Cotton...whatever is started

Jeff Horton

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The Heart of Dixie
I have got to name this boat. I am torn between Cotton Row, my initial idea and Cottonwood.

I was playing with different designs looking for a pulling(rowing) boat. I took a previous design and made it more like a scull. Added a deck with coamings, lowered the profile while trying to keep some traditional styling in the boat. For those of us that are more experienced boaters (read: older) keep some stability since this is for exercise and recreation. Long enough to take advantage of the sliding seat. For use on protected water but keep the bow tall enough that it can deal with some chop too. Crown the decks to divert any that water off to the sides.

It will be built SOF. It is just shy of 19' waterline. I am building my own sliding seat and outriggers. The seat is done but I have not started on the outriggers yet.

This is is most recent rendering. Outriggers are show just for looks and not to scale. As I said, it will be a complete drop in unit. I working on making the outrigger quickly removable for easier transportation.

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I started cutting the frames today. Actually I got them cut out, just need to do a little clean up work on them and sand the edges a little smoother for them to be complete.

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I rough cut them from the plywood with the jig saw and do the final cuts on the bandsaw. One thing I hate about the bandsaw is those stupid ball bearing guides! I don't know why anyone thinks they are an improvement. They scream like a banshee and I just put new ones on it. It's so loud I have to wear ear protection or I think I would go mad!

Instead of buying new bearings I should have bought the parts to convert it over to cool blocks. It sure would have been money better spent.

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Here you can see my prototype sliding seat. I have the base built and dry fitted together. I want to get the frame built and put in the boat before I glued it anything. I want to make sure I like this and I see no reason I wont.

One thing I know I have to change is the looks of the footrest. That big slab may bet totally functional, but it sure is ugly. Not sure what I am going to do but it really needs something!
 
What a beautiful craft Jeff. I know little of kayaks but, you do have the gift of design for these things IMHO. Do you use a router and a carriage jig to shape the seat?
 
Thanks Glenn. This is going to a rowing boat, not a kayak. Sort of an oversized scull if know that term.

The seat I bought. I looked at a lot of options for sliding seat and realized that I was spinning my wheels trying to reinvent the wheel so I just bought replacement units.
 
Looks like a nice design, Jeff. Looking forward to seeing the build. :thumb:

I have got to name this boat. I am torn between Cotton Row, my initial idea and Cottonwood...

Well, there's always Cotton Pickin'. That way, when one of your customers is working to build it, his wife can come in the shop and say "Aren't you done with that Cotton Pickin' boat yet?" Or when it's done, she can say "You spend all your time down at the lake with your Cotton Pickin' boat!"
 
One of my teen age patients wanted a horse. She wanted to name it "Meanwhile Back at the Ranch" because that phrase seemed to appear in so many Westerns."

Enjoy,

JimB

Of course you could name it "Caught in a Storm."

When I try to post this I get an error message. It says I have to have at least 5 characters. I think its counter is off.



Well, there's always Cotton Pickin'. That way, when one of your customers is working to build it, his wife can come in the shop and say "Aren't you done with that Cotton Pickin' boat yet?" Or when it's done, she can say "You spend all your time down at the lake with your Cotton Pickin' boat!"[/QUOTE]
 
It has taken me a couple of days to get back to work on the boat. I have spent a few minutes here and there over the last couple of days. I caught a couple of mistakes and today I finally got most of the frame dry fitted together.

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As you can see the stringer are way longer than needed. I bought 12 foot lumber and I ripped and scarfed them together. They end up being 23 feet (+/-) long. Other than being in the way being to long isn't a problem. After I am happy with what I have and lash the frames in place I will trim them back. I always save the cutoffs because they can scarfed together to make longer pieces.

I couldn't resist putting the rowing unit in the boat once I got the stringers in place the bungees tight.

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Placing it in the boat helped me see what I had but left me with about as many questions as answers. Still not sure how I am going to mount it to the boat. Looking at it I came up a couple of ideas that might work. Also thinking I need one more partial frame to support the unit.

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From this angle I could see that I could shave an inch off height off of the rowing unit frame. That will lower the center of gravity and making the boat a lot more stable. There is enough space under the foot board that I can slide it downward and my heels could actually be below the rowing unit if I wanted. Plenty of room to make it me properly.

Tomorrow I will lash a few frames in place that will not change. But I am think I am going to be pulling some of them out and making some alterations.
 
Thanks Vaughn. :thumb:

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.
 
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!

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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.

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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.

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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.
 
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.


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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.:dunno::dunno:
 
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.

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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.
 
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