Lampi's Pedal Boating Cruises

Post #100 - Deception Pass Dash

2011-12-24T16:05:00.000-08:00

I've been negligent about updating my blog, but it has partially been because I haven't been on the water for a few months. The race of December 4, 2011 was the first time I was on the water since the Mercer Island race in October.

So...going back a couple of weeks earlier...

I went and ordered 42 inch long aka tubes with the same wall thickness as the previous akas as well as some thick walled tubing the akas could nest snugly within, and a length of tubing that fits very snugly within the aka tubing. The extra thick tubing was in case I decide to move the ama mounts to the center of mass, lengthen the akas even more, or whatever. The new snugly fitting smaller diameter tubing is intended to reinforce the akas where they exit the mounts on the hull. I don't know that this will really help, but we'll see.

As usual, I waited until the day before the race to drill the holes for the push buttons and pins to secure the akas in their mounts. I took special care to make sure the tops of the amas were level and that the akas were preloaded to handle the torque of the amas. They turned out pretty close to level, with the ama tails slightly elevated. I added about 3/8 inch thick foam spacing to the hull aka mount with no angling, so the amas would be slightly higher than before.

The day of the race I wore a new farmer john wet suit (Kokotat medium size) which fit me with no room to spare. It is possible the legs of the wet suit are too slender, but when I tried the next size up the legs felt much the same and there was way too much room for my torso. Anyway, it was quite nice and warm in the near freezing air temperature at Bowman Bay, especially when worn with a microfiber top, fleece vest, long sleeved synthetic t-shirt, long sleeved nylon shirt, and a nylon jacket. I don't have booties, so instead I wore thick synthetic wicking socks and cycling sandals.

As luck would have it the sun actually came out, making it quite a pleasant late Fall day, with the temperatures reaching the upper 40's.

Launching at the boat ramp was pretty easy, and there was very little wave action. Unlike previous times wading into very cold water, this time my ankles and feet didn't even hurt pushing the boat around and extricating the dolly.

The new akas and the foam thickness at the mounts is just about right. While I was a little concerned that the bows would be too downward pointing they actually ended up about where they should be. A couple of the race photos seem to show one of the amas being a little tail heavy, but not too badly.

Anyway, a few quick spins of the pedals and the Garmin GPS said I was reaching over 8 mph! That was not quite believable, but maybe...

When the race started I was in the middle of the pack of some 155 boats, hindered by a couple of other racers on either side in front of me going a little slower than I wanted. A strange thing was also happening: the propeller was acting like it was aerating every so often even though there was very little wave action to speak of. After a few minutes I figured it out. I was pedaling through the bubbling vortices made by the paddlers ahead of me.

Once I figured that out I made sure to steer to the sides of them, and this became much less of an issue.

Heading around Deception Island I encountered the infamous kelp beds. On the north and west sides the kelp was fairly sparse, and I was able to coast right over it. On the southwest side it was a lot thicker, and I soon found myself stuck with the propeller not easily able to turn. If I had a paddle with me it would have been quickly and easily solved. Surf skis and kayaks were passing me left and right, and I was seriously considering asking for a tow. It took a minute or two before I was able to propel the boat through the last of it and get free.

Up to the point of getting stuck I was more or less keeping pace pace with Herbie Weisse, a middle-aged man in a flat water rowing shell. When I exited the kelp he managed to put about 150 or more yards distance between us.

It was fun passing a bunch of the boats that had just passed me as we headed towards the bridge over the pass. There was still a bit of current flowing against us, which could be seen in the various patterns at the water's surface. Most of the racers made a line very close to the shore of the island where the current had less effect, but I was unwilling to get stuck behind those folks - or in the occasional kelp growing there.

Heading around the next island, Strawberry Island, I gave it a wide berth in order to avoid the kelp growing around it. I was catching up to Herbie who also went outside. Just about everybody else took a path only a couple of feet from shore where there was a lack of vegetation. The net result was that several of the boats I had just passed were now ahead.

I managed to catch those boats one more time as we headed through Canoe Pass, and the standing waves were pretty short and easily traversed. My shin muscles were getting a bit sore, which I found a bit unusual. With the heat of exercise I had unzipped my wet suit and jacket, unbuttoned my shirt and periodically cooled my hands in the water - and I was still dripping with sweat. My legs were getting rather tired, and I was hoping I'd have enough energy left to have a decent sprint at the finish.

The wind had shifted to the southwest and the wave action was starting to build, much as it did a couple of years earlier when the course became very challenging for most people. I saw Herbie decide it was too much for him and his boat as he turned off the course and went directly to the finish line. For the V15 the conditions were no problem whatsoever, though some of the waves did hit the deflectors and splash the seat cushion.

Going back around Deception Island I steered wide around the south end, going through the kelp in a much sparser area. Again, the boats I had just passed were now ahead as we headed back to the finish. It was here that the waves, now from the northwest and approaching from the port side stern quarter, made it seem on several occasions like the boat was close to capsizing. On those occasions the winglet on the starboard ama definitely helped to keep the boat upright. I think the extra length for the akas also contributed quite a bit.

With the finish line in sight I tried to push as hard as I could, trying to keep my feet moving in circles rather than as pistons. My muscles were not quite as willing to obey, however, and the springiness of the prop shaft worked against me. I *almost* managed to catch and pass another boat, but the finish line came too soon.

With a time of 1:01:04 I ended up in 35th place for this 6.3 mile race.
http://www.webscorer.com/racedetails.aspx?raceid=1592

Photos are available here:
https://picasaweb.google.com/ASeanWatson/DeceptionPassDash2011#slideshow/5683266767626915698

http://robcasey.photoshelter.com/gallery-image/2011-Deception-Pass-Dash/G0000K5QlwARnivM/I0000.iD00DQ56Zs
http://robcasey.photoshelter.com/gallery-image/2011-Deception-Pass-Dash/G0000K5QlwARnivM/I0000imGaWjjyYv8

My heart rate was a bit on the high side throughout the race: upper 150's to low 160's, peaking at 172 bpm toward the finish.
Overall I'm pretty happy with the longer akas, and the strut steering is acceptable. The performance going over the kelp was actually pretty amazing for a propeller-driven craft. The Cadence would have gotten stuck much, much earlier. The only thing that needs adjustment now is getting a propeller shaft that is not so springy, or switching to a higher ratio gearbox.

Budd Inlet and Lake Samish Races

2011-09-26T17:24:00.000-07:00

I've had the boat at two Sound Rowers races since replacing the fixed strut with the steerable strut. The dipping rudders have remained in place for both races, but were used very infrequently - and then mostly as a test to see how well they performed.

At Budd I found that maneuvering around in the marina area the strut rudder performed quite well, even at very low speeds such as while docking. The dipping rudders were still next to worthless, though when I wanted to turn more quickly than the strut permitted they did help a little.

The Budd race otherwise showed that the strut rudder worked well even in 1 to nearly 2 foot chop. There were very few times when the propeller aerated with the rudder at full turn. It worked quite well to counteract weather cocking when heading into or to slightly to either side of a 15 knot headwind and the waves it produced.

My stats from the Budd Inlet race.

The Lake Samish race was quite flat with only a light breeze for cooling. Surprisingly, at this race turning the rudder to the limits caused aeration of the propeller. Perhaps the difference between salt and fresh water density made the difference. Otherwise, the only other variable I can think of is that somewhere along the course some filamentous weeds managed to wrap themselves around the propeller shaft and hub.

The dipping rudders were used only a couple of times; i.e., at each of the turn buoys. I didn't notice any difference with the changed starboard rudder angle, except that perhaps it didn't drag so much or turn as well.

Otherwise, the boat handled well at both events and was quite popular among the people present. It made the Bellingham Herald newspaper at the Lake Samish race (photo) and an interview, though the part about where the design came from didn't make it to the article. My apologies, Rick, but the press doesn't always tell the full story!

At any rate, it appears that this year's race was a personal best, and possibly a pedal boating record for the course with a time of 49:52 for 5.5 miles distance. Of course, taking some 900+ photos (edited down to 880), made the race a bit slower than otherwise one could go, and the reverse course was not as short as that traveled by the other competitors. However, this was about the same as for years when I pedaled the Cadence, taking photos as well - though with an easier to use camera.

My stats from the Lake Samish race.

As an aside, at the Bainbridge Island Marathon where I did the half marathon and completely bonked - I still ended up with a new class record with a time of 2:05:59! Hurray!

Strut Rudder results

2011-09-08T18:14:00.000-07:00

I am quite happy with the improvement in steering provided by the strut rudder. It seems to be far more effective than the dipping rudders in turning the boat. When both a dipping rudder and the strut rudder are used to turn in the desired direction the boat is almost able to be controlled to a reasonable extent. Of course, it is nowhere near as maneuverable as the Cadence and far from the maneuverability of the Escapade, both of which have the advantage of propeller thrust against the rudder. Still, it is an excellent improvement.

I found that the nylon tie was getting abraded by the aluminum on both the rudder and the strut bearing bracket. This was due to the fairly sharp edges on both. I have since rounded the edges of the hole in the rudder through which the nylon tie goes. The strut bearing bracket will have a second nylon tie over which the supporting nylon tie will nest. This way the inner tie can be tightly held to the aluminum bracket and provide a smoother bearing surface for the tie under tension holding the prop shaft to the rudder.

+/- 20 degrees appears to be all that is needed. In fact, turning the rudder slightly less than 20 degrees significantly reduces the aeration of the propeller.

Cruising speed seems to be either unaffected or possibly very slightly slower. However, not having to adjust course by dipping the rudder should make overall speed better.

Will I remove the dipping rudders? Right now I'm not sure. There are times when having the extra rudders for a somewhat tighter turn makes life easier. I also have to see if the nylon ties have an adequate lifespan to place all my trust in the strut rudder. Otherwise, an alternate mechanism or material will have to be used.

I still have to replace the prop shaft with one that is not bent. That project is nearly done as the tubing and rod were cut to proper length and bonded last night with fillet material and cloth. After it has set for two days I'll drill a hole through the diameter of the tubing and insert a stainless pin to make doubly certain they stay together.

I expect cruising speed to be a little higher and be able to maintain it for a longer time.

Work has begun on modifying the dipping rudders to have a 20 to 25 degree angle rather than the 40 degree angle they currently have. This involves cutting the fillet and glass securing the wood pieces to the fiberglass tubing and re-adhering them at the proper angle. This should be done in a week or three.

Meanwhile, I'll give it a try with just the strut rudder for the next race.

Seat cushion and new rudder

2011-09-03T12:33:00.000-07:00

I just made and will try out in next week's race seat covers for the foam. While I was going to use garden cloth it appears that stuff isn't quite as strong as I expected. There is a mesh but a lot of the fibers are merely a mat and don't impart much strength.

The material I ended up using is a garden plastic, with push-through perforations every 1/16 inch or so. One side is somewhat slick, but the push-through side is moderately high friction. Anyway, I cut it roughly to size and welded/cut it to final size with the electric shrink wrap sealer. With the perforations pointing outward I think it will drain fairly well. It took all of 10 minutes work, cutting/sealing two sides, turning it inside out, stuffing in the foam and sealing the remaining edge.

This stuff seems to be fairly tough, and should last for quite a while.

I also purchased some "industrial strength" adhesive backed velcro to secure the cushions to the boat. The vertical orientation of the 2 inch wide seat back strips will allow some vertical adjustment to accommodate the position of the PFD. My spine was rather sore after the last two races due to a gap between the cushion and the lower edge of the PFD.

In preparation for the next race I have replaced the prop strut with a foil shaped rudder. The foil is something I found online a couple of years ago for use in making rudders for a different boat. It is aluminum, about 3/8 inch thick at the thickest point, and about 2-3/4 inches wide. Taking some scrap anodized aluminum I salvaged from some ancient office partitions years ago I cut a triangular hole near one end to accommodate the rudder and its intended range of motion port and starboard. This replaces the U-channel prop strut holder previously installed.

I cut a two armed tiller from 1/8 inch aluminum sheet. This has a foil-shaped slot to control the turning of the rudder, and allow it to not impede the rudder from moving vertically.

The foil was cut to about 17 inches length, with a notch cut from the bottom so as to surround the tab supporting the prop strut bearing. A 1/4 inch hole was drilled just above the notch and two holes cut at 1 and two inches from the opposite end. The bottom hole had a heavy duty nylon tie wrap looped through it and the hole in the prop strut bearing tab, with a slight amount of slack enabling the rudder to twist port and starboard.

A 3/4 inch bolt was inserted through the top hole and a nylock nut used to secure it. This is used to prevent the rudder from dropping through the tiller slot.

A small hole was drilled about midway down the rudder. This is to be used when lifting and holding the propeller shaft in its upper position for shore-side transport by inserting a pin.

Another synthetic cord was tied from one tiller arm, threaded through the same dead eyes as are used for the dipping rudder shock cords, stretched to the left grab tube, and back to the other tiller arm through the other dead eye. Control of the strut rudder is by pulling the top of the cord for starboard and by pulling the bottom of the same cord for port.

Due to the width of the strut support the rudder is limited to +/- 20 degrees.

I hope to give it a try this holiday weekend.

If the rudder/strut works, I'll consider replacing it with a lighter wood/aluminum core or glass/foam/aluminum core foil. This would use the original (or equivalent) strut for the core. I might also replace the strut support with one that allows a wider range of motion, e.g., +/- 30 degrees.

If it works really well the dipping rudders will be history. This should reduce the windage steering encountered at the last two races.

Great Cross Sound Race

2011-09-02T17:43:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday I raced in the Great Cross Sound Race, but in the reverse direction from the other racers. The venue was far less crowded so far as larger craft were concerned, and there was not much wind (maybe 5-10 knots from the north). The tide was ebbing (heading north), and the first part of the race the water was pretty calm with maybe 1 foot waves. The waves were not all from the same direction, and from the middle of the Sound to Bainbridge it was messy again. The boat wanted to steer towards starboard, even though I had adjusted the prop strut to turn towards port based on what happened at the race the previous weekend. There were many patches of floating weed, most of which didn't protrude down more than a couple of inches. Some caught on the bows of the boat and/or stabilizers, but it mostly washed off with the next wave.

My speed to Bainbridge wasn't all that exciting, reaching above 7 mph only on rare occasions and generally in the 6 mph area. I was taking photos at the start and from time to time, so this negatively impacted performance as well.

Upon reaching the buoy at Decatur Reef the camera got into an error state requiring me to unseal its waterproof bag, remove the camera from the bag, extract the battery, reinstall the battery, put the camera back into its bag and reseal it. Of course, this happened just as I encountered the first of the oncoming boats, so I nearly stopped while doing the more critical actions, and then somewhat slowly got things back together between the gaps of racers.

In years past I didn't get quite so far along the course before encountering the fastest racers, so I guess the boat is faster in equivalent conditions.

Upon reaching the Blakely Rock I found the boat ridiculously hard to turn towards starboard. I ended up with the right rudder deployed almost the entire return leg. Also, the waves caused the prop to ventilate quite a bit, approximately every second or third wave.

I think the reason for the rudder issues is the action of the wind on the boat race number, which is a wedge shaped coroplast placard taped to the rear deck, and wind against the dipping rudders. The pressure against both surfaces was causing the boat to turn north. The adjusted prop strut just made things worse for the return leg. Regardless, some drastic work needs to be done to get the steering to work better. It is really frustrating.

The winglets, which are now permanently glassed to the floats, seemed to work well. There were only a couple of times where I am fairly certain they kept me from capsizing. This was when some 2+ foot waves were encountered, and once when something weird happened on the water. There was a moment when something (wave? seal?) sharply pushed up on one side, completely out of the ordinary mess that went on previously and afterwards.

I finished the race with a fairly slow time compared with flatwater Cadence times for the same race, 1:23 or so vs. 1:15 a couple of years ago. Weeds were definitely more of an issue in the Cadence than in this boat. My place in the standings was nothing spectacular, somewhere in the 30's out of a field of 42. Of course, I was doing a lot more than just racing! I had quite a lot of energy remaining after the event, too, but just couldn't seem to apply it during the race. The agitated water and squishiness of the drive system in those conditions just didn't make for good results.

Launching and retrieval at Alki was OK. With the ebb tide I had to paddle (with hands or feet) to get to deeper water and get under way, with the prop bouncing a bit on the sandy bottom. The modified dolly worked quite well for taking the boat off the car top, getting it to the launch site, launching it, getting the boat back on it, wheeling it back to the car and putting the boat back on the roof. The modified dolly actually works better than it did when I used it for the Cadence.

Given the performance of the hull in rougher water I think it could be possible and advantageous to lower the seat bottom by one or two inches. The gearbox and cockpit floor panels could be lowered by the same amount. This would help lower the center of gravity. The fore deck could be lowered somewhat, though I did have a couple of waves that managed to slightly wash over the top.

