4th of July Weekend

This year it seems we made every possible effort to be away from home over the 4th of July weekend...

On Saturday, we were invited up to the same camp where we celebrated the 4th last year.  While last year was definitely a "top ten" kinda day, this year was only a "top twenty" as DD is away visiting family for the week.  

As with any good outing, it starts by packing the car with food, drinks and gear...

 

Then, we've got to get it all unloaded once we get there.  Fortunately, my porta-minion (DS) was helping to carry the paddles, and later the new life-jackets that we bought for he and DW.

This year we were smart and were strategically early...

 

Note the nearly vacant front lawn...

The weather was perfect - not too hot, not too humid, not too sunny and amazingly I didn't notice many mosquitoes.  Then again, I did spend the better part of the day out on the water in my boat.  I should be ashamed, really as this is the first time I've been out this year.  The location is a rural camp on a man-made pond and natural beauty surrounds you wherever you look:

This year, DS decided he definitely wanted to go paddling.  Partially, I think he was looking forward to seeing a young lady who is a classmate of his who was there last year.  While initially timid, he finally decided that he wanted to paddle the hostess's blue plastic kayak.  I must say, with the wooden boats at his disposal, I don't know why he chose that one, except that it probably "felt right" to him.   DW got into the Charlotte  - much to my amazement.  So,  with everybody properly kitted out with their brand-new PFD and a borrowed boat,  the three of us headed down the pond.

Not long after our return, DS decided that another trip was required.  Down the pond he and I went again:

 

 

...and back around to the dock.

 

As you can tell from the pictures, the weather was perfect and the water pleasantly warm for so early in the season.

  

As the afternoon wore on, more guests arrived and the party next door was in full swing.  The neighbors with the cabin next door are actually folks that I went to High School with and have known for years as are quite a few of their guests.  I later found out that their parents (who are no longer with us) started the tradition of the 4th at the "lake" 35 years ago.  The boys are carrying on the tradition in fine style with live music and a great time.

 

DS's friend arrived and I took the two of them out for another paddle.   We paddled down the pond towards the dam and stopped for a minute to visit with two of my boat-building students who have a camp at the pond as well.  The patience of my two paddling partners wore thin and I had to leave, chasing them up the pond.  When we returned, the two of them played in the shallow water near the shore for a long time, enjoying each other's company.

Just prior to dinner time, DS decided that a little fishing was in order.  So, with borrowed rod, tackle and canoe, we headed across the pond for a little fishing and more quality time.  DS hasn't done much fishing and was having a hard time getting the mechanics of pressing the release button at the appropriate time to cast.  Eventually, he got the hang of it and was casting the lure a decent distance.  Not being much of a fisherman, I was much relieved that he caught little other than pond weed, although he did have a few nibbles.

 

Quite a few people as you can see from the lean on this swim dock.

 

Dinner was a truly impressive affair with prodigious quantities of grilled ribs and chicken, hot dogs and sausage, bowls of fresh fruit, salads and cole-slaw of many kinds.  If you were hungry, it was your own fault.  Dessert followed at a respectable pace for those who could manage to find a little room after dinner.  I'll have to say that I couldn't give the desserts the respect that they deserved!

 

As the sun set, party-goers reluctantly dragged themselves out of the water and changed into warm dry gear for the evening's main event. 

DS's classmate and her mother generously stopped by with some glow-bracelets for the kids on the dock which was certainly loaded to capacity with people chatting and passing the time away. 

The folks at the cabin next door put on a display of fireworks that is truly impressive.  They tow out an old aluminum rowboat that is the launch platform.  A canoe, which was loaded beyond belief (Heaped well over the gunwales - almost chest height!) with boxes of fireworks stood off at a distance from the rowboat. The main fusilier is in a small kayak and carries the boxes of fireworks one at a time over to the rowboat and lights them.  It takes a minute or two between boxes, but it was well worth it.  They put on a display with patriotic music playing that lasted about 45 minutes - each box probably held about a dozen shells that were very impressive:

Other camps around the lake also had their own fireworks displays launched from shore - sometimes one or two, sometimes a whole barrage.  Often they'd be shooting them off as the rowboat was re-stocked.  Fireworks were going off nearly continuously and sometimes you had a difficult time choosing where to look.  I will say that there is a sense of competition going on here - the displays from other camps were much more impressive than they were the previous year!

