New boat

I've been lax over the two years in not posting anything about my pedal boating experiences. Yes, I've been out on the water, but since September of last year I no longer have a fast pedal boat. The Escapade has been my only boat, though I did borrow a Cadence from a friend of mine for the NAOWRC Townsend Challenge race.

Anyway, the reason I sold my fast all-purpose Cadence pedal boat was in order to get a faster racing oriented pedal boat. The 6.5 mph long term cruise speed of the Cadence was not enough to keep up with the most surf ski paddlers, let alone the single and double rowing shells.

So, with the extensive help and advice of an Australian boat designer and pedal boater, Rick Willoughby, I'm starting the construction process of a V15_6m boat. Here is a 3-D rendering of the boat moving at racing speed:



So, after hemming and hawing over whether the boat should be built from foam core fiberglass composite, foam core carbon fiber composite or marine grade plywood, I finally opted for the plywood approach. I figured that it wouldn't be too much heavier than the fiberglass with 4mm Okoume plywood, probably a bit sturdier, and perhaps a lot prettier when completed. It would be cool to go to the annual Wooden Boat Festival in Port Townsend with a fast wooden pedal boat!

After getting the drawings from Rick I sent them to Turn Point Design, a CNC shop shop in Port Townsend that came recommended by the folks at Pygmy Kayaks. If you don't know, Pygmy Kayaks is renowned for their beautiful stitch and glue kayak kits.

Anyway, Brandon at Turn Point Design came up with a reasonable quote to convert the drawing file to a CNC program to lay out and cut the 4x8 sheets of Okoume 1088 marine grade plywood. He indicated his shop had been involved with other boating projects, including Pygmy's prototypes, the America's Cup yachts, etc., and he promised quick delivery so he got my business.

Today he dropped off the panels - for free, no less! - and now construction is about to begin.

Here is a photo of the CNC-cut panels, just after opening up the carton:

Here is a photo with the panels spread out a little:

Here is a close up of the scarfed edges. This should help make for stronger joints on the resulting longer sections of the hull and deck:

Here is a close up of the panel with the hole cut for the stuffing box:


The weight of the panels, according to my more-or-less accurate scale, was 41 pounds. This included a couple of scrap pieces packed with the panels, plus the cardboard wrap. It turned out that Brandon was able to fit everything on 4 panels rather than the 5 he originally thought were necessary. I'm going to have to piece things together without gluing first and see if perhaps he somehow missed something, because both Rick and I can't see how he did it - and still have so much scrap!

After that, then the next step is to do some test layups with the resin and filler putty. I got that stuff from Fiberglass Supply, up in Burlington, WA. They are known for their support for stitch and glue builders, surfboard builders, etc.