Strictly speaking, having the seat bottom at or below the waterline would be even better, though this would require the hull to be wider. A venturi tube or drain would be needed if the boat were changed to be a sit-inside, too, but that is a minor detail.

Here are the photos from the race.

A photographer was on Blakely Rock. He took a couple of photos of me, along with the other racers.

Bainbridge Island Marathon 2011

2011-08-25T21:53:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday was the Sound Rowers Bainbridge Island Marathon and Half Marathon. Since I had not been on the water since the Manchester Race in early July, I was easily convinced by Sherri Cassuto, a former Olympic paddler, that it would be better to pedal 12 miles and finish happily rather than attempt 26 miles and perhaps not finish at all.

The weather was just about perfect: mid-70's, moderate wind from the north, and mostly sunny.

After Sherri helped me put my boat in the water, I loaded it with a couple of water bottles in the new cage mounts bolted to the rear of the seat back, put a third bottle in the cage in front of the gearbox and, with the Nikon D90 in a waterproof bag hung from my neck I boarded the vessel with about 4 minutes to spare until the start of the race.

As the boat was not quite in the right position for the start of the race I began to turn it around. As this boat turns very slowly I wasn't quite done turning it when the signal for the start was given. Yikes!

I managed to snap off a few wild photos of the other competitors while trying to get to the starting line, and then shot more as I quickly caught most of the field. Ahead were Sherri in her surfski, Joe in his fast OC-1, and Jeff and Theresa in their double rowing shell.

Jeff and Theresa kept increasing their distance as we headed east through Rich Passage, but slowly I was gaining on Sherri and Joe. By the time we reached the fish farms, where I had to push the boat away from a piling because I couldn't quite steer away in time, I had nearly caught up with Sherri.

With Decatur Reef in sight I actually caught up with Joe, who then took an inside track and put on more speed. I guess he didn't want to be outdone by some weird looking pedal contraption!

Throughout this time my heart rate was about 150 bpm, and the speed was about 7 mph.

Rounding Decatur Reef and heading north I encountered the wind full force - and some very mixed up water.

Not only were there wind-driven waves, but with this being one of the few nice weekend days all summer it seemed as though most people who owned boats had them out on the water. The course went straight through a sailing regatta, with boats tacking this way and that, and numerous powered craft were going every which way. Topping it off Joe and I just missed being held up by a car ferry making its way from the island back to Seattle.

As it turned out, the rowing shell took to the somewhat calmer waters closer to the island and found themselves much closer to the ferry than they expected. Quite possibly the captain did not even see them!

Joe started putting some distance between us as we headed past Eagle Harbor. I estimated he was about a minute ahead by this point in the race, approximately 6 miles into the race.

We continued on through the slop, with patches of floating weeds and brownish algae here and there, with the occasional kelp to make it interesting. Every so often the bow would bury itself in the bigger waves, but they quickly dissipated before reaching the cockpit. There were some times when water would splash against the deflector plates under the seat, resulting in my bottom getting wet, but this was not a problem.

The stabilizers worked pretty well to keep me upright. The winglets were definitely a good thing, as a couple of larger waves buried one or the other stabilizer to the point I was almost sure I would capsize - but didn't. The application of body english was definitely helping, too.

With the bigger waves the propeller was also ventilating fairly frequently. This made for some rather uneven pedaling.

Further north I decided to head somewhat closer to shore in order to get out of the messier stuff. My speed was about 5.5 to 6 mph, so perhaps the tide was against me along with the wind. My heart rate was in the mid 140's, and my energy was dropping rapidly.

In the quieter water I discovered I was getting pretty tired, and discovered that the boat was definitely pulling to the starboard. Sigh...one of these days I'll get it properly adjusted so I don't have to be compensating for it so frequently.

Around the 9 mile mark I was completely wasted. It took a real conscious effort to keep pedaling with more than a token effort, and my heart rate was in the low 130's. So, I opened some of the food I took with and began munching it. It didn't take too long before it started working, either.

Joe was still in sight - barely. There was no hope of catching him now.

I managed to push my legs so my heart got to the low 140's, corresponding to about 5 to 5.5 mph. Eventually I reached the 11 mile mark, pushing harder and harder. With the end in sight I managed to get my heart back up to 150, cruising quickly past the beach of Fay Bainbridge Park. Not long after I crossed the finish line, with a time of about 2 hours and 5 minutes - a personal record!

I had so little energy left it was hard to pedal back to the finish. Again, turning was so slow I ended up far out in the Sound before making it back to the beach.

Surprisingly enough, however, Sherri arrived just before I reached shore - approximately 5 minutes after I crossed the line. Where the heck had she been? I was expecting her to pass me any minute back on the course when I was running on fumes.

So, in another personal best I was the third boat to finish the race.

Later on I found out Joe is a semi-professional OC-1 paddler, so I shouldn't feel bad finishing after him and the double shell!

Pictures I took while pedaling in the race and stats from my GPS can be found here.

Manchester Race

2011-07-12T20:40:00.000-07:00

On Saturday I attended the Sound Rowers Manchester Race with my V15-6m.
This race is notorious for having lots of weeds near the boundaries of the routes the ferries ply between Seattle and Bremerton.

It also is notorious for having lots of aquatic vegetation and randomly placed rocks in the shallow cove where one launches and retrieves their boats at the beginning and end of the race.

Anyway, with the help of another person I lugged the boat from the parking area to the beach. I then placed the boat on my old Cadence dolly and assembled the outriggers, intending to subsequently roll the dolly and boat into the water.

This was an utter failure. What was worse was the fact that placing the boat on the webbing on the dolly caused the weight to end up bending the propeller shaft where it is tubing. After the boat was in the water turning the cranks caused a nasty and loud hammering effect as the shaft swung about wildly.

Only after the race started did I finally figure out what had happened.

After stopping at a rocky point of land at the edge of the cove I removed the stabilizers, causing the boat to float on its side (Hatch side up). This let me access the prop shaft where the bend was easily observed.

After about 5 minutes of attempting to bend the tubing back into a more or less straight configuration, taking care to not apply excessive force against the stuffing box tube, the shaft was able to turn fairly smoothly without a ridiculous amount of wobble.

I reassembled the stabilizers and got back on board. Ten minutes and 27 seconds after the start of the race, and roughly 9 minutes after arriving at the impromptu pit stop, I continued after the other racers.

Since I'm the club photographer, and I had a cheap (i.e., really crappy) 14 megapixel Fujifilm waterproof digital camera with me, I chose to go counterclockwise around Blake Island as everyone else went clockwise. The prevailing logic was that the currents were better in the clockwise direction due to the flooding tide.

Regardless my speed around the island was between 6 and 7.5 mph, though at points on the return leg the GPS indicated a speed of up to 8 mph when I started pushing a bit to try to catch some of the other boats.

The final time for this roughly 10 mile long race was about 1 hour 39 minutes, which is a little slower than my personal record of 1:34 in 2004, and about 9 minutes slower than Dick Lyon's record of 1:30:36, also in 2004, with similar conditions. I encountered weeds a few times, but they seemed to slough off fairly easily. The small kelp-like leafy weed that caught on the bow needed me to go in reverse a little distance before it let go. It created a fair bow wave when it was stuck in place.

Photos and my stats are on the Sound Rowers web site.

Shortly after leaving the rocky point with the somewhat less bent shaft the cadence sensor stopped measuring. I'm not sure if salt water entered the casing or not.

Other feedback:
1. The thicker, layered seat cushion is much better. I now have two layers of closed cell foam (roughly 3/4 inches) over an inch thick open cell foam pad. The combination is contained in a mostly sealed shrink wrap plastic case that is duct taped to the wooden seat of the boat. My buttocks are much happier with this.

2. The quad thickness closed cell foam pad is OK, but needs to be a little thicker and taller in order work well with my PFD. This is duct taped to the seat back.

3. The deflector panels make a great area to hold water bottles. I'm planning to mount bottle holders there.

4. One can almost hold water bottles below the prop shaft atop the torque box just aft of the gear box. On my boat the bolts from the coupling hit the single-use sized water bottles, causing a little noise and friction, but it is an OK place for one to temporarily store a bottle.

5. Lowering the stabilizers the measly 1/2 inch made all the difference in the world for stability over how they were in the trials at Lake Union last weekend. Some of the photos while under way seem to show the stern tips actually out of the water.

6. The lower propeller position (about 3/4 inch below the bottom of the hull) did not ventilate at all, even when going through light chop and boat wakes.

7. The difference in efficiency with no wobble and with the moderate wobble the shaft now has seems to be moderately significant. I don't have actual numbers, but the pedaling effort to reach 7.5+ mph seemed to be higher than I recalled from Rat Island.

8. The boat now wants to turn slowly to the starboard. This is far less than the tendency it had earlier to turn to port, and can probably be eliminated by careful adjustment of the strut - again.

Rat Island Regatta - Voyage 3

2011-06-28T21:22:00.000-07:00

On Saturday I drove with my wife to Fort Worden State Park on the edge of Port Townsend, WA, for the Sound Rowers Rat Island Regatta. No other pedal boats were in attendance. The weather was overcast with temperatures in the upper 50's Fahrenheit, and a light breeze from the south at a couple of mph. Waves were maybe 6 inches or so. For the Admiralty Inlet - the entrance to Puget Sound - this was a pretty calm day.

In preparation for the race I did the following:
1. Shorten the prop strut so when vertical the tip would overlap the stern bottom by about 1.5 inches.
2. Wrap the L-shaped top of the prop strut with a bit of rubber innertube to dampen the shock if the strut moved vertically
3. Slightly bent the remaining vertical strut so as to counteract the propeller torque steering effects that turn the boat to starboard
4. Returned the rear stabilizer support to the lower position, using just the 3/8 inch thick blue foam so the short bolts could be used to secure the mount to the hull
5. Replaced the 152mm crank arms with 170mm crank arms and adjusted the cadence sensor to work with the new cranks
6. Installed a water bottle cage on the bow side of the gearbox
7. Cut 8 inch by 3 inch (approx) rectangles of Coroplast and pentagonal wedges to be taped to the front of the stabilizers for last-ditch water foils should the stabilizers submerge completely
8. Cut closed cell foam pads for the lower back rest and seat bottom

The boat felt pretty unstable at first, but this was merely getting used to how it behaved. The right steering cord kept getting caught by the Coroplast race number I duct-taped to the rear deck behind the seat back - at least until I figured out that using both cords would free it.

The slight breeze at the start coupled with my not carrying a paddle caused me to drift a bit sideways in front of some other boats as we waited for the starting signal. Sorry about that, guys!

Shortly after the start of the race I discovered that the slight tweaking of the prop strut was in fact far overkill. The boat really wanted to turn towards port, and only by deploying the right rudder fully could the boat be brought over to starboard.

This was rather a shame because when the rudders were not deployed the speed of the boat was generally in the 7.5 mph region with a heart rate of about 152 bpm and a cadence of about 68 to 70 rpm.

With the rudder deployed, the speed dropped to 6.2 to 6.3 mph with the same effort expended.

So, I zig-zagged throughout the course, with the rudder deployed about 2/3 to 3/4 of the time.

The prop strut did not seem to bounce up and down any more, or at least not so much as to be annoying. The propeller did ventilate on very minor waves, say 6 inches or so, but only for half a crank cycle or so. I wonder how much of that was augmented by the prop strut.

The bow did a great job of shedding water, and only a couple of times in rougher water did anything make it to the deflector panels below the seat. The foam pad extending beyond the seat bottom panel helped to keep most of the water away from my posterior.

The stabilizers were still a bit stern downward, which probably retarded forward movement somewhat, but at speed the boat seemed to be fairly stable. For whatever reason, the gearbox being slightly off center, the right stabilizer digging deeper into the water, or something else, I found I had to lean to the right to feel centered on the boat. This made for somewhat awkward pedaling, too.

Throughout most of the race I pedaled at 65 to 69 rpm, with a pulse in the 150's, though after rounding Rat Island it started dropping to the 140's. Except for one person in a surfski, the only other folks ahead were rowers. In addition, a person who typically paddled about the same speed as I pedal in a Cadence was some distance behind me in an OC-1.

Trying to reach the water bottle generally required slowing or stopping and leaning far forward to get it, and to return it. A Camelback or similar will need to be installed in the seat back to facilitate drinking on future outings.

At the end of the race I managed to put in a short sprint, almost catching a 4 person rowing shell. My heart rate went to the 160's in the process.

What is funny about all this is that a couple of years ago, and a couple of years before that I finished this same race in a Cadence with almost the exact same time: 1 hour 14 minutes. Considering the new boat was hobbled by counteracting the prop strut steering, this means to me that it definitely has the potential to outperform the Cadence by a significant margin.

After the race I took a wrench and pliers and tried to reduce the tweaking of the prop strut. The boat was returned to the water and yes, it now had less of a tendency to turn to port, but it still needed some course correction.

So, here are the final results:
1. Stabilizers in the rear position work quite well
2. The stabilizers need to drag their sterns less
3. The winglets might have been used, but I couldn't tell - except for some seaweed on one of them.
4. The seat cushions (back and bottom) need work before they will be as comfortable as in the Cadence or Escapade
5. The shorter strut is perhaps 1 or 2 inches too short
6. The prop strut potentially could be a better rudder than the dipping rudders

So, I am thinking of replacing the fixed prop strut with one that rotates. Yes, the current strut can move vertically and allows the shaft to swing from side to side, but if it could be twisted clockwise or counterclockwise then perhaps it could be used for steering.

The effect that a slight twist to a maybe 3/4 inch wide by maybe 16 inch long strip of aluminum had on steering implies that it could be an excellent alternative to the dipping rudders - and drop a couple of pounds from the boat in the process.

Here is a link to the photos taken at the race.

2nd Voyage

2011-06-28T20:55:00.000-07:00

A week ago I took the boat out after dinner on Lake Sammamish. The boat is way too heavy, and even with the dolly I used previously with the Cadence it is quite cumbersome to cart from the parking lot to the beach. It probably would be as much of a problem if the gearbox and seat back didn't make the boat so top heavy.

Anyway, this particular beach at the state park had a rather soft, mucky bottom with a lot of weeds. Most of the weeds were eurasian milfoil. Using a canoe paddle to get to deeper water was pretty straightforward and effective.

The 3 inch higher position for the stabilizers (using the honeycomb spacers) in the rear was way too high. The boat was very unstable and flopped to one side or the other. I didn't bother trying to go any distance with them in that position.

After moving the stabilizers to the grab tubes things were a bit better. Unfortunately I drilled the hole for the port stabilizer a bit too far forward, causing the bow of the stabilizer to point slightly downward. When moving forward at any decent speed this acted as a dive plane if I leaned even slightly to the left. I managed to flip the boat a full 180 degrees to the port while turning to the starboard while going at maybe 6 or 7 mph because of this.

No, the seat back does not prevent the boat from flipping completely over. Part of this might have been due to my clipless pedal not releasing my left cycling sandal without a bit of a struggle. Regardless, after placing weight on one of the stabilizers it was possible to right the boat and then carefully climb back on board.

I was able to get back in the seat after the capsize, but from my memories of trying to get back in the Cadence without outriggers in 2+ foot seas and the similar (not quite as bad, but close) roll instability of the V15-6m, I think it could be problematic. Practice will be needed to do this more smoothly and quickly.

The reworked prop shaft has far less friction and operates much more smoothly than before. I was able to get it to turn without clunking for only one sprint - and then it was as smooth as butter and seemed to need very little power to get to over 7.5 mph. Every other time, however, it seemed to go clunk, clunk, clunk at all speeds, or get tangled in weeds that just wouldn't let go.

Yes, weeds wrapped around the shaft, the propeller blades and even the prop strut. Even so, it seemed the boat was able to go 5.5 to 6 mph with quite a ball of stuff on it.

I tried various methods of freeing them using the cranks, forward and/or reverse motion, stop pedaling abruptly, reverse pedaling abruptly, having the blades vertical while coasting, horizontal, at angles, etc. The milfoil manages to wrap itself so tightly that it takes manual intervention to remove.

As an aside, I managed to pick up some weeds on the vertical leading edge
of the bows of the stabilizers, too. Only by stopping would they fall off.
Newer designs with a rounded bow or an angled leading edge would help.

The shaft at the gearbox is not the source of the clunking. The joint there is rotating smoothly. The problem is definitely at the propeller end of the shaft.

My first thought was that weeds were the cause of the clunking, but this happens even with a weed-free prop and strut.

So, now I am thinking of wrapping the strut support with an inner tube in case it is due to the strut moving up and down.

As an aside, reverse seems less effective than with the longer and straighter shaft. It at least 20 or 30 rapid turns of the crank to reach 3 mph.