We finally departed at about 10:15 PM and DS was asleep in his car seat before we even got to the end of the road.  When we got home, he went straight up to his room and fell asleep in his clothes!

The next morning we slept in and were generally lazy.  We had an invite to a picnic at a classmate's house in the afternoon and the weather wasn't looking promising.  It started to rain - OK pour - at about 10 AM and was still raining when I left to pick up a few things at the grocery store for our contribution to the food.  It continued to rain as I got home and prepared the food.  We left in the rain and arrived at the picnic in the rain.  The host had fortunately thought to get another awning to keep food and people dry.  It is a good thing that my friends are hearty stock because it was well attended - only a few invitees didn't show.

The groaning board was truly well-laden and again, we ate much too much... 

Eventually, the rain stopped and we had a few peeks of sunshine.  The kids played in some inflatable pools and squirted the hose and waterguns at each other, while parents watched, were occasionally sprayed and chatted with one-another.  Much to DW's chagrin, DS got into the water action in a big way.  I say this because we'd told him to bring a swimsuit and towel anticipating pool and water play.  He refused  - "I'm not going to swim in the pool and I'm not going to get wet!"  Yeah, right.  Shortly after arrival he was soaked to the skin.

Mud and wet bits of grass stuck to the children seemed to be the rule:

 

  

A cold glass of beer with friends wasn't unwelcome...

 

When we finally arrived home, DS's major complaint was that he was hungry.  Hungry?  We just left a party with all kinds of things to eat and you're hungry?   It seems that at the party his only intake was a few cookies, lemonade and some watermelon.  What?  no ribs, chicken, burgers, hot-dogs, pulled pork?  No salads, corn-on-the cob (best of the season, too!) cole-slaw or veggies?

Man.  

The kid needs to ditch the "air and Cheerios" diet.

On Monday - the 4th, we got up relatively early and picked up my father.  We were headed for a wonderful parade at a nearby town.  This parade is a real "Norman Rockwell" experience with a country parade with all the trimmings, a petting-zoo, craft exhibition, fireman's muster, games and entertainment for the kids and all the trimmings you'd expect with a small town parade.  It's like you turned the clock back 50 years - and it is wonderful!

The parade opens with a state police cruiser followed by the town police chief.  Military veterans, politicians and scouts follow along with some home-spun entries, horses, cattle, floats, antique cars and trucks and finally the volunteer fire-fighters bring up the rear. 

 

 We arrived a bit later than usual for the parade and were situated right at the start.  DW picked a spot in the sun and it was HOT.  I was sweating just sitting there.  I went through a bottle of water and was just praying for a cool breeze.

Did I mention that it was hot?

  

DS managed to catch his usual quota of candy thrown from various floats and vehicles as they passed by...

 

After the parade, we were invited over to a friend's house for a barbecue.  It was a nice quiet affair after the past two days with 8 adults and 4 children.  My friend is a former co-worker and the builder of a beautiful sea kayak - a very clever and handy guy.  His wife, also a good friend is the sister of a high school classmate and he and his family were the other attendees.  A few red, white and blue corn chips, salsa and guacamole to start and again, the tables were well-laden with wonderful things.   There was shade and a breeze and it had cooled down a bit after our medium-rare experience at the parade.

 

I really need to say something about this friend's house.  His parents bought it from a farmer (along with a woodlot) as a summer camp.  It's landlocked in the famer's property and the camp is located at the edge of the fields.  Both the farmer and my friend's parents have both passed away and the current generations do what they can to help each other out.   It is a peaceful and bucolic location - cows browsing just behind you over the stone walls on occasion.  The pace is just different here and I think that it's wonderful.

