boat back in shape and studying why it wanted to deform when the pressure was released I have found a couple of reason I suspect are behind this. Of course there is only one way to find out, but that is for the next post.