So, I think I'll go back to the original height of the stabilizers in the rear position. The boat seemed to be much more stable with them there, with their tails dragging slightly. In addition, I think the addition of some short wings near the bows of the stabilizers angled upward will help when moving at speed to keep the stabilizers from digging into the water when downward forces are applied to them. It was somewhat nerve wracking to get going to a nice speed (7+ mph) and then have to back off because the stabilizer was starting to dive into a really minor wave - and keep going under.

On my last run I made sure there were no weeds on the propeller and shaft, trying to pedal in circles and still it clunked. It could be the shaft not finding a good fixed position in the stuffing box. If so, then adding a Delrin plain bearing might just do the trick.

So, if the stabilizer wings and Delrin bearings don't work, I'd have to say that I wouldn't trust taking this boat on any but the tamest waters, and certainly not on anything lengthy. No photography from the boat, either - at least not until I get a purpose-built waterproof camera. Right now I wouldn't trust this boat and the Ewa Marine waterproof case enclosed camera.

Steering is not much different from the first trial. I'll try Rick's suggestion of tweaking the angle of the prop strut to apply a constant course correction to the port.

Maiden Voyage!

2011-06-11T20:37:00.000-07:00

In preparation for the maiden voyage I decided to make some higher spacers to test with the outriggers. Searching my garage for some likely materials, I found a couple of 2x4s, including some pressure treated lumber, but thought that this stuff was pretty heavy. Going over to a box of would-be firewood, the pieces in there were too thin or the wrong shape. What to do?

All of a sudden I had an idea: The big hunk of phenolic honeycomb I had picked up years ago from a friend would be perfect!

This was a 5 foot by 2 foot by 4 inch thick piece that had a taper cut off the one corner of the long dimension, but was otherwise perfectly rectangular in shape. It was also just small enough to fit in my bandsaw to cut a chunk that could then be sized to fit as a sandwich between the deck and the outrigger support.

It was a little tougher to cut than I thought. The material tended to bind the bandsaw blade and the blade came come off the wheels a couple times. Eventually I figured out that I needed to cut the material at an angle rather than through one cell at a time.

The results were pretty good. Positioning and drilling the holes was a little strange as you can't really mark the center of a hole to be drilled when it is in air, though upon reflection it could be done using a sacrificial sheet of paper. Anyway, holes were drilled and things fit quite nicely. Unfortunately, none of the 1/4-20 bolts I had available were long enough to reach. A trip to the hardware store was necessary - but that wasn't going to happen until *after* the trip to the water. Oh, well.

The boat fit quite well on top of the Toyota Matrix with the Thule racks, with the stabilizer floats lashed to the second set of saddles. The propeller dangled several feet beyond the stern, but a safety flag was added to make sure it was legal.

After driving to Idylwood Park my wife and I carried the boat and the rest of the stuff to the shore in two trips, resting the boat on a picnic table by the beach. Assembly of the outriggers went quickly. The foam for the lower seat back was a bit of an issue. I ended up folding some closed cell foam and duct taping it to the seat back so it wouldn't come apart, fall off or get in the way of the steering cords or the grab tubes.

A safety canoe paddle was duct taped to the side of the seat for insurance.

After setting up the camcorder on its tripod and giving my wife last minute instructions for the camera, we carried the boat into the water.

Even though we have not had much warm weather this year, the temperature of the water was not too cold. With the propeller just above the bottom of the lake the bow was a couple of feet from the shore. I was able to lift myself up onto the seat cushion and then put my bike shoes on the Speedplay Frog pedals.

The boat was slightly lower in the water than called for in the original plan, with the stabilizers both touching the water at their tails up to about the midpoint of their length. The honeycomb spacers should be just about perfect to keep them above the water.

Gently pedaling in reverse I backed away from the shore. Clunk, clunk, clunk went the propeller and shaft.

After getting about 50 feet from shore I tried pedaling forward, with the port rudder fully deployed. The boat headed almost straight back to shore. Uh-oh - this was not good!

I reversed direction. At first there was a moderately significant effort to pedal, but suddenly it shifted into an easier mode. Did something break or fall off?

No, but it is possible that the propeller blades swung into fully deployed mode. I was soon going in reverse at 3.5 mph.

I tried steering while going in reverse. That was nearly worthless, too. Going forward again, the boat slowly turned before reaching shore.

One more time and I was finally parallel to the shore, and ready to start the speed trials.

By this time I realized that the seat back cushion was a bit too thick, and that the cranks were too close to the seat back. My legs were not having proper leg extension. I'd have to make adjustments when I returned to shore where the wrenches had been left.

Meanwhile, I pushed on. The pedaling action was quite stiff, but soon things seemed to smooth somewhat. According to the Garmin 305 GPS watch the boat reached 7.5 mph ridiculously quickly. At that point the speed seemed to bounce all over the place. It dropped to 7, went up to 8 and back down to 7.5 mph. It was pretty strange, so I decided to ignore it and concentrate on steering and other boat handling aspects.

The lake was pretty calm, though once in a while a ski boat zoomed by off in the distance. So, in general, the lake was flat and the breeze was perhaps a couple of mph from the north.

I tried turning to port, pedaling somewhere around 7 mph, and fully deploying the rudder. The boat was very slow to respond, so I tried leaning over to the side to see if that helped. If it helped I couldn't detect much of a difference.

Eventually the boat managed to make a complete circle and I headed back to shore. It was actually quite a bit of effort, and there was a definite bow wave produced.

At the beach I got off and reported my findings to my wife and a young couple that had been curious about the boat. I offered a ride to them and the man agreed to go. He took off his shoes, put on the PFD, and pedaled away from shore.

He made a semicircle trying to head back, leaned too far and found himself in the water! Oh, no!

It didn't take him too long to swim with the boat back to shore where we had a towel waiting for him.

I prepared the boat to go out again, found that I needed another wrench to adjust the gearbox position (rats!), and cleared the ball of milfoil he had collected from the propeller. This was going to be the last run of the day and I wanted to go a mile or so around the north end of the lake.

After paddling in reverse with my hands away from shore I turned the boat around and headed north. I then headed northeast through the 1.5 foot wake generated by a passing ski boat. The sharp hull and deck sliced through the water like a knife, and there was enough lift generated that the hull was raised enough to slap down on the surface beyond the waves. This was not too bad.

The action of the rear positioned stabilizers will take some getting used to, however. Not seeing the source of the lifting action against the floats and having the boat jostle one way or the other was a little unnerving.

Anyway, I turned around and aimed back toward the park. Going in reverse to try to ensure no weeds were on the prop and then forward I quickly got up to speed. Again, the top speed was about 7.5 mph, though the stabilizers were dragging somewhat. My cadence was about 76 RPM, which is a little slower than I would like for the level of effort being expended. My heart rate was in the upper 130's to low 140's, so this was a pretty significant improvement over the performance in a Cadence pedal boat.

There was a light breeze on my face as the boat seemed to race through the cottonwood seeds floating on the water. This boat could move pretty well!

With no rudder deployment the boat tended to turn towards starboard. Leaning to port had little effect. The port rudder had to be used quite frequently to maintain a proper heading.

I soon reached the park - just in time for a set of ski boat waves to hit the beach. No problem - I back off a little and waited for it to settle before enlisting my wife in getting the boat from the water.

Conclusions?
1. This boat is not as stable as a Cadence with outriggers
2. It seems to be about 1 to 1.5 mph faster than a Cadence with outriggers
3. The draft is significantly deeper than that of a Cadence
4. The deck is far, far better in sloughing off waves
5. The steering is far, far worse than almost any other boat I've been in
6. I need to figure out ways to launch it, load it on the car and take it off by myself
7. I need to sand it in broad daylight rather than in the garage. I was amazed to see the number and distribution of resin drips, etc., that I missed sanding.
8. The steering deployment using cords and stretch cord return worked flawlessly, as did the prop strut.
9. The prop shaft needs to be redone completely. I think there was excess friction in the stuffing box, and the flopping shaft robbed energy that could go into propulsion.

All But the Final Clearcoat

2011-06-05T21:45:00.000-07:00

Bits and pieces were completed during the week. With the successful testing of the T-nut I decided to use them to hold the prop strut bracket. However, due to the narrow taper of the stern, I bent the flange of one slightly so it wouldn't stick out when filleted in place close to the stern. The fillet material also refused to form a nice, smooth surface, so I figured that it would just get sanded with the Moto-tool once it hardened.

Additional sanding was done on the rudders, amas, stern deck and aka support areas. I removed the drips in the resin from the fore deck, too. Holes were drilled in the rudder control arms for the stretch and non-stretch cords. Afterwards, I applied a thin coat of resin to the recently glassed areas, and then thinned the remaining resin with lacquer thinner per the instructions of Vern Heikkala as well as the folks at System 3. The thinned resin had the viscosity of water, and was applied to all the sanded areas to give it one last glossy coating.

The prop strut bracket was made from a single U-channel of aluminum, 1 by 1 inch by 1/8 inch thickness. A slot was cut near one end to hold the strut, and holes drilled to align with the T-nuts just added to the stern deck.

I tried drilling another bushing for the coupler between the gearbox and the prop shaft, but this attempt was also unsuccessful. So, with shrink wrap plastic I tightly wrapped the end of the 0.625 inch diameter tube that was being used for the prop shaft and jammed it down the middle of a 3 inch long stainless tube that was chosen for a coupler that I had filled with fillet material. This actually worked fairly well.

A couple of days later the next steps were to sand the excess resin from the rudders and the rudder bearings, and mount the cheeks (pulleys) on either side of the stern.

After running some tests with the lightest stretch cord I decided that using a single dead eye would be enough to pull down both rudders. There was too much friction to using the dead eyes as stretch cord guides, and I didn't want to add another pair of cheeks. Running the deployment cords over the top of the rudder bearing and over the top of the aka support removed the need to use dead eyes to guide them, too. There is a little friction to consider at the top of the rudder bearings, so it is possible the cord will wear. An application of resin there would help smooth things out.

I made loops at the ends of the cords so they would hang on the grab tube. The loops are long enough so that the rudders could be deployed fully and no more by merely pulling on the loop as far as it would go. Releasing the loop would allow the stretch cord to return the rudder to the stowed position.

Since I wanted the left side to also be able to control the right rudder I added a second control line with a knot at the end to distinguish it from the left rudder. It all seems to work well in the workshop.

The gearbox was mounted and bolted into place.

The aka supports were raised about 3/8 inch to be slightly higher than the tops of the large T-nuts. The space was filled with pieces of foam - at least until I figure out an alternative spacer.

Holes were drilled through the top of the aka support tube into the two akas. This is for the two 3/8" diameter push buttons that secure the akas to the aka support tube.

The amas were then mounted on the akas. Since they were mounted closer to their bows their sterns needed to be supported so the holes for the pins used to secure the amas to the akas could be drilled. I made sure to account for preloading the amas so they wouldn't drag their sterns while on the water.

I completed the propeller, too. The blades needed a bit of grinding at the hub so they would fit properly in the hub that Rick sent me. Once that was done everything went pretty smoothly. It was good I had a nice assortment of drill bits, including a size "W" bit to enlarge the bore to fit my almost but slightly larger than 3/8 inch diameter shaft.

The propeller was then mounted to the shaft, and the shaft connected to the gearbox via the coupler. I had to use the drill press to cut the holes. The hand held drill just didn't have adequate pressure to do the job.

A prop shaft strut was cut from a larger piece of 1/8" aluminum sheet. I cut it in the shape of an "L" so that overhang could be used in place of a bolt to retain the strut in the support bracket. The other end was essentially riveted to a plastic bushing that supported the propeller shaft.

So, with the exception of the final clear coat the boat is ready to go!

I really was hoping to launch this weekend, but with various family activities and having to search for quite some time for a couple of things that apparently fell to the bottom of a trash basket took their toll. I did get some weights, however:
Amas and akas: 6 pounds each set, 12 pounds total
Main hull: 35 pounds stern, 31.5 pounds bow, 66.5 pounds total
All up weight: 78.5 pounds

Note: The propeller shaft is at least 2 feet longer than it needs to be. I am going to see how badly it vibrates in practice as the joint between the tube and the rod are definitely not concentric. The extra length of rod+tube is about a pound, possibly more.

Sigh...this is only 15 to 20 pounds lighter than the carbon fiber Cadence (with outriggers) I used to have. While it is lighter than a standard Cadence without outriggers it is nowhere near where I wanted this boat to be; i.e., in the 50 to 60 pound range.

I think that using 4mm plywood is almost certainly overkill, especially if the more highly stressed areas are glassed on both sides.

Still, the resin coated wood makes for an absolutely gorgeous finish, and the material cost is considerably less.

We'll just have to see how well it performs.

Rudders, Prop Shaft and a LittleTesting

2011-05-29T19:55:00.000-07:00

The propeller hub from Rick arrived in the mail from Australia on Monday, the day after the Commencement Bay Race. It looked much like I expected, and pretty close to the drawing that the local machine shop came up with after examining my hand-drawn scribble.

Here is a picture of it alongside the bushing Rick also sent. This is the piece that is used to keep the shaft from dropping too deep when the boat is not traveling forward.

Since then I've sealed the control arms of the rudders and wrapped them in 4 oz cloth. It took a lot longer to get the cloth right on the arms as it just didn't want to wrap around and stay flat. I ended up using shrink wrap plastic and a couple of spring clips to reduce the bubbles to a minimum.

Since the screws used to secure the cheeks (pulleys) to the boat need something a bit more substantial than mere 4mm of plywood, I added another layer of plywood covered by some 4 oz cloth. The screws will still penetrate into the hull, but they should be fairly well secured by the extra thickness.

The cheeks are used with a cord to pull down the control arms and deploy the rudders. They are plastic wheels with stainless steel bearings, secured with a fairly lightweight stainless bracket and stainless wood screws.

For the propeller shaft I cleaned the 3/8 inch stainless rod and abraded the 4 or 5 inches near one end with the sanding drum of the Moto-tool. I also tried to clean and abrade the inside of the stainless 5/8 ID tubing that will be the part of the shaft that reaches from the gearbox through the stuffing box to the where the shaft emerges underwater.

I wrapped the rod with 4 oz glass that was about 4 inches wide and then saturated it with resin. In retrospect it might have been better to have saturated the cloth first and then wrapped the rod, as it took a lot of massaging the resin into the dry cloth before the resin made it down to metal. After a while, it seemed to be fairly well saturated, but a bit lumpy.

So, after partially rewinding the cloth back on the rod I began inserting the cloth covered end into the waiting stainless tube. Of course, it only went so far and then the cloth bunched up. From here on I slowly rotated the seamless steel tube over the glass covered rod, applying gentle force to insert the rod into the tube. This seems to have worked quite well, as the further the rod was inserted the more the tube had to get inline with the rod.

After several inches of rod and glass were inserted I then wrapped the outside with more glass and resin.

Finally, I took a long strip of shrink wrap plastic and wrapped it over the outer glass and resin to smooth it out and to help force the resin into the cloth.

After all this was done I noticed that a bunch of resin managed to get over sections of both the tubing and rod where it was not wanted. A quick application of a lacquer thinner saturated paper towel made short work of removing that stuff.

I was curious as to how strong the structural fillet material was, and how strong that material was in combination with the lesser 1/4-20 T-nuts. So, a week or two ago I took some excess fillet material and plastered on the bottom and over the flange of a T-nut on a piece of scrap 4mm plywood.

Now that the material had some time to harden, it was time to put it to the test.

The test fixture was a vise to hold the scrap plywood, a 1/4-20 stainless steel bolt, a metal pot that would hang from the bolt, and an assortment of bronze and steel weights.

I screwed the bolt by hand as far as it would penetrate the T-nut. This left the transition point from threaded to non-threaded about 1 inch from the surface of the plane of the plywood. At the transition point I hung the pot.

Taking the bronze weights one by one I placed them in the pot. More and more weights were added, until the pot was completely full.

Nothing happened.

I added weights to the top of the pot, precariously help in place by still more weights.

Nothing happened.

I removed all the weights and weighed them. The total weight with the pot was 32 pounds.

I put the pot back on the bolt and added the 30 pound steel weight. Bronze weights were added again, until no more could be balanced.

Nothing happened.

Removing all the weights and weighing them revealed a total weight of 62 pounds.

So, torque-wise it appears that a basic joint like this can handle 62 inch-pounds with no apparent failure.

If I have more time I'll try to test it to destruction, or at least with the pot at 2 inches from the plane. This would go to 124 inch-pounds.

Rudders

2011-05-18T20:33:00.000-07:00

After cleaning up the aka supports and the rudder support on the hull, it was time to continue fabricating the rudders.