  

It's such a small town that the one of the farmers who works the land - here turning over hay that afternoon - is the police chief and a volunteer firefighter for the town!  He and his brothers also helped my friend split wood the last two years.

 

DS brought his binoculars so that he could go "cow watching".    He was good enough to share and play with my classmate's son.

I think the true highlight of the day for the two youngsters wasn't actually the parade - it was the trip down to the back fields and into the woods to go see an old sugar-house in my friend's little 4-wheel-drive Kubota!

Tech Tip Tuesday

If you look at some of my posts, one of the common labels that you will see is "Devil is in the details..." I think that the best canoes are those where the builder has thought ahead to how they want the canoe to look when it is finished. Often, the new builder is so wrapped up in what they are doing at the moment, that they're not thinking ahead to the finishing details.

The choices are only limited by your imagination. The variety is really mind-boggling if you think about it too much. There are lots of good examples of how to finish your canoe's details by looking at both classic and modern canoes - it's a matter of taste, really. Pictures can be found by searching online for images using "canoe bow" and "canoe deck".

After the hull is finished and 'glassed, the trim needs to go on. For our small solo canoes, this typically includes the seat, a thwart, decks and gunwales. For those that like the woodwork a bit fancier or are concerned about shipping water over the deck (a serious concern in small canoes with low freeboard) a coaming - a curved lip at the back of the deck to help deflect water away from the inside of the boat is a good idea.


Another good thing to add to the canoe is a footrest. This helps as you paddle the canoe to give something to push against. Often, this is just a stick parallel to the front edge of the seat and tied to the front edge of the seat.

The other concern that people have a hard time figuring out is how to tie a rope to the bow and stern of the canoe. This is important for several reasons. First, you need to be able to tie your boat down to the top of your car to transport it. You also will want to tie the boat up so it doesn't float away from a dock or beach. You may also want to be able to "line" the boat through shallow water where the bottom is too muddy to walk along beside your canoe. This needs to be secure as the forces on your canoe - particularly on the car - can be high as it is going down the highway. You definitely don't want your hand-made boat to go flying off. (See my previous post on transporting boats here.)

There are lots of ways to attach a line to the front of the canoe. You can put in a ferrule like the one below:


It is a hole drilled through the bow of the boat that is lined with a piece of brass or bronze tubing that has rounded edges to keep from chafing the line. It is simple and effective, but you need to do a good job sealing to avoid having a place for water to get in and to rot the wood of the canoe.

A simple way to attach a line and to have a good place to carry the canoe is to add a grab handle at the bow and stern - it just needs to be comfortably rounded - like the one below:


Brass or Stainless quarter round stock can also be purchased and formed around the stem and stern of the canoe. As with the hole through the bow, this needs to be well sealed as you will be screwing into the wood of the stem. The benefit is that it helps to protect the bow from abrasion. Often, as seen below, this metal strip is bent over the top of the deck. Sometimes, a loop is formed at the apex for a painter ring to tie on a rope.


Older boat designs like the B.N. Morris below had custom hardware like the diamond painter ring mounts and the flag socket.


Hardware was often vendor specific, as can be seen from the Old Town painter rings below:


Personally, I don't like the painter rings as they bang around on the boat damaging the deck unless there is something to protect the deck. To avoid the loose rings, a solid pad eye can be screwed down to the deck. Along with another version with a loose painter ring, here are 5 different versions:


There IS a reason that stuff like this is known as "canoe jewelry". Pretty, isn't it?

It is also possible to mount hidden hardware beneath the deck - such a a brass, bronze or wooden cleat below the deck. Most people are familiar with a "horn cleat" which looks like this:


Don't let this limit you, however - there are many other types of cleats, such as the very art-deco streamlined cleats here:


Canoe hardware is smaller than that found on most other boats and can be a bit hard to find at an appropriate scale. Be sure to keep that in mind as you look.

Where do you look? Well, that's up to you.

You can make your own wooden hardware from unusual hardwoods - ebony, hard maple, etc. If you've made the boat, how hard can the hardware be?