Taking the Moto-tool with its sanding drum at the end of the flexible shaft, I trimmed the leading edge of the two rudders at the joint where the reinforcement piece of plywood joins the wider rudder blade. This is where the rudder will be mounted on the outer fiberglass tube which, in turn, rotates about the smaller fiberglass tube previously glued and glassed to the hull.

Using a left over piece of smaller tubing inserted into the two rudder outer tubes in order to keep the rudders concentric, I then carefully balanced the two rudders at 55 degrees plus and minus, mirroring each other, using blocks of scrap foam and some weights to keep things aligned properly. Using several spoonfuls of fillet foam the rudders were then secured to the larger fiberglass tubes. They were left to set overnight.

The next day the rudder assemblies were separated and the fillet material was trimmed and smoothed. The glass and resin that had been applied to the seat, to the aka supports and the rudder supports was also sanded smooth.

The rudders were then mounted on the support shaft, with temporary supports used to hold them parallel to the deck.

After a bit of experimentation I took some scrap plywood that originally had been intended for the aka support bases and trimmed off the beveled edges. These pieces were then placed on the rudders at the pivot points and held in place at the top end with a support structure made from junk found laying about the shop. The angles for the pieces was chosen so they would just intersect with the side of the hull when the rudders were in the fully deployed position. This would align them with the pulleys that would be installed for the control cords that would be used to pull the rudders down into position.

Since there was not much room on the inside between the outer rudder tube and the limit ring, I taped them off with shrink wrap plastic on the top and duct tape on the bottom to hold the shrink wrap in place.

More fillet putty was mixed and liberally applied to the joint on both sides.

The assembly was left to set overnight.

I also started an experiment. Using a large piece of scrap wood, one of the smaller T-nuts and some of the excess fillet putty, I secured the T-nut to the wood and let that sit overnight as well. Tomorrow (2 days later) I'll see how much force is needed to
1. torque it so that the nut spins in place when a bolt threaded into it is rotated.
2. remove it when a tension force is applied to a bolt threaded into it.

Otherwise, today I went on a shopping trip to Online Metals. No, I didn't digitize myself and jump into the computer like the guy in Tron; rather, I drove over to their bricks and mortar location in Ballard, a neighborhood in northwest Seattle.

Their warehouse is located quite close to the Ship Canal leading from Lake Union to Shilshole Bay on Puget Sound. Anyway, I picked up two contenders for the stiff tubing portion of the propeller shaft that connects to the gearbox and fits through the stuffing box to where the more flexible rod portion of the shaft continues onward.

One tube is 0.625 inches OD by 8 feet, with a 0.035 inch wall. The other is 0.5 inches OD by 8 feet, with a 0.049 inch wall. I think the 0.625 inch tubing will do quite nicely, and perhaps might be a bit thicker than needed.

While I was there I also picked up a 1 foot tube of stainless steel to be cut and worked into a coupling between the gearbox and the prop shaft tube.

On the way back home I stopped at Fisheries Supply and picked up some 3mm polyester cord (rated to over 460 pounds) and a pair of cheeks; i.e., pulleys mounted in a stainless steel cage that will be screwed to the hull. These are to be used to pull the rudders down into position and redirect the tensile force of the rope forward to the cockpit.

Since the hull is only 4mm thick, and the forces will be repetitive and possibly somewhat larger than that thickness of wood can handle, I think I'll thicken the hull where the pulleys are mounted with an additional layer of plywood, say 1 inch by 2 inches or so. That should probably be adequate, along with a pair of 1/2 inch #8 wood screws.

It is starting to look like the boat just might not be finished in time for the race this weekend. That might be just as well, as the following race is in a month and I would then have time to do a decent finishing job on the hull, clear coat it, and put it through some trial runs.

Supports, Support and Supports

2011-05-14T20:55:00.000-07:00

Now that the seat back is attached to the hull, it is time to sand it, remove any large bubbles in the fabric or flaws in the resultant glass covering, and check how things are progressing.

The holes drilled for the gearbox support and the hatch were drilled again as the bolts no longer fit due to the resin used to seal the wood. In doing so, some of the wood surfaced, so I decided to use the next size larger bit and re-drill the wood. This way, after I apply resin again, and drill again with the proper sized bit, the wood should remain coated.

A couple of the corners of the seat back needed to be patched as the cloth didn't stay flat against the wood.

Otherwise, the grab tube and glass around the grab tube was very nice and pretty clean. The construction seemed to be very strong, and I could lift the boat by them. Still, I am concerned that there really isn't that much other than the seat back itself structurally securing the tube in place, so I decided to augment that with some 12 oz cloth wrapped over the grab tube and secured to the sides of the hull.

I took advantage of the 12 oz cloth's ability to bunch up by having it bunch up over the top of the grab tube and then spread flat where it attached to the hull. Wrapping the joint a couple of times with shrink wrap helped to keep the glass tight against the side of the seat back, too.

In addition, on the right side where the cloth securing the seat back to the hull extended onto the hull for only an inch or so, I added some 3.5 oz cloth that extended a couple more inches in both directions beyond the 6 oz cloth.

I decided to try an alternate way of securing the wooden reinforcements for the aka supports to the hull. Originally I was planning to sandwich some 12 oz cloth between the deck and wooden reinforcements to accommodate the thickness of the stainless T-nuts. Now, however, I decided to have a thick layer of structural fillet putty there instead as this would better handle the slightly warped wood and fill in the gaps around the T-nuts.

I marked and drilled (on a drill press) the four 1/2 inch holes in the aka support tube bracket. The holes were positioned somewhat close to the outer sides of the bracket, but leaving room for the fender washers.

After marking the deck with the positions of the reinforcement pieces, and measuring (4 times!) the distance to the stern from both sides of the aka support tube bracket placed on said reinforcement pieces, I marked the positions of the drilled holes from the bracket onto the reinforcements. Half-inch holes were then drilled through the reinforcements.

I double checked that the T-nuts fit through the reinforcement pieces, and when mated with the aka bracket the assembly then fit where the markings on the hull indicated. Success!

I cut a 13 by 15 inch rectangle of 3.5 oz cloth on a 45 degree bias to cover the reinforcements and the deck in that area, extending several inches down the sides. I chose a bias angle to enhance how the cloth laid over the corners of the reinforcements and the irregularities between the two pieces.

The T-nut holes were marked on the cloth and, using a home-made die cutter I cut the holes in the cloth for the T-nuts to fit through.

The die cutter was made from a half inch diameter steel tube I had laying about. I sharpened one end of the tube on the bench grinder. After placing the cloth on a piece of pine I took a hammer and pounded out holes in the positions marked on the cloth.

The die cutter worked pretty well. I just had to make sure the cloth was positioned over a fresh area on the board so the fibers were cut.

The fabric fit over the T-nuts like a glove.

Finally, I cut the remaining outer fiberglass tubing into six 3/16 wide rings and two 2.5 inch wide tubes. The 2.5 inch tubes are to be the outer bearings for the dipping rudders, and the rings are to limit the side to side motion of those tubes.

The remaining two rings are to be used with the aka tubes to limit how far they can be inserted into the aka support bracket. I found this feature to be quite useful for the Cadence aka tubes when hunting for the push pin hole.

Rather than rig up another wooden plate support for the rudder axle assembly I decided to merely use fillet material and 12 oz glass, and secure the smaller diameter fiberglass tube to the top of the deck. Two additional 12 oz pieces were used to secure the tube on either side in the same fashion as the grab tube.

The end result was perhaps not as pretty as something done with some sort of wooden reinforcement, but it was a lot faster to make. Perhaps it could be sheathed in wood later on to make it look nicer. All I know is that the aka bracket took way too long and does not look all that good to me!

When doing all this, I mixed 6 heaping spoonfuls of fillet material. There was a bit left over so I spread it onto some shrink wrap. It sort of looked like a Power Bar. Anyway, it might be useful as spacers for the aka bracket if I need to raise it a little.

Seat Attached

2011-05-09T07:12:00.001-07:00

Last week I went to West Marine and picked up a 6 inch hatch, a set of bolts to secure it, some small black plastic brackets, and two sizes (1/8 and 3/16 inch) of stretch cords.

They didn't have a hatch that opened with just a quarter turn, but the one I picked up takes only a single turn to seal. That is good enough for my purposes. I chose a transparent one so that it would be easier to check the contents with the hatch in place.

To secure it I chose some #8 stainless machine bolts and nylok nuts rather than wood screws. Wood screws would have been sharp, potentially painful and not as strong in the long run going through 4mm wood and glass.

I took the last remaining large piece of 6 oz cloth and draped it over the seat back structure, stretching from the top of the seat structure, down the seat back and forward over the seat bottom. There was a little bit of excess cloth to be trimmed, but the fragment was just about the perfect size and shape. A couple of additional pieces were cut to cover other strategic areas on the top, sides and front interior where the foam would reinforce the grab tube.

Sunday, after completing editing of the photos from the Lake Whatcom Classic race, I traced out the hole in the right rear panel of the seat back not far from the top of the seat and slightly closer to the front edge of the panel. This would also allow me to access the interior compartment for filleting and glassing the inside joints, or at least that was the plan.

The next step was to glue the seat back to the deck.

First, I mixed up several heaping spoonfuls of seam fillet. This finished off the first container of reddish goo (the green hardener having been used up previously) and started into the second container of green hardener. Once mixed thoroughly it was applied to the foam pieces that would be in contact with the wood and the grab tube. Once each piece was completed it was pressed into place in the frame.

I flipped the back over and carefully put it in place on the deck.

Fillet material was placed in the seams around the base of the seat back, filling the gaps and filleting the inside bottom seams. The gaps around the grab tube were filled, rounded and smoothed.

The two beveled wood pieces I had cut previously to fillet the outside rear panels at the deck were also put in place with fillet material filling the gaps.

I glassed the 6 oz cloth on the seat, and taped the outside seams on the sides with 6 oz cloth.

I had a plan of soaking with resin 12 oz biaxial cloth first, and then applying it to the foam and grab tube inside the seat back compartment. Well, the cloth was nicely soaked, but when it came to applying it to the grab tube it failed miserably. The resin soaked fabric would not stick to the wood and foam; rather, it stuck to the rubber gloves. I tried again and again, until the cloth was nothing but a crumpled mess and could not be salvaged.

Grrr!

I tried again with a smaller piece of dry 6 oz cloth. That worked much better, and I was able to apply enough resin to wet it out. Another try with some additional cloth worked to cover some of the area, but my last attempt with some heavier cloth failed, unfortunately.

Oh, well. Perhaps I'll try again later this week, or maybe just leave it as is, and apply some heavier cloth on the grab tubes and run it partially down the sides of the hull for strength.

On the topic of the propeller hub: I sent a drawing to a local machine shop that claimed to charge $80 per hour. Well, they quoted a price of $175 each for machining 3 hubs.

Methinks I will pursue other options.

Fillets for Hand Grips and Seat Back

2011-05-03T20:55:00.001-07:00

Since the grab tube is round and the surfaces to which it attaches are all flat, the strength of the bond would be increased significantly if the bonding area was more than the two tangents or the seat back and deck. Of course, the sides where the tube exits the seat back are also fair game for cloth and resin, but this is fairly small contact area as well.

In addition, given the forces applied to the seat back and the grip tubes it would be good to spread them over a larger area. Hence the need to fillet the tube.

Since I am not planning to use the internal foam bulkhead for the seat back that I made a couple of months ago, and since it was the perfect width for the interior of the seat back, I decided to cut pieces of it to make fillets between the seat back and fore side of the tube and deck, the aft side of the tube and deck, and the upper fore side of the tube and the seat back.

I'm planning to fill the gaps at either side of the seat back with epoxy fillet material so that the blue foam will remain sight unseen. The epoxy fillet will be used to fill the other gaps between the seat back and deck, too, though a couple of short pieces of triangular wood fillet like that around the torque box will be used to fillet the outside bottom edge of the aft side of the seat back.

The grab tube was cut to a length of 21.5 inches. This will leave 5 inches exposed on either side of the seat. The remaining 6 inches or so will be used for both the rudder bearings and for insertion limit rings for the akas.

Anyway, it looks like the boat won't quite be done in time for this weekend's race at Lake Whatcom. The amount of work remaining is more than can be done in my evening hours if I also want to get a good night's rest! The forecast is for rain, which means that the Escapade with its bimini roof and semi-enclosed cockpit would be better for race photography.

It would also be good to have some sea trials before racing to make sure things work as planned, so I'm shooting for the Commencement Bay Race towards the end of the month for its racing debut.

Seat Back and Hand Grips

2011-05-01T17:38:00.000-07:00

Early on in this project I had discussed with Rick the possibility of using the hand grips for controlling the rudders. While it might be possible to do so, my original idea of having a lever arm attached to the grips on the outside of the seat back would not work as my body is actually wider than the seat back.

The alternative of having the lever arm inside the seat might be possible, though it would be difficult to adjust or repair even with a hatch in the seat back.

I decided to opt for what might be the simplest approach: use a light rope to pull the rudder blade forward into the water, and a stretch cord to pull the rudder back to the stowed position. If the stretch cord proved to be impractical in practice, then perhaps a second rope could be added to help put the rudder back in the stowed position.

Since I plan to use this boat as a photo platform during races the ropes would be configured to end on the left side of the seat back just above the hand grip. The right rudder rope would have a second rope configured to end on the right side of the seat back, so when my right hand was free it could also be used to steer - at least to the right.

The next thing to decide was which diameter tubing of fiberglass to use for the hand grip. My original plan was to use some of the same tubing as the akas. It is relatively light, adequately strong and somewhat smaller diameter than the second choice.

Both Rick and Cory brought up the idea of using the hand grip tubing to support the akas. Rick indicated that this is how he did it for one of his boats, but found it brought the stabilizers a bit too far forward. He recommended having them mounted several feet further back, which is why I was working on the removable mounting bracket.

After thinking about it further I decided to use the thicker tubing. This would give me two places where the stabilizers could be mounted. Perhaps I am paranoid, but if the bracket broke there would be an alternative that could be used to allow me to recover and keep on going.

If the forward position worked reasonably well, then the complexity of the hull bracket could also be avoided.

Lastly, just as with the Cadence, with the stabilizers mounted right beside the seat I could attach and remove them while on the water. This proved to be very helpful when launching from a dock.

Final resin coat

2011-05-01T16:57:00.000-07:00

The hull-mounted aka bracket turned out 50% fine and 50% garbage. On one side the cloth laid nice and flush against the wood on all sides. On the other side it pulled away to make large bubbles, except on the underside where the cloth was pressed against the plastic covered bench.

I removed most of cloth on the bubble side of the bracket using a Moto-tool equipped with a flexible shaft and a tiny sanding drum. It is simply amazing how effect that tiny drum is in removing cured fiberglass!

I used that drum to remove most of the excess resin and glass from the bracket. It fit quite nicely in the filleted corners to round out the rough edges.

The sanding drum generates a lot of very fine particles that I could detect working their way around the seal between my respirator mask and my face. To solution was to hold the shop vac hose next to the drum to suck up the waste. That worked quite well.

After cleaning up once again I tried to glass the ugly side of the aka bracket, and to apply a thin coat of resin to the stabilizers and the final coat on the main hull.

This time, rather than resin the top and side surfaces at the same time I chose to apply resin only to the top surface so as to reduce the occurrence of drips. This was mostly successful, though I managed to miss a couple here and there.

Yesterday I glassed the rudders and made an attempt to fix the still ugly side of the aka bracket, and apply resin to one side of the main hull and the stabilizers. The rudders turned out OK, though they would have been better if they were stood on end rather than laid flat on the plastic covered bench. The excess resin would have pooled at the tip rather than creating a thick bubbly layer. Attacking it with the orbital sander worked fairly well to remove the excess resin.

Since the resin was still slightly soft it came off the surface in larger particles rather than dust. Not bad - perhaps it would clog the shop vac filter somewhat less.

I sanded the drips on the hull and stabilizer, too.

I decided that I would put a hatch in the seat back. This would server two purposes:
1. It would allow me to access the inside of the seat back to apply fillet material and maybe some glass to help better secure the seat to the hull.
2. The space could be used for storage, such as a Camelback water supply, or items that would be accessed when not under way.

Anyway, the chosen panel needed to be glassed on the inside so as to help replace some of the strength lost by the hole for the hatch.

I used 4 oz cloth on the inside and put the seat to one side to cure.

I rediscovered the reason it is better to sand the resin after it has cured. The uncured resin can stay white when a new layer of resin is applied. This obscures the wood finish. Sigh...at least it wasn't in an area that would be too easily seen!

More Blades and Brackets

2011-04-17T20:25:00.000-07:00

A little bit here, and a little bit there, and progress is still being made.

I sanded the brackets, using both the piece of sanding belt and the drum sanding bit on the end of a flexible shaft connected to a Moto-tool. I quickly discovered that holding the hose of the shop vac in one hand and the Moto-tool flexible shaft tool in the other was the best way to keep the work area clean and to reduce the amount of airborne dust. I also discovered that the Moto-tool drum sander was very effective in removing unwanted material in tight places around the support brackets.

After the sanding was completed I then applied fillet material where there were still gaps under the receiver tubes from the first application, and around the tubes on the outside of the brackets.

Several more strips of saturated 12 oz. biaxial cloth were applied to areas that were missed the first time. Some 6 oz. cloth was applied over some of the bare wood at the center of the brackets and some of the 12 oz to help flatten the material and smooth it out.

A couple of areas on the top of the stabilizers where the wood had appeared due to too much sanding were also glassed over.

Finally, while waiting for the resin to set, I spent some time grinding the first set of propeller blades. Instead of using a hand-held grinder I used an 8 inch bench grinder. It took many passes on each of the four four edges, with care being taken to keep the edge of the blade appropriately aligned with the edge of the wheel as the blade was drawn along the tool rest.

After the rough shape was formed I polished it using a 100 grit flapper wheel on the drill press. It took a while, but that managed to remove almost all of the grinding wheel grooves as well as the bumpy surface of the bar stock.

The first propeller hub still needs to have the slot cut into it for the blades. A local machine shop said they could do whatever I wanted, at a cost of $80 per hour. While it probably is worth it to get a professional job done I would still like to see if it could be done using fairly basic tools such as a drill press and a band saw. My neighbor suggested getting a larger cutting disc for my Moto-tool to cut the slot, but that would still leave a section of the waste material attached preventing it form being easily removed. We'll have to think about this further.

Now that the resin has set I went back and sanded the brackets again. The stabilizers were vacuumed and flipped over, and strips of 3.9 oz cloth was cut to cover the bare wood edges where the sanding had been too vigorous. In addition, the rudders were sanded in preparation for glassing, as were the two wooded pieces to hold the central mounting bracket for the stabilizer akas.

So, no, the boat won't be ready for next weekend's Jetty Island Race. The Escapade will have to fill in again for my photography platform.

Attaching Brackets to Stabilizers

2011-04-08T20:32:00.001-07:00

The original plan was to apply resin to the wooden bracket pieces, assemble them with the outrigger receiver tubes and place them on the stabilizers. Following this I was going to fillet the joints and apply 12 oz biaxial cloth up the sides, over the top edges and back down the insides of the brackets.

Well, I should have known better than to try to do this all in one go.

The resin application to the wood was fine, as was assembling the brackets and tubes and mounting them on the stabilizers. Using an aka tube to keep the bracket tubes properly oriented worked well, too. However, trying to apply fillet material didn't quite work as the brackets kept moving about.

I ended up scraping off all the fillet material and cleaning it from the brackets and tubes.

I had spread out a number of 12 oz strips of cloth on the plastic covered workbenches. Prior to working on the wood I poured resin poured on the strips to allow it to soak in and saturate the strips. The idea was that I would apply the cloth on the filleted brackets and things would be just fine.

Now there was no fillet material to round out the joints, and I had cloth saturated with resin that would shortly set. What to do?

Well, I applied the strips to the brackets anyway. The longer strips wrapped over the top edges of the brackets and down the insides. With the biaxial weave the cloth was able to bend over the 4mm plywood fairly well and stay flat against the inside wall. It even managed to make the 90 degree turn where the brackets meet the top of the stabilizer.

Once the cloth strips were in place the wooden bracket pieces were fairly well fixed in place, so I decided to fillet them and the tubes with the remaining fillet material. This was still rather messy, and the results were nowhere near as clean as I would have liked. Sigh....there will be a bit of cleanup work needed once this stuff hardens!

In addition to the stabilizer brackets I applied some patches to areas on the stabilizers where I went a bit too deep with the sanding, and to similar places on the edges of the top of the main hull.

As I was running short on mixed resin I decided to not coat both sides of the main hull mounting bracket pieces. Instead, I coated one side and let it set with the bracket in its position on edge with the bottom piece.

Checking on the cloth on the brackets I noticed some of it was pulling away from the wood. After pushing it back in place I covered it with plastic and used small plastic clips to hold it in place. This generally worked, but some of the shorter fibers along the edges escaped. They will just have to be removed after the resin hardens.

There will be a bit of sanding this weekend, followed by a bit more filleting and glass application.

Blades and Brackets

2011-04-04T19:48:00.000-07:00

The metal for the propeller blades and hub arrived. They were purchased from Online Metals.Com, which turns out to be located maybe 20 miles from my house. Their prices were reasonably competitive, and their price to cut the metal to the proper length was acceptable, too.

I bought 2 sets of 304 stainless bar, and one set of 316 stainless cut from plate. If worse comes to worse I have spares with which to work on or to replace a prop if one gets lost.

I also purchased round aluminum bar stock, enough for three hubs, and 3/4 inch round Delrin stock to be used for plain bearings.

Following Rick's instructions, I carefully measured and marked the grind lines on both sides of each bar. I then marked the grip lines, the pivot points and the zero angle lines. All was ready for bending them to shape.

Rick's instructions described how one mounts the blades vertically in a vise, with a right angle ruler to ensure the blade was truly vertical. He then used a protractor and a stationary reference to make sure that when the blade was twisted that is bent to the correct angle.

I decided that this was too much work. Anyway, I didn't have a fixed protractor like Rick's, but I did have a nifty angle measuring tool I picked up years ago from Sears. It is a 360 degree dial protractor that has one flat side which one applies to the surface to be measured, and the gravity driven plum bob need swings down to the lowest position against a marked dial. You then read the angle directly from the dial.

In the past this tool has been invaluable for measuring bike frame angles and the like, and measuring the stuffing box angle on the boat.

For the propeller blade situation I merely rotated my vise 90 degrees so the jaws were in the vertical position, and clamped the blade in place. One quick measurement of the blade made certain that it was horizontal. Grasping the blade at the grip line with a large adjustable wrench with one hand and countering the weight with my other hand, I was easily able to bend the blade to the desired angle.

Repeating the process with the blade inserted at the other end and the job was done.

All in all, it took maybe 5 minutes to bend the 6 blades.

The 316 stainless, being about .005 inches thinner than the 304 bar, definitely was easier to bend. Hopefully this won't be a an issue when those blades are called upon to push water.

Putting the blades aside for the moment I then began work on the mounting brackets for the outriggers.

At first I planned to do something along the same lines as the Cadence outriggers. That boat uses UHMW plastic blocks drilled and sliced in half with mounting holes drilled on either side to clamp the two pieces around a short section of larger fiberglass tubing to the top of the float.

The problems with this are 1) the blocks are somewhat heavy, 2) I couldn't find a reasonable and inexpensive source for it, and 3) this requires some sort of threaded receiver on each stabilizer.

I had already purchased T-nuts for this purpose. However, having second thoughts about mounting them, the weight of the bolts, the lack of adjustability and reduced strength, and the extra work needed, I decided instead to mount the brackets directly to the top of the stabilizers.

The hull mount will still use the T-nuts, though they will be the longer ones with wider bases. This will still allow vertical adjustment.

Gearbox Mounting Bracket

2011-03-25T19:29:00.000-07:00

The Involute gearbox needs to be securely mounted on the torque box. The gearbox has four threaded holes in the bottom and four threaded holes on the top. The holes are fairly close to the corners so as to maximize leverage. It is possible to drill and tap additional holes, but four should be enough if the mount is done properly.

In this boat the mount has to also be adjustable in position fore and aft so as to accommodate the different leg lengths of different pilots. It is also useful in the event that I incorrectly measure my own preferred leg extension while pedaling.

So, the plan is to mount two 1/8 inch thick by 2 inch wide by 14 inch long aluminum plates on either side of the top of the torque box parallel with the top panel of the torque box. This panel is parallel to the stuffing box, so the gearbox can move fore and aft without affecting the angle of the propeller shaft. Two bolts through the torque box (and through the foam block inside the torque box) will secure these plates.

The gearbox will rest on two 7 inch long by 1.25 inch wide by 3/4 inch high aluminum 90 degree angle brackets, sort of like a sled. As the gearbox is narrower than the top panel, the mounting holes will be drilled in the angle brackets to center and align the drive shaft with the stuffing box.

Two bolts through holes along the top of the aluminum plates and through the raised sides of the angle brackets will secure the brackets and gearbox in place.

In addition, the side plates are not just flat pieces of metal. They, too, are angle brackets, with all but 1/4 inch removed from one side. This leaves 1/8 inch on the inside of the angle protruding, which captures the top edge of the gearbox sled and keeps it from being able to move in the upward direction. So, one can remove both sled securing bolts without fear of the gearbox somehow flopping out. This also spreads any upward load from the sled along the length of the aluminum plates, strengthens the plates, etc.

You might ask where one gets such strange sized angle brackets. I happened to have a bunch of 2 inch by 2 inch by 1/8 inch square aluminum tubing laying about from a previous project. A bit of quality time with a bandsaw to cut the pieces roughly to size, followed by some time with the bench belt sander was needed to convert these pieces to the proper size and shape.

Ok...this is cheating a little, blog-wise, but today (Saturday) I finished drilling the brackets with the exception of the holes to secure the mounting brackets to the torque box. I also removed the spider from the cranks I intend to use, and polished the gearbox.

Sanding, sanding

2011-03-20T15:04:00.000-07:00

Saturday was spent sanding the bottom and other parts of the hull.

Most of the time was with the orbital sander. With care, one can sand the edges of the cloth to merge smoothly with the resin covered wood or cloth in the layer below the 6 oz tape that covers the edges of the hull. By smoothly, I mean so that by touch or by sight you can't tell where one surface ends and the other begins.

In some cases I ended up using the sanding belt scrap to remove the high and low points where the resin seemed to drip from the 6 oz. This was done in particular in the areas where the orbital sander couldn't reach in the cockpit area, and in areas where the orbital sander was likely to sand too deeply such as along the edges of the hull. I am continually amazed at how long this 2-1/2 inch by 3 inch piece of aluminum oxide coated stiff fabric continues to stay sharp and how much resin and glass it removes per stroke. It is far better than any normal sandpaper I've tried.

Now that the hull is pretty much as strong as it will ever be the next step will be to determine the precise positioning of the gear box and the seat back.

A fellow human powered boat enthusiast with a similar boat came up with an idea that does away with the dipping rudders and improves the steering. Here is a link to his post on BoatDesign.Net: http://www.boatdesign.net/forums/boat-design/pedal-powered-boats-23345-71.html

Bottom Covered

2011-03-12T14:03:00.000-08:00

I took the day off Friday to work on the boat. There is something about doing this sort of thing on a day where one does not take away time with the family that makes the process a bit more enjoyable.

Of course, having only a 4 day work week helped, too.

The second coat of resin was very glossy, but a little bumpy here and there from drips. The cloth from the patched areas was a little rough in places, too, but that was expected.

Two hours or so of sanding with the orbital sander and hand sanding smoothed everything quite nicely. By the end of the process it sounded like the filter on the shop vac was pretty clogged with the fine resin dust. It will need to be cleaned for the third time this project!

I flipped the boat upside down, resting on the front of the cockpit and on some foam blocks near the middle of the rear deck.

Additional 4 inch wide 45 degree bias cloth tape was cut from the 6 oz fabric. This was needed to tape the edges of the hull. Segments of cloth to cover the bottom were cut from the 4 oz roll, with the width more or less the width of the bottom panel.

A T-shaped slit was cut in the cloth that was destined to cover the hull where the stuffing box emerges.

Lastly, pieces of 12 oz biaxial knit cloth were cut to reinforce the lower bow and stern.

With the garage door open and the wimpy ventilation fan running, I put on my resin jacket and latex gloves, adjusted my organic vapor filtering respirator mask and started mixing the first cup of resin.

One cup doesn't go very far on virgin wood. It was barely enough to wet the wood, the fabric on the bottom panel and the tape on the seams. Some of it was applied to the 12 oz fabric for the bow - yes, that stuff sops up resin like a sponge. Anyway, it is far better to apply the resin to that cloth while it is sitting flat on shrink wrap plastic than to try to apply it to dry cloth on the sides of the hull. Picking up the saturated cloth and molding it to the hull was trivially easy. I didn't even need to clamp it in place once the air bubbles were worked out.

The rest of the boat took about one cup of resin per bottom panel of cloth, working towards the stern. Along the way resin was applied to the the sanded or still bare wood sides of the hull, turning it to a warm, rich color. Resin applied to the previously sanded resin areas went on very thinly. Resin applied to the wood was a little thicker. At first, one could easily see the old resin as darker blotches, but after a while it all merged into the same color.

3-1/2 hours later, the last bit of the stern was completed.

As I had some resin remaining I applied it to the outside rear joint of the seat back and the top, placing some tape over the joint and some scrap pieces over the top rear side joints. Given the strength of the wood and the interior fillets and taping, this should be adequate. The front of the seat will get 6 oz cloth and possibly 12 oz along the side seams, though 6 oz is probably enough for there, too.

Now that almost all the wood has been sealed I can turn off the dehumidifier!

Seams Sanded - Again

2011-03-07T19:41:00.000-08:00

I spent Friday evening and Saturday sanding the areas where the resin had been applied to the top and sides of the boat. Areas where the resin left a sort of dripped appearance on the resin covered sides were pretty much sanded flat, and the transitions from the glass covered seams to the resin covered wood were smoothed.

The rough surfaces of the resin impregnated cloth were sanded mostly smooth, too, with care taken to not sand through the weave.

Several areas ended up with voids below the cloth. In particular, the gaps between the wood fillets and the panels were not always filled with resin, and sometimes the cloth managed to get pulled away slightly, leaving voids below.

All of these voids were sanded open, with the glass removed until the wood was reached.

All this sanding was done with the random orbital sander, with 100 grit discs. I ended up going through 3 discs, but the results were quite nice.

Both the bow and stern ended up with a good, solid covering of glass. The glass at the bow actually extends beyond it by half an inch or so, tapering to the thickness of a credit card. We'll have to see how well this works in practice, or if other boaters will complain.

I used both the block sander and the remaining fragment of the aluminum oxide sanding belt held in my hand to round the bottom edges of the hull in preparation for taping. The hand-held sanding belt fragment did a great job in sanding the hard to reach areas around the cockpit as well as small areas that were just better done with the pressure of one's fingertips.

On Sunday I cut the vanes for the dipping rudders. These were made from a 4 inch wide piece from the old top of the torque box and from a piece of scrap plywood. I then took the long, skinny pieces that had been cut from the upper sides of the torque box and decided they would work as the lever arms and reinforcement backing for the vanes.

I spent some time salvaging some of the 6 oz cloth that had inadvertently had some resin dripped on it. Some of the pieces would serve to patch over the void areas.

Everything was ready for the step: filling and fixing the voids, and sealing the sanded areas.

I mixed up a couple of spoonfuls of fillet material in a cup, and applied it to the wooden fillet voids. A spoon worked pretty well to force the fillet material into the void and to smooth the surface. A paper towel cleaned up the surrounding areas.

There were some other minor voids in the hull seams that were also filled, but a major fillet area was where the stuffing box exited the bottom of the hull. Here the tube was filleted towards the stern so as to provide additional support if or when the boat rests on it.

A cup of resin was mixed and applied to the rudder vanes and lever arms. It took a bit longer than expected, so by the time I got to apply the remaining fillet material it had already started to set. I ended up applying a rather lumpy and stringy bunch of fillet material anyway, figuring they will sand pretty well on the belt sander when I try to turn them into a bit more of a foil shape.

I applied resin to the port foredeck and the port side of the cockpit, patching bits and pieces of cloth over the bare wooden areas. This seemed to go fairly well.

The sanded and now newly resin covered areas look very nice and smooth. Hopefully they won't require much in the way of additional sanding before the job is done.

Topside Taped

2011-02-28T20:19:00.000-08:00

On a very chilly Saturday the top side of the boat was taped and sealed. Bits and pieces of cloth were draped over the cockpit at 45 degrees to the weave, measured and cut to fit. Other pieces were measured to cover the cockpit floor and seams. The edges of the wooden panels were rounded one last time with a sanding block to provide a couple of millimeters of radius to allow the cloth to follow surface. All dust and glass threads were vacuumed away.

The wooden fillets were checked for fit. One had to be sanded a bit at the end to fit against the deflector plate, which apparently moved somewhat forward when it was glued in place.

I started with applying resin to the top of the torque box first, followed by its sides and the cockpit floor. Using a cheap sponge brush I coated the wooden fillets on all sides and put them in place along the floor and the wooden bulkhead against the torque box.

The glass cloth was then laid on top of the fresh resin. Oops - not quite the right spot. Grr! Now it was shrinking in width, too!

Yes, the 45 degree cut allowed the cloth to stretch in length, which also caused it to shrink in width. Just lifting the cloth was enough to stretch it in length. The cloth had to be pulled wider and then applied to the sticky surface.

This repeated over and over. I figured that I'd be happy when I got to the rear deck where I had 90 degree strips prepared.

Anyway, it was taking a long time to get the cloth strips to nicely cover the seams of the cockpit area, and the cheap sponge brush was self destructing. Sigh...

Fortunately, my daughter arrived to provide assistance. I gave her a filter mask and rubber gloves and put her to work on the other side of the cockpit.

Working together we managed to get all the glass wetted out. My daughter progressed to gluing the deck seams and I finished up the cockpit.

At this point my daughter had other things to do so I bid her adieu and thanks for her help.

The rest of the front deck was covered in resin.

I took a piece of 12 oz 45 degree cloth, laid it flat on the plastic covered workbench and poured resin on it, letting it sit for a few minutes. The resin spread throughout the glass, saturating it nicely with no work on my part.

Picking it up carefully I then wrapped it around and over the bow.

Using shrink wrap plastic, pressed in place with foam rubber clamped between two boards, the glass was pressed against the wood hull. This was the same technique as used for the stabilizer bow and stern.

The next step was to tape and glass the rear deck. For this I had 90 degree cloth strips cut and applied. This seemed to work OK at first, but soon I noticed that the cloth was not staying flush against the surface near the edges. Rats! The edge was too sharp!

Just at this point my wife arrived and asked if she could help. Yes, certainly!

Giving her the roll of 6 oz tape I asked her to cut 4 to 5 inch strips of the cloth on a 45 degree bias. She took it to a warm part of the house, laid it on a large cutting table, and quickly cut it to size with a rotary cutter. This was much faster and cleaner cutting than with a scissors.

I removed the strips that I had placed on the rear deck, replacing them with the new bias cut pieces. Voila! The new pieces were much better behaved. Thank you, wife!

The stern was wrapped in 12 oz glass just like the bow, and also clamped in place.

The last step was to apply 6 oz cloth to the seat area. The piece was just a little too big, so short threads stuck over the edge. I think they will sand off fairly easily later.

The whole process took about 4-1/2 hours.

I'm now into the second gallon of resin.

Yes, the odor from the resin was what gave me headaches. With the very chilly weather (0 degrees C) we have been having I didn't want to open the garage door to ventilate. Instead, I used a wimpy exhaust fan I installed years ago that sucks air through a movable clothes dryer duct. Yes, it helped a bit, but after a while I decided to open the garage door anyway. It got pretty cold, and after a couple of hours of work the resin was not working quite as well - so I closed the door again. The resin is supposed to work down to 35 degrees with the fast hardener, so perhaps it reached that temperature.

I took off my work outer garments (thick cotton Army jacket, moderately thick jacket, thick inner cotton work shirt and shoes, and left the house after finishing the taping and took the family out to dinner, leaving the exhaust fan running all night.

Sunday morning I woke with a light version of the same headache as before. Yup - got to make sure there is adequate ventilation!

Seams Sanded

2011-02-25T21:39:00.001-08:00

In preparation for taping the seams, I spent a couple of hours with the random orbital sander going over the seams on the hull. Rather than attempt to use fairing material to fillet the places where the deck overhung the sides of the hull, I sanded the edge of the deck back to the hull. This was no more than 1/8 inch or so in the worst sections, but it doesn't look too bad. The alternative would have been to fair in the hull to the deck. This would cover up the wood and generally look worse - unless the hull was painted. Fairing would also add to the weight, but holding the shape of the hull a little closer to the design might improve the performance a little.

Still, the sides of the hull and the bottom of the hull are generally in close agreement even if the sides didn't quite flare out as much as the deck. It should perform as designed.

I flipped the boat over for the first time and sanded down the resin drippings. It is just about ready for taping the seams!

The last thing I did was weigh the hull. According to my semi-accurate shipping scale the hull sans seat is about 36 pounds. Considering that fiberglass surf skis are in the 32 to 37 pound range, this isn't too bad. Of course, the boat will be much heavier once the seat back, gearbox, cranks, pedals, propeller, prop shaft, rudder and outriggers are added. Sigh....I'm hoping it will end up less than 60 pounds overall.

Adding cloth and more resin to the seams and bottom of the hull will add still more weight, too, but this is needed both for strength and for protection of the wood from scrapes and impact.

Rear Deck Glued

2011-02-21T21:19:00.000-08:00

Sunday was going to be the day the rear deck was to be glued, but I woke up with a nasty headache that lasted most of the day. It might have been due to working in a garage with low VOC epoxy and minimal ventilation the previous day, and the activated charcoal filter might not have been enough to do the trick. Anyway, so far as work on the boat was concerned, all I did Sunday was to sand the still slightly green resin joints from Saturday in preparation for the future, when a layer of glass would be applied to the torque box and the top seam of the front deck.

Today (Monday) was President's Day here in the USA. It is a Federal holiday, meaning a bunch of folks get it off. My company doesn't have it as a holiday, but I took a day off anyway.

Removing all the weights form the torque box revealed a pretty nicely glued box. Some areas needed additional sanding, so that was done in preparation for the next step: gluing the rear deck.

Since this was the last time I'd have easy access to the stuffing box, I measured the angle of the 1 inch fiberglass pipe as it exited the hull, and at the end where it exited below where the seat bottom would be located. The two measurements were almost identical: 14 degrees and 13.5 degrees. Yes, there was a slight difference, but over the 64 inch length of the stuffing box this should probably be OK - I hope!

After opening the garage door for ventilation I mixed a cup of resin. Most of it was subsequently poured out along the length of the bottom side of the rear deck and squeegeed into the wood, turning it a nice even color.

I then used a 1 inch sponge brush to dab resin on the unsealed edges of the hull, from the seat back to the stern, on both sides. Resin was then applied to the back, sides and bottom of the stuffing box plate and to the roughened surface of the stuffing box. A weight was applied to the front end of the stuffing box as the stuffing box plate was mounted in place on the torque box.

More resin was applied to the top edges of the stuffing box walls where they became supports for the seat bottom.

Two teaspoons of fillet and one teaspoon of fillet hardener were mixed in another cup. This was applied generously around the interior wall of the stuffing box plate around the stuffing box as well as to the interior edges of its vertical joints.

More fillet was applied to the vertical convex edges of the diamond pieces securing the torque box. Fillet material was also placed on the tops of those pieces where they would join the rear deck to form the seat bottom.

With all the mating edges thus prepared, it was time to put the rear deck in position.

Lifting it carefully, it was flipped onto the boat, resin side down, with the front edge aligned with the stuffing box plate. Clamps were applied across the top to make sure that the edges were aligned with and would stay aligned with the sides of the hull.

Working back toward the stern, additional clamps were applied. Finally, at the stern, a clamp was used to make sure the deck and hull aligned properly. Another clamp was used to tighten the tip of the deck onto the hull.

Weights were applied along the length of the rear deck.

I spent a bit of time with paper towels wiping up resin drips and forming and removing excess fillet material in the cockpit area. Some of the excess material was applied to the top of the stern. The rest was applied to some gaps I noticed in the joints of the seat back and other areas.

As I had some excess resin, I decided to use it along with a piece of scrap plywood to help fill a gap in the seat back port side rear panel. This will make it easier to securely mount onto the deck when that time comes.

It is really getting to look like a boat!

Torque Box Assembled

2011-02-19T22:59:00.000-08:00

A couple of days went by and I decided to double check the measurements between where the output of the gearbox would be and where the propeller shaft would emerge from the stuffing box. Sure enough, though the gearbox output was parallel to the prop shaft it was about 3/16 inch too high. The sides of the torque box would need to be cut down a quarter inch to compensate. Back to the bandsaw!

Once the sides were cut I reassembled the torque box and placed weights on the top panel to try to bend it into the flattened S-shape. That seemed to work, though there was still a small gap at the lower curve. That should disappear if the weights are left in place for a couple of days.

Rick suggested reinforcing the area around the bottom of the hull where the fiberglass stuffing box exited the hull. Given that his hulls were glass and foam, and that this hull was plywood, it seemed to be adequate to add a second layer of plywood around the hole, some fillet material to fill the gaps and a layer of 12 oz cloth strips to cover the edges and the emerging stuffing box.

I thought of using the original plywood panel from the torque box as it had a hole ready made. Unfortunately, however, the hole was much too long as it was intended to intersect the stuffing box at a shallower angle. Still, the panel width was fine so I cut off the section with the hole and trimmed the remainder into a roughly 1 foot long tear drop oval.

A 1-inch hole saw was used to drill a hole near one end. The rest of the hole was rough cut with a coping saw and finished with a rasp. A couple of minutes on the belt sander shaped the outer edges with a 1/2 to 3/4 inch bevel.

I double checked the wood fillet pieces I previously cut to make sure they fit properly. The horizontal pieces were OK, but the two vertical pieces needed sanding to make a decent joint at their base and to taper nicely at the top.

Small drain holes were filed in the bottoms of the foam bulkheads in the torque box and below the seat. I don't want water to be trapped anywhere!

On Saturday I was ready to start gluing.

Several strips of 12 oz and 6 ounce glass were cut. The 12 oz glass was for the stuffing box. The 6 oz glass was for reinforcing the fore deck where it joined the hull.

A small cup of fillet material was mixed. This I applied to the gaps between the deck and the hull, to the depressions in the central fore deck joint, and to various gaps between other previously glued panels. A bunch was stuffed into the stern hull joint using a chop stick. This was intended to both strengthen the joint as well as to help reduce the chance of leaking after impact.

A cup of resin was mixed. The first area to which it was applied was the reinforcement plywood for the stuffing box hull entry and then to the inside of the hull where that piece was to go. I then inserted the stuffing box through the reinforcement piece and the hull to the proper depth, letting it hang unsupported at the long end. After adjusting the position of the reinforcement plywood I liberally applied the fillet material in the gaps and around the base of the stuffing box. The 12 oz cloth was applied around the stuffing box and the beveled edges of the reinforcement piece. A lot of resin was used to wet out the cloth.

Weights were applied to the reinforcement piece to get it to mate flush with the hull and to counter to torque of the unsupported stuffing box.

Later on, when the boat is flipped over to glass its bottom, the stuffing box will be filleted and glassed from the bottom side as well. Not today, though!

More resin was mixed and applied to the portion of the cockpit deck that would soon be gone from view. It was then applied to the inside surface and the top and bottom edges of the torque box side panels and the sides and bottoms of the foam bulkheads.

The side panels and foam bulkheads were then positioned in the cockpit area, making sure that forward edges were flush against the wooden bulkhead and centered.

The top panel of the torque box was next. Resin was applied to the two ends and to the bottom. Resin was also applied to the slanting foam piece that would sit below the gear box.

The top panel was then placed on top of the torque box, with the tabs of the aft end inserted between the two sides. Weight was applied here first, then to the middle section and finally to the forward end.

A clamp was applied at the top sides where the forward foam bulkhead supported the slanting foam piece.

Resin and foam were next applied to the deck/hull joint, and 6 oz glass strips applied to either side. Shrink wrap plastic and a spring clamp were used to flatten and secure the glass at the bow. Additional plastic was used to try to work out any air gaps between the resin impregnated cloth and the wood.

The last pieces to be glued in place were the two diamond shaped pieces that fit on either side of the torque box below the front seat. Resin was applied to the interior surface and the bottom and side edges only. After propping the pieces in place small strips of 6 oz glass were applied to the inside bottom joint and the interior hull joint. I'm not sure how much force will be applied to these pieces, but I plan to apply glass to the outer side and top joints later on.

A couple of hours later I went back to take a look to see how things were progressing. I was unhappy to see that some gaps had appeared at the top end of the "S" of the torque box top panel. Apparently not enough weight had been applied there.

I mixed a small batch of fillet material and removed the weight from that section, which caused it to start separating from the panels. Fillet material was liberally applied to the joint edges. Weights were then placed on this section, with double the amount previously applied. Excess fillet material was removed with a paper towel.

We'll see how this turns out tomorrow!

Reworking the Cockpit

2011-02-12T17:35:00.001-08:00

After taking a week off recovering from the Sound Rowers La Conner race, which I participated in my Escapade pedal boat (see http://soundrowers.org) and took photos of the event for the club, it was time to return to work.

The next stage in the building process is to put together the cockpit.

To do this, the following steps need to be taken:
1. Design the mount for the gearbox.
2. Modify the torque box to accommodate the gearbox and mount.
3. Clean up the edges of the torque box panels and underseat panels so they mate properly.
4. Add stringers to the rear hull to spread the sides to fit the rear deck.

Step 1: Design the mount for the gearbox
I had a number of grandiose ideas for how to mount the gearbox and make it adjustable. Some of these designs would require TIG welding, which is fine with me as I happen to do that as a hobby. On the other hand, if I could do this using off the shelf bits and pieces, then so much the better for anyone else who wants to do this on their own.

The design I ended up with is to use to simply use two flat panels of 1/8 inch thick aluminum that are bolted to either side of the torque box, with a series of 1/4" holes along the top edges in each panel. The gearbox is then bolted to a pair of right angle aluminum stock that extends an inch beyond the front and rear ends of the gearbox. Holes drilled in the extended section are aligned with the series of holes in the plates previously mentioned, and bolts are passed through securing the front and rear of the gearbox. Wing nuts or nylok nuts are used to hold the bolts in place.

Optionally, four very short bolts could be used if the two long bolts prove to be too loose in practice.

The weight of the gearbox is resting on the angle aluminum stock against the top of the torque box.

I'll take photos of this set up after I fabricate it.

Step 2: Modify the torque box to accommodate the gearbox and mount

Ok, now that the gearbox mount is designed, what modifications are needed to the cockpit to get it to align with the stuffing box?

As it turns out, the Involute gearbox is a pretty big beast. Measuring from where the seat back would be (2.85 meters, or 9 feet 4.20 inches from the stern) to where the center of the crank spindle is located (approximately 37 inches for my legs), the rear edge of the gearbox would be nearly an inch below the top of the torque box. Also, the stuffing box is too short for the top panel of the torque box.

The solution I chose was to trim about an inch from the torque box side panels starting just in front of the seat bottom, continue forward for about a foot, and then taper back to the original top edge at an angle parallel to the stuffing box. This would provide for a length of several inches longer than the Involute gearbox and allow it to be adjusted for shorter and longer legs.

I would have preferred to have left the gearbox up higher as this would have allowed for more heel clearance and possibly the use of standard length crank arms. Unfortunately, however, this would have caused the stuffing box to have emerged from the seat bottom rather than just below the seat bottom. The angle of the propeller shaft would have increased a bit, too, causing a bit more stress on the shaft.

After taking numerous measurements while seated in my Escapade, I decided that using shorter crank arms as on the Cadence would give me just enough clearance under normal circumstances. The stuffing box will stay at the original design angle.

By making the transitions gentle enough it was possible to bend a single piece of wood to comprise the top panel, simplifying construction and making for a nicer appearance.

The original top panel, though long enough to reach from the front bulkhead to the stuffing box panel, could not be used as it had a long oval hole cut in it for the stuffing box to emerge. So, using some of the scrap wood that was delivered along with the original panels, and the original top panel as a template, I cut a new torque box top panel.

While doing measurements and trial fits I noticed that the torque box side panels had a tendency to not want to stand perpendicular to the deck. This would only get worse when it was time to glue them, so I cut some foam bulkheads for under the seat and under the gearbox area. An additional piece of foam was positioned just under the top panel so the bolts securing the aluminum side panels for the gearbox mount would pass through it. This would help to keep the torque box from deforming under the pressure of the bolts and to help keep water out of the torque box.

Step 3. Clean up the edges of the torque box panels and underseat panels so they mate properly.

A small rectangular piece of wood was cut and drilled for the stuffing box panel mount. The sides were beveled to mate with the beveled edges of the torque box at the front of the seat bottom.

The rear end of the top panel of the torque box was notched at the corners so that it extended under the stuffing box panel mount by about 1/4 inch. I used a band saw to cut the notches and a flat file to adjust them to fit.

The two small, roughly diamond shaped panels were also beveled with a sanding block to fit on either side of the seat bottom.

The sides of the hull needed some filing in the area where the fillet material was present, and beveling with a sanding block to make a nice fit.

The front edges of the sides of the torque box also needed some touch up with the block sanded to get them to fit snugly against the front cockpit panel.

Step 4. Add stringers to the rear hull to spread the sides to fit the rear deck.

Since I plan to put the rear deck in place right after the cockpit is completed I double checked the fit of the sides of the hull with the deck. Near the stern I found that the hull was not spread apart enough at the deck, so I added a couple of small pieces of foam to spread the sides. This was also necessary near the seat back, as the sides had a tendency to push inwards.