You can also cast your own brass or bronze hardware. Really. I'm serious. There are classes out there where you can learn to make patterns and actually cast your own parts. If you want something specific, it isn't a bad way to go. Alternatively, you can cut, file and polish parts out of brass - it's fairly soft metal and machines easily. You can also contract the manufacture of custom hardware. One source is the Springfield Fan Centerboard Company which is known for reproduction canoe hardware - including articulated fan centerboards similar to the Radix boards used in sailing canoes of the late 1800's.

You can buy old or antique hardware from dealers, too. One source is a company called Ross Brothers who are active WCHA members. The WCHA also has a list of vendors for canoe building vendors and material suppliers on their website.

New hardware is also available from a variety of vendors. Among them are Hamilton Marine, West Marine, Jamestown Distributors, Bristol Bronze and TenderCraft Boat Shop.

Just remember, you're only limited by your imagination!

Tech Tip Tuesday

Planning ahead to get a design where the parts all blend well is sometimes hard to do with my students. Most have not seen what is possible when building a strip canoe in terms of wood types and designs. I try to bring books into the first class to point them in the direction of resources that will show both interesting and unique designs.

Before they get started with building a boat, I encourage them to draw a sketch - even if it is a very rough sketch, showing what the feature strip might look like, what colors or wood types they would like. I also encourage them to pick good woods that blend or contrast nicely, woods with interesting figure or grain and woods of appropriate hardness for the part of the boat it will be used on. There is really a lot to consider even on a small boat with regard to the stems, gunnels, seat, thwart and decks.

While the books and on-line resources are great, there is sometimes no getting around looking at finished boats. That's why I encourage my students to go look at boats at places like the Maine Boatbuilder's Show, The WoodenbBoat Show and the John Gardner Small Craft Workshop. They are outstanding opportunities for a student to see what is possible and to dream a little bit about what they might like.

So sketch, plan and dream and have some pieces of scrap around so you can think about color and grain as you plan your next boat!

Wordless Wednesday

A two-fer! - H.O. Studley's Tool Chest.

Tech Tip Tuesday

If you're going to take the time to build your own boat, you should always use the best material that is available to you. You're going to spend many, many hours working on the boat and you want to have something you can be proud of. I figure that if you're building a canoe for the first time, you'll probably spend a great deal of your time looking for suitable materials for your boat. Don't skimp on the time you spend looking for good materials.

It only makes your life difficult to use the wrong parts or poor quality stock. I had one student show up at class with some Mahogany for trim and seat frames. He was trying to save money and use stock he already had. The wood was badly weathered and checked stock that had holes though it where fasteners had once been installed. I tried to convince him that it wasn't exactly what he wanted for his trim. I was concerned that it wouldn't clean up well and was not going to be strong enough. The only way that I could finally get my point across was to actually mill up some of the stock. At this point, seeing the milled stock the student was convinced things would be just fine. (Uh oh...) I then set up the two pieces of wood that were milled to be stretchers for the seat frame like they would be in the finished canoe. I had him sit on the stretchers with the expected result. CRACK! Thankfully, he only dropped the 3" to the bench.

Good material tends to yield good results. Enjoy the beautiful pictures!

Raw hull stock (clear vertical grain Western Red Cedar):


The trim (Teak):


Hardware (Brass, Bronze or Stainless) :
Rigging (quality bronze, clear, straight grained stock and hand spliced line):

Finish and coatings (No bugs around for THAT varnish job...) :


Necessary equipment :

Maine Boatbuilder's Show Log

A beautiful Herreshoff BB15 by the front entrance

I enjoy the opportunity to go to boat shows because they are a great opportunity to learn new things and see new products. They are also a good time to connect with new faces and to re-connect with old ones. The Maine Boatbuilder's Show which is held at Portland Yacht Services on Fore street in Portland is no exception. I find that the size of this show is particularly focused and manageable. I also find this show impressive for one other reason. The weekend before the Boatbuilder's show, the same facility hosted the Portland Flower Show. In one week, they clear the place out again and proceed to fill it up with all of the boats and equipment that are on display. This has to be a logistical nightmare for the people who manage the show. Consider the fact that boats ranged in size from itty bitty paper boats (A kid's paper boat kit at the Norse Boat booth) all the way up to the 65' Lion's Whelp which was in the rear-most part of the facility. If you don't bring them in in the right order, you'd never get them in!

Because I teach on Saturday mornings, I never get to go to the show on Saturday.

Bummer.

I try to get my students to come to the show as sort of a field trip. I think it's interesting for them to see the joinery and get ideas for their own boats and to see what is possible with a bit of skill and imagination. For most, the trip is quite an eye-opener. To do this trip, we meet at the school very early on Sunday morning to put away the boats from class the day before. We were at the school at about 6:00 AM and hit the road about a half-hour later to make the Kamikaze run I described in yesterday's post. We stopped along the way for breakfast at the Lucky Logger's Landing in Saco, Maine just off Route 1. A nice treat. The Hash Benedict seemed to be a popular item.

We parked over near Hamilton Marine and walked into the building. Dan Noyes had a boat outside on display and Devon Yawl with a dark blue hull was on the other side of the entrance. The buildings are a series of old brick mill buildings of massive scale and a level of disrepair that is appropriate for their age.

There is a great deal of variety at the show in terms of both boats and what vendors have to offer. Construction methods for the boats vary from the most traditonal methods and materials to the downright space-age. Awesome stuff in almost all regards.

Here's a few pictures to whet your appetite for next year:

A traditional cedar on oak sailboat with a lovely octagonal bowsprit and curved laminated spars.

The Norseboat

Jerry Stelmok and Bob Volock of Island Falls Canoe with Jerry's Atkinson Traveller on the bottom and a restored Old Town on the top rack. Great folks at this show. Perhaps I'm a bit biased with the canoes, but these were among my more favorite boats at the show. Nick Schade of Guillemot Kayaks was also there with his Nymph in a 10' and 12' length and one of his kayaks. Also nice work.

I got the pleasure of running into Karen Wales and Tom Jackson of WoodenBoat Magazine who I got to meet last summer when I was teaching up there. Wonderful people.


A Herreshoff 12 1/2. A beautiful daysailer and one of the boats used for sailing classes at the WoodenBoat School.


BIG power. There were lots of powerboats in the rear two buildings. They are primarily "picnic boats" or day use powerboats. There were also some which were laid out for overnight cruising as well. Not my cup of tea, personally, but still some beautiful boats with outstanding workmanship.

Lion's Whelp - a 65' long, 15'-8" wide Alden Schooner weighing in at over 48,000 pounds.

Brion Rieff's Annie, a Herreshoff Sadie design - arguably one of the most beautiful boats at the show. I'm not sure if I've got this right, but if I recall correctly, she was built in about three months!


A fairly faithful reproduction of Rushton's Sairy Gamp in cedar lapstrake over elm ribs. This boat is not a model, but a full-size canoe at 9' long and weighing in at about 10-1/2 pounds. Note the lack of gunwales, thwarts and seat and the tiny breasthooks. They have not been forgotten - this is the way she was originally designed.


The Shaw & Tenney Booth. They make absolutely beautiful single and double paddles and oars. If you are in the market for a beautiful wooden paddle or oar and don't plan on making your own, I would make these guys my first stop.



A very uncrowded view of the second floor taken by Tim Whitten of Marlinespike.com before the start of the show. Be sure to check out Tim's beautiful custom ropework. It's a treat.

After we had had a pretty good look around, my students wanted to take a quick visit over to Hamilton Marine for some tools and supplies for the canoes that they are building. As we exited the building, it was plain to see that it wasn't spring yet in Portland. We were greeted by a squall that was driving both snow and all of the grit off of the parking lot into our faces as we made our way to the store.

A required stop at the Great Lost Bear for an early dinner and a brew or two from their wide selection of well-kept beers rounded out our day before hitting the road for the long ride home.

A long day, but a great one!