I think that when the rear deck is glued in place I will use half a dozen or so clamps across the top. This is needed to make sure that the hull stays straight relative to the deck. However, in order to make sure the clamps don't inadvertently squeeze sides rather than align the deck with the sides, I'll use more right angle aluminum pieces inside the clamps. The pieces will be covered with shrink wrap plastic so they don't become a permanent part of the boat.

Closing the Cockpit and the Fore Deck

2011-02-01T21:27:00.000-08:00

A couple of hours here. A couple of hours there. Not much to look at but then suddenly there is a big change to the appearance of the boat. Progress is definitely being made!

After the hull was assembled and the resin set I went back to see how the deck pieces fit. The cockpit floorboard wasn't quite matching the upper edges of the hull, and the wooden bulkhead wasn't exactly meeting the edges of the hull, either. In fact, the starboard side of the hull at the floorboard was nearly 1/4 inch too far outboard, and the port side was about 4mm too far inboard. I hate it when that happens.

The solution was to take a hacksaw blade to the foam bulkhead near the starboard side and cut a long, thin 1/4 inch thick wedge from it, and insert a 4mm wedge on the port side of the same bulkhead. The application of some epoxy resin later on to these points could be done if I felt like it, but it really isn't necessary except to possibly stop squeaking when the hull flexes.

I had to do the port side on only one bulkhead, but three of the starboard bulkheads needed adjustment.

Since the floorboard didn't mate flush with the wooden bulkhead I sanded the edge that was too long until it fit reasonably well.

The next part to assemble was the fore deck.

Looking at the remaining panels I was still amused that there were three side panels for the fore deck when only two were needed. It is nice to have a spare, I guess.

The top center panel was designed to not quite fill the gap between the two side panels. According to Rick this was intentional as it is difficult to determine how it would fit given the thickness of the plywood and how it would fit after the pieces were beveled to mate. I don't know about that. It could easily have been 3 or four inches longer with no problems.

I took some fresh 80 grit sandpaper, made from the belt of my now-broken belt sander, and with the sanding block beveled the edges of the fore deck pieces. It didn't take much time at all. The sanding belt was quite durable and the grit stayed pretty sharp.

While checking the fit of the fore deck I found that keeping the pieces in place was a bit trying. The section of the hull between the 5m bulkhead and the bow needed to be spread a little at the top in order for the pieces to fit. So, another foam bulkhead was cut to fit at 5.5m.

With the new bulkhead things fit much better. Still, the top deck piece just would stay in place supported only by one edge. Something would need to be done to support it when the assembly phase commenced.

After some additional consideration I decided that the compartment just ahead of the wooden bulkhead and the one just behind where the stuffing box exits the hull would be ideal for storage compartments. They would serve double duty as access points for draining the hull should it leak. So, to make sure that water inside the various compartments could actually make it to these compartments I punched small holes at the bottoms of the foam bulkheads. By tipping the boat bow or stern up water could be directed to the compartments with the access hatches and removed.

Tonight I took a rectangular piece of scrap foam and traced the upper part of the wooden bulkhead on it. After cutting out the bulkhead shape I now had a cradle in which I placed the deck pieces upside down. Again, the markings in the wood were helpful in making sure the pieces were aligned properly.

Duct tape was used to hold the pieces together along the their curves, and to secure the top deck piece in place between the two side deck panels. Tape was also used to cover the gap between the end of the top piece and the side panels, as I intended to fill this area with fillet material.

With the panels mounted I measured and cut some 6 ounce cloth to cover the seams almost all the way to the bow.

All was ready for the next assembly phase.

I measured and mixed about 2/3 of a coffee cup of resin. It was spread thinly over the underside of the cockpit floorboard, the fore edge and the interior side edges where the floorboard enters the hull. The cuts in the bulkheads received some resin and their tops as well, along with the top edges of the hull. The floorboard was put in place and clamps and weights applied.

Fillet material was mixed and applied to the top and bottom interior side edges of the floorboard to as to provide some support below the seat area.

The deck panels were lifted from the cradle and placed flat on the bench. This allowed resin to be applied to the beveled edges as well as the interior surface. Once this was done the panels were placed back on the cradle and the pieces checked to make sure they were fitting properly together.

Fillet material was now applied to the interior seams and squeegeed smooth. The glass cloth was applied and the remaining resin was used to wet out the cloth. I had to mix up another small batch of resin as there wasn't quite enough of the old stuff left and it was beginning to set anyway.

While that was slowly setting I applied the remaining fillet material to the seam between the wooden bulkhead and floorboard, and to the vertical interior seam of the bow.

The remaining resin was applied to the edges of the hull from the wooden bulkhead to the bow, and to the edges of the deck currently sitting in the cradle.

Gently removing the deck from the cradle I set it in place on the hull and began tying it in place with shrink wrap plastic strips. This wasn't quite doing the job as gaps appeared in all the wrong places!
Grabbing a roll of duct tape I strapped the deck to the hull every couple of inches on both sides. This seemed to do the trick, and the pieces fit pretty well together.

There were a couple of sections of the hull that wanted to fit 2 or 3 mm inside the deck, however. Taking a thin piece of metal and using it to pry the hull outward did the trick and duct tape helped secure that as well.

I let this set overnight and upon returning from my day job I removed the weights and tape. Here are the results:

Big Glue Day

2011-01-22T22:16:00.001-08:00

This past week I picked up a foam insulation board from Home Depot to remake two bulkheads that were just slightly undersized. While there I also picked up a tube of Liquid Nails with the intention of using it to secure the bulkheads to the panels. I also ordered another quart of structural fillet, figuring that the original quart would not be adequate to do the entire hull. Lastly, I cut 3 to 3.5 inch wide strips of the 12 ounce biaxial knit cloth to back the lower seams of the hull.

Taking the stuffing box I found it didn't quite fit through the oval hole cut into the hull - at least not at the 14 degree angle. So, using a half-round rasp/file I spent some quality time enlarging the hole, primarily beveling the inside fore and external aft surfaces. This worked quite well.

Today I reassembled the hull. This was necessary to make sure that the new bulkheads fit properly. Some additional sanding was needed to get the bottom edges of the hull to fit to the bottom panel, and to get the cockpit floor panel to properly cover the sides. It was also done to shim the bottom panel to make sure the side panels would properly mate with it from stem to stern.

Once this was done, I disassembled the hull, spread the panels on the benches so that the bottom hull panel was accessible and the two side panels were stacked, with one accessible.

Finally, everything was ready to be glued.

I mixed a small bucket of resin, and poured it along the length of the bottom panel and one side panel. Taking a squeegee I spread it over the surfaces, working it into the grain. As the resin soaked in, the wood changed color twice. First, it changed to an intermediate slightly darker color. Second, after a minute or so it would change to a darker, richer color that was very pleasing to the eye.

The small bucket of resin was depleted before the first side was completely done. Another batch was mixed and applied, completing the surface. It was now time for applying resin to the edge.

For this task I used a sponge brush. It was somewhat messy, as the sponge was fairly flimsy and the resin viscous. There were a few drips on the floor and elsewhere.

Once the first side panel was finished, with resin applied to the interior side and bottom edge, it was put in place on the bottom panel. Paint cans were used to keep it from flopping over.

The second side panel was coated, and resin applied to the bottom edge. It, too, was put in place on the bottom panel, supported by paint cans.

The next phase should have been to apply the fillet material and glass reinforcements. However, the sides refused to stay where they were supposed to be. So, plan B went into effect: Glue the bulkheads into place and apply the fillet and glass afterwards.

I used leftover resin on the sides of the bulkheads. It was starting to kick off, and was pretty viscous, so it stayed in place pretty well. Shrink wrap plastic strips were tied around the hull at strategic places to hold things together. Wedges of foam under the shrink wrap were used to apply pressure were the side panels were misbehaving. Spring clips were used at the bow and stern to hold the tips, and a clamp was used at the stern where the panels wanted to twist to one side.

About two thirds of the quart of fillet material was mixed in the now empty resin bucket. The green and red components turned into a muddy brown goo.

This goo was applied with a small squeegee to the bottom seams of the hull. It was easy to apply too much fillet, but also pretty easy to scrape up the stuff that managed to get spread far from the seam. Once I got the hang of it I was able to apply it along the most of the length of the hull - at least until the squeegee couldn't fit any more.

Fillet was applied to the fore side of the wooden bulkhead as well as the aft side below the deck. It was also applied to the foam bulkheads until I ran out.

The glass strips I had pre-cut were now too long. They had to be cut to fit between bulkheads.

After they were cut to fit the strips were put in place. This was a bit messier and somewhat more difficult as the edges of the strips were rough. When they brushed the side panels they tended to stick - often in not quite the right place. The strips also tended to stretch longitudinally just by handling them, and had to be fattened (stretched laterally) to return to their proper dimensions.

Twelve ounce knit cloth really soaks up resin. It took four large cups to saturate the cloth on the bottom seams as well as the wooden bulkhead. It also took two small foam brushes to do the job as they quickly lost their shape and integrity.

Four hours after I started it was done. Whew!

Starting Main Hull Assembly

2011-01-15T16:07:00.000-08:00

Instead of working on the boat over the holiday break between Christmas and New Year's I took my family to Orlando, FL, to visit theme parks and the Kennedy Space Center. So, nothing was done, with the exception of ordering fiberglass tubing from Nimbus Paddles in Canada, and getting another gallon of resin and half gallon of hardener.

I still have over half a gallon of resin + hardener from the original order, but the next couple of stages will use a lot - and I don't want to run out in the middle of a lay up.

The fiberglass tubes are for several things:
1. 1 inch OD by 0.75 inch ID by 64 inches for the stuffing box. This will allow a prop shaft of up to 0.5 inches diameter, with allowances for sleeve style teflon, nylon or oiled bronze bearings.
2. 1.375 inch ID with 0.1 inch wall by 3 feet for mounting the akas. This will be cut into several pieces, with two short lengths on the amas and an 11 inch piece to mount on the hull to anchor the akas. The extra length will be used as part of the dipping rudder mechanism or grab tube steering.
3. 1.375 inch OD by 1.25 inch ID by 3 feet by two pieces for the akas.
4. An extra 1.375 inch OD by 1.25 inch ID by 3 feet piece for use as a grab tube, part of the dipping rudder mechanism, etc.

I also got a couple of stainless steel push buttons to be used for quick securing or removal of the akas. Some stainless spring ball pins will be used to secure the akas to the stabilizers/amas. This will be just like the stabilizers used on the Cadence, so the stabilizer angle of attack can be easily adjusted on the beach, and the stabilizers can be removed while on the water for docking purposes, etc.

Today I spent some quality time with my ancient Black & Decker 2-1/2 inch belt sander removing the excess resin from the scarfed joints. Apparently the cold temperature in the garage encouraged the resin to stay much thicker on the spots where pressure was not applied from the other panels, so there was a lot to remove.

In the process, however, the toothed belt driving the sander's belt finally wore out and broke, disabling the sander. Oh, well. I bought the thing maybe 25 years ago and used it on countless projects. I guess I got my money's worth out of it!

The trouble is, I haven't seen many 2-1/2 inch belt sanders for sale. The smallest one these days is 3 inches - and they are much heavier and harder to use for intricate or lighter duty tasks such as this.

Rather than give up I chose to use the Sears Professional random orbital sander I bought late last year. Lo and behold - it worked better than the belt sander!

While it took a little longer the results on sanding the resin areas were smoother and with fewer issues. The integrated vacuum pickup was much better at eliminating dust clouds in the shop, too.

The next step was to taper the tips of the bow and stern sides so that they match the bottom panel of the hull. I had concerns that the orbital sander would not be up to the task, but there was nothing to worry about. With a little care and patience it did an excellent job of sanding through the plywood at the proper taper, leaving perhaps half of the outermost ply at the very tips on each piece. Excellent!

After vacuuming and sweeping the remaining dust off the panels, I did an initial assembly of the hull bottom and sides. Paint cans were employed to keep the sides vertical, and the foam bulkheads were inserted at 1, 2, 3, 3.6, 4 and 5 meters to keep the sides from falling inward. The single interior wood bulkhead panel was also put in its place at the front side of the cockpit, but it didn't want to stay in position without assistance.

One really great feature included with these cut-out panels is the scoring done by the NC machine. The different panels are easily aligned by matching the scores on one panel with the matching score on the other. The accuracy achieved is within 0.05 inches - perfectly adequate for this sort of assembly.

The next step is to make sure the bulkheads properly match the taper of the hull form at their stations. This is easily done with a sanding block, and should take very little time.

Total time today, for the removal of excess resin, tapering the panels at the bow and stern, cleaning up from the previous work and getting the bulkheads in position: approximately 3 hours.

Long boards assembled

2010-12-18T15:04:00.000-08:00

This morning I finally made use of a Christmas gift given to me by my oldest son last year: a laser level. It was used to make sure that the shelving unit tops were more or less even with each other and level with the ground.

There was a little discrepancy, perhaps an eighth of an inch at most, but certainly close enough for this effort.

So, it was time to cover the units with shrink wrap plastic, and duct tape it in place. The roll of plastic I had covered the shelves quite nicely width-wise.

The side hull panels just fit on the units, with the joints between the pieces occurring more or less in the middle of the units and not in the gaps. I had the insides of the panels facing up, as I planned to apply some 6 ounce glass tape over the joints for strength.

I mixed up 2/3 cup of resin, and began applying it to the hook shaped joints with a small sponge brush. This went much better than when I used a chop stick to apply resin. The brush did a good job up wiping up the drips onto the plastic covering, too.

After the joint edges were impregnated with resin I carefully joined the pieces together. The hook-like pattern tolerances were very close, so there was very little play between the pieces. The use of resin with no fillers was appropriate as the gaps were almost nonexistent.

Once joined, I applied the tape across the joint. The sponge brush didn't seem to be quite as good as the squeegie, but having not removed the hardened resin from the last time I used it I had to make do with the brush. Dab, dab, squish, squash!

Once all the joints of the sides of the hull were completed I covered them with more shrink wrap. This was so I could lay the hull bottom and rear deck on top and glue their joints, respectively.

Again, tape was applied after the joint edges were glued and joined.

Once these pieces were done I covered the panels as best I could to reduce the exposure to air. The garage workshop was quite a bit more humid than the room where the panels were stored, I didn't want the boards to absorb much moisture.

In addition, I placed weights, i.e., paint cans, steel blocks, etc., directly on the plastic covered joints to make sure that they were as flat as possible. Some of the panels had warped slightly, and the pressure was needed to make the joints flat.

Sanding, T-Nuts, Gearbox and Workspace

2010-12-12T20:42:00.000-08:00

It has been a while since the last post. Progress is being made, but a bit slower than expected.

The seat back looks like it would be a great place to store things. The foam bulkhead would diminish the space available - or at a minimum split it in two. I wonder if it is really needed for a plywood boat seat back.

While I was shopping for a sander I came across the Festool brand. Apparently it is one of the top sanders on the market, starting at US$175 plus several hundred dollars more for the more or less mandatory Festool shop vac. They both were nice and quiet, and the sander did not vibrate excessively. Maybe if I was in the professional boat building business I could justify the purchase, but since I'm not....(yet) :-)

I bought a "vibra free" random orbital sander from Sears. It is the same as the Rockwell model, having two concentric counter rotating surfaces. The vibration was indeed reduced compared with another sander I tried, but I didn't feel like I had as much control as I needed when trying to smooth the outriggers.

It did a fairly decent job on the excess resin and fillet material on the seat back, but I managed to put some ring-shaped depressions into the ply that I really didn't want. The edges are nicely rounded for when the exterior is taped and glassed.

The Vibra-free sander did a reasonable job on the outriggers. In the end I returned it to the store and got a cheaper Sears Professional random orbital sander, one with adjustable speeds. I also got a longer hose for the shop vac and hooked it to that for dust removal. The Sears sander seems to have not much difference in vibration from the "vibra-free", but the sanding was more predictable.

I think the stabilizers are just about ready for their next coat of resin and tape over the cloth. However, I want to also glass and glue the threaded hard points for attaching the stabilizers so their is a molecular bond as well as a mechanical bond.

Since the boat will be in salt water, stainless steel or some means of non-corrosive connection needs to be employed. So, I picked up a couple of different kinds T nuts from Fisheries Supply.

They had three types: small pressed stainless buttons, large standoffs with a large pressed-in regular steel base, and large standoffs with a large stainless base. The second style was the only one that didn't have a hole going through the base - which was exactly what I wanted. Unfortunately, however, it had regular steel where it was pressed in, so that made it a non-starter.

I bought a bunch of both the smaller button-style and the larger stainless standoffs.

The larger ones might be adequately secured with a layer of 12 oz. glass, but the smaller ones probably would need a layer of plywood with holes drilled, plus a layer of glass.

Meanwhile, the Involute gearbox arrived from George Tatum. It certainly is a heavy beast, but not a whole lot heavier than the drive system on a Cadence. The unit needs a bit of breaking in, too, as I could not turn the spindle with my fingers.

Lastly, I spent quite a bit of the weekend clearing out a section of the garage for assembling the hull. A spare shelving unit was separated into two sections and placed in the garage, and the other shelving unit already in the garage was also split into two units.

Joined almost end to end the shelving units were very close in height, making for a nice, long workbench.

I had to place some other panels on top of my regular workbench to match the height, but now I have a fairly consistent and level surface that should work for assembling the hull.

Seat Back Inside Filleted and Glassed

2010-11-26T19:11:00.000-08:00

Today I finished gluing, filleting and glassing the inside of the seat back structure. The panels had to be held together somehow, so I used duct tape along the edges. The tape will probably leave behind some goop or trap some resin, but that should be reasonably easy to sand off later.

I planned to do the filleting and coating the panels with resin and glassing of the joints at the same time. In preparation for this glass strips for the joints were measured and cut. I chose 6 ounce tape for the top triangle and rear joints, and 12 ounce strips joining the front side panels with the rear side panels.

The panels that were previously epoxied were sanded about 1.5 to 2 inches from the edges so the new resin would adhere better. A sanding block was initially used, but with the uneven surface it turned out to be better to use my thumb against the paper.

I mixed two heaping spoonfuls of filler resin and one of hardener in a cup, using a chop stick and one of the spoons. After putting this to one side I then mixed half of a beverage cup of clear resin and hardener.

After laying the seat back on its side I opened up the tape on one edge and unfolded the panels. This exposed the joints. Clear resin was then applied to all edges and the interior surfaces, sealing the wood.

Filler resin was spooned onto the open joints and slightly smoothed. The panels were then folded back into place and the opened edge taped closed.

Since the top was also being glued onto the seat it was easier to continue working on the interior by standing the seat on the top. The fillets of the interior vertices were then filled the rest of the way and smoothed, first with a spoon and then with the squeegee.

The tape was then applied to the edges and wet with additional resin, which was worked into the cloth using the squeegee.

Along the way the duct tape on one of the edges loosened up a bit. It needed some help by applying some pressure against the panel with a heavy iron block.

As there were some small voids here and there between the edges of some of the panels I applied some additional fillet material with the chop stick. Excess material and resin was wiped off with a paper towel.

I originally thought I'd insert the foam bulkhead after the glass and resin were applied. However, the relatively tight fit of the foam and the relative fragility of the seat back prior to the resin setting made me change my mind. I'll do it tomorrow instead - after sanding the exterior and before glassing the outside.

Sanding

2010-11-22T20:20:00.000-08:00

I have not too much to blog this time. A trip to Harbor Freight resulted in the purchase of several packs of sandpaper, a hand sanding block, seven $3.50 adjustable 12" clamps, a bag of sponge brushes and a couple of plastic putty squeegies.

Following this I spent 3.5 hours of quality time sanding the sides of the two stabilizers. The 100 grit paper was pathetically slow at removing material, and wetting it didn't help - particularly since it was not wat-or-dry.

Switching to the 220 grit wet-or-dry actually did better, and certainly kept the dust from becoming airborne. Still, I resorted a couple of times to the belt sander in several areas where the resin ridges were just not wearing down rapidly enough for me.

There are a couple of spots on one stabilizer that were sanded down to wood. Ouch! Those were near the edges, so it is just more incentive to tape the edges as they will be most likely to hit things - and the extra tape will help protect them.

There were a couple of places on the edges where it looked like the resin didn't quite saturate the cloth. We'll see if the next resin and tape application will fill those spots, but it would probably be better to sand them down to the underlying resin - which I did in most of the places.

Still, after going through half of the pack of 220 grit I'm rebelling against the hand sander. An electric random or orbital sander is on my next on my list to purchase.

Tips Taped, Seat Backside Glassed

2010-11-15T20:15:00.000-08:00

On Sunday I spent time removing the excess glass and resin from Saturday's wrapping of the stabilizer bottoms and sides. It was definitely too late, but I realized that the cloth didn't need to extend up the side more than a couple of inches. This would have removed any need to trim the excess glass, and would almost certainly have prevented excess resin from dripping down the side and off the top of the overturned stabilizers. The end result would have been a bit lighter, too. Oh, well - next time!

The resin covered interior face of the seat back panel managed to get imprinted with the wrinkled shrink wrap plastic that kept the paint can and the iron block free from sticking. It took a bit of sanding to flatten the pattern, but it was still visible.

Hand sanding the fillet managed to nearly finish off the abrasive coated sanding mesh I was using, but what really started doing it in was hand sanding the bumps and excess glass on the stabilizers. I finally gave up and resorted to the belt sander. That was much faster, perhaps a little too fast in some areas - which will need some re-application of glass and resin - and a bit too slow in others.

Regardless, it looks like there will be a lot of sanding in my future, coupled with applying more resin to smooth out the fabric pattern.

For the seat back I cut a piece of 6 oz glass "boat" cloth, and made sure it covered the side panels and seat back. I then took some 12 oz 45/45 degree knit cloth pieces that I had cut originally to be used to wrap the ends of the stabilizers, but decided were too thick for that purpose, and fit them over the fillet areas. This should help spread the forces from the seat to the rest of the seat back structure.

I removed the cloth, smeared resin on the panels, and applied the 6 oz cloth. It was somewhat of a pain to get it to cover the seat back, the fillet and both sides without there being any air gaps, bubbles or excess cloth at the fillets or on the sides.

Trying to wet out the 12 oz cloth in place was worse. It took a lot of resin and a lot of kneading it into the cloth before the silvery white cloth finally turned translucent. The loose ends tended to fuzz, and generally made a mess. I'm sure glad that this side won't be visible!

With the remaining resin I wet the tips of the stabilizers in preparation for taping.

I took some 6 oz glass tape, cut it into short segments, and applied them to the tips of the stabilizers on top of the resin. The width of the tape would have been nearly a perfect match for the bows, but I decided instead to run the tape vertically. This way the ends would overlap the top and bottom of the tips, where they could be folded over and better cover the plywood.

Again I used my gloved fingertips to work the resin into the cloth, pulling the resin soaked fabric against the panels on both sides simultaneously with thumb and forefingers.

Once the cloth was soaked and in position, some shrink wrap plastic pouches were used to cap the ends. Using some scrap foam rubber to wrap around the tips, and pairs of 1/2" boards and C-clamps, pressure was applied to the tips to provide a poor man's vacuum bag.

It was time to call it a day!

Glassing Stabilizer, Glueing Seat

2010-11-13T11:02:00.001-08:00

Things are going slower than expected, mainly due to family matters and other commitments.

A week ago I was about to update the blog with the relatively minor progress of rounding the edges of the stabilizers and preparation for glassing the outsides. The weight of the two stabilizers are within 1/8 ounce of each other (3 pounds, 13 and 3/8 oz for one and 3 pounds, 13 and 1/2 oz for the other).

To be completely honest I have been procrastinating about putting the seat together. I think I have come up with a workable layup schedule for it that won't require too much in the way of clamp coordination, be fairly pretty and still be strong enough to handle the loads. It will take maybe two days to do it, with the proper partial cure times for the resin, so that the wood will be properly sealed, glassed and bonded and filleted together.

Anyway, I spent an hour one day taking the 38 inch 3.8 oz. cloth and cutting it into 17 inch wide pieces, leaving a 4 inch wide tape that could be used for seams somewhere. The width should be enough to have an inch of fabric drape beyond the sides of the stabilizers when they are glassed. The lengths were enough to extend a couple of inches beyond the ends.

This morning I got out of bed, got dressed, and headed to the garage to start the process. After double checking that the seat back and two side pieces would fit reasonably flush, and setting the stages for the two stabilizers, I mixed the first batch of resin.

Resin was first applied to the back of the seat panel and the insides of the side panels. It was next applied to one side each of the two stabilizers. This left only a little resin in the bottom of the cup, which would cure more slowly than if the resin had not been dribbled onto the stabilizers.

Next, I squeegied the resin over the seat back and side panels, making sure that the edges of the side panels that would glue to the seat back were fully saturated. I then mounted the side panels onto the seat back panel, using plastic wrapped paint cans and plastic wrapped steel blocks for weights to flatten the seat back and to provide vertical alignment for the side panels.

Returning to the stabilizers I squeegied the resin over the side of one stabilizer, then did the same for one side of the stabilizer before running out of resin. Time for another resin batch!

After mixing the second batch I flipped the stabilizers onto their sides and squeegied the remaining sides and tops with resin, trying to keep them from dripping too much.

I took the first piece of pre-cut glass and tried draping it on the stabilizer by myself. This was a bad move, as not only did I not get it centered from side to side but I didn't get it centered from end to end!

After lifting it off and trying several more times I finally managed to get it more or less centered, and spread from end to end, completely gooping my latex gloves in the process.

All was not lost, however. It turned out that the gloves worked quite well in smoothing out the wrinkles, bubbles and folds, working the resin into the fibers and making it lay nicely over the curved edges.

One down, one to go!

I finished applying resin to the second stabilizer, and called to my son to assist me with draping the cloth on it.

After a couple of false applications we managed to get it pretty well centered. I used the squeegie a little, but went back to using the gloves to work the cloth into the resin and saturate the fibers. By this time, however, the resin was starting to thicken and it was taking a bit more work to get the desired results.

The remaining resin in the cup was getting quite thick and couldn't be used, either. Rats!

As it turned out, there were several small puddles on the plastic below the stabilizer where excess resin dripped. This stuff was still quite liquid, and there was just enough to apply to the remaining dry sections of cloth with my glove-covered fingertips. Yay!

I double checked both stabilizers and made sure that there were no obvious bubbles, wrinkles or dry spots. The ends were also checked, but the cloth seemed to be behaving there with no extra clamping needed.

The remaining resin in the cup was now a thick, gooey blob. This was scooped out by hand and spread on the side of the foam seat bulkhead to glue the shim to it.

Later today after things have set it will be time to trim the excess cloth on the stabilizers and apply cloth to the bottoms, and to fillet and glass the seat back.

Humidity

2010-10-17T09:30:00.000-07:00

In the Pacific Northwet, er, Northwest we tend to get a lot of rain. Well, that is, ever since the plywood was delivered we have had a lot of rain. In addition, we had had some extraordinarily humid days and nights.

Why am I bringing this up? Well, most lumber is dried in a kiln or in an air environment where moisture is drawn from the wood and brought to a more or less uniform level. This makes the wood consistent from piece to piece and makes it a bit lighter as well.

In my house and especially my garage where I have been putting together unsealed thin wooden panels, the high humidity and dry wood combine to make high humidity and not-quite-but-almost damp wood. This is not good.

1. The wood weighs more than it did from the factory. This means the boat weighs more.
2. When the wood is finally sealed with resin and cloth, that moisture is sealed in with the wood.
3. When the wood is exposed to summer time temperatures that moisture will be expelled from the wood and it needs to go somewhere. This can cause problems with the glass.

What really brought this to a head was when I had made the skirt for the seat from sheets of copy paper. The next day the paper was limper than cooked spaghetti - and the unsealed seat panels had been exposed to this air for days. The stabilizers were exposed for even longer.

While not quite so bad, the rest of the boat panels were in my family room. With the arrival of fall and the turning on of the forced air furnace, the interior humidity of the house was somewhat less than that of the garage and the outdoors.

What is the solution?

Buy a dehumidifier, or wait until the middle of winter.

Yes, the problem would eventually fix it self as the weather got colder and the difference between the heated indoor air and the cold, humid outdoor would bring down the humidity. Still, I wanted to get working on the boat sooner than later. A controlled environment makes quite a bit of difference as there is no guarantee that it will get dry enough until well into winter.

I did some research and bought a high capacity GE dehumidifier. It was purchased online as the local stores either couldn't be bothered to call me back or the models offered were rated as unsatisfactory by Consumers Reports. The price of $218, including shipping, was also the quite reasonable. It arrived last Friday, and has been on for a couple of days in the family room.

At first the humidity in the room measured 75%. Wow! I didn't know it was so high - and this was on a less humid day!

Overnight and one tank of water drained later, the humidity was down to 55%. There was definitely more of a crispness to the air and the cardboard on which the panels sat.

On Sunday and another tank drained, the humidity was down to 45%. The weight of one of the stabilizers was down to 3 pounds, 14 oz. The other was down to 13 pounds, 15 oz. This was a drop of at least 1 oz, as I forget which was the one I had originally weighed.

I'll let things continue to dry out for a week or so and proceed once the moisture level stabilizes.

Seat Bulkhead

2010-10-09T16:36:00.000-07:00

The panels for the seat are not quite enough by themselves to distribute the forces of one pedaling at full tilt. In addition, it is difficult to make sure the seat panels are properly positioned with respect to each other and the deck.

Part of the solution is to make an internal horizontal bulkhead. This will help transfer forces from the seat back to the side and rear panels. It will also help keep the panels from falling inward when the panel edges are glued together with thickened resin.

Since the shape is a bit irregular, I made a paper skirt. While there are probably a dozen other ways to do it, I did it this way.
1. Get a dozen 8-1/2 by 11 inch sheets of paper, an adhesive tape dispenser and a small level
2. Take two sheets of paper, butt them together along the long edge, and apply tape to the two pieces so that you now have a 17 x 11 inch piece of paper.
3. Using the level to make sure the edge of the paper is level, center and tape the long edge of this 17x11 sheet of paper to the seat back about half way up. Don't use more than one or two small pieces of tape for this.
4. While holding the sheet horizontal, take the level to one of the adjacent side panels of the seat and hold one end at the same height where the sheet intersects the side of the seat back.
5. Take another sheet, center and tape it to the side panel so that the long edge is at the same level as the edge of the paper on the seat back.
6. Hold both the 17x11 sheet and the new 8-1/2x11 sheet horizontal. The end of one sheet should overlap the end of the other sheet.
7. Tape the overlapping ends together, taking care to make sure the paper remains horizontal.

Repeat the process going around the seat panels until you arrive back at the seat back.

You should now have an irregular ring of paper, or skirt, that more or less is sticking out around the seat panels at the same height.

Carefully remove the skirt from the seat panels so that the shape is preserved.

You can either use the skirt as-is, or take more sheets of paper, tape them together, and trace the pentagonal hole onto them, and cut out the traced drawing. This makes a simple template for the bulkhead.

Note: Since the hole is taken from the outside of the seat panels, you will need to subtract the thickness of the panels from the outer edges of the template.

Take the template and use it to mark the shape of the bulkhead on whatever you plan to use for the bulkhead, and cut out the bulkhead.

I chose some scrap blue styrofoam insulation that I had laying about. As it turned out it was almost exactly the width of the inside of the seat. It was also nearly 2 inches thick, so the slant of the seat back and the rear-most panels needed to be taken into account.

Using a protractor level (Sears), I measured the seat back at about 60 degrees. The rear panels measured at about 7 degrees. The sides, being parallel, can be ignored.

Using the protractor level I tilted it to 60 degrees with one end at the lower corner of the foam and the upper end towards the interior of the foam. The template was placed at the intersection of the top of the foam and the level. A line was drawn across the foam along the edge of the template.

The triangular opposite end of the template was also traced on the foam at this time.

The foam was now cut. I used a bandsaw as it makes a very smooth, clean edge. It also has a nice tilting table marked in degrees, which made the 60 degree and 7 degree cuts very easy.

Seat Back Dimensional Adjustment

2010-10-02T18:19:00.000-07:00

The photos of the seat back preliminary setup didn't easily show it, but the panels didn't quite line up, and there was a gap of about 0.25" between the top of the seat back panel and the rest of the structure. There was also a gap between the rear two panels. They would not align closely enough to match the triangular top piece.

I ended up taking 0.25 inches off the bottoms of the four seat side panels with the belt sander, and sanding down the angled edge where the back two panels meet. This was quick work with the bench belt sander.

This now allows the top of the seat back panel to rest against the top triangular piece for some additional back support, and all the pieces now meet with reasonably flush edges.

I took some pictures of the seat pieced together, but not yet glued.

I think I can glue the entire seat back together in one go, using thickened resin.

I haven't figured out a good way to clamp it together. The paint can technique seems to be OK in holding the seat back and sides in place, but the back two pieces don't comply - in particular at the top. The top edges like to skew inward or outward at the least provocation.

Stitching it might be a solution, but there would likely still be some play.

Adding a slightly smaller triangular plate to the inside bottom of the top triangle piece is a standard woodworking trick that could solve this. I just might give that a try.

Fitting and refitting the panels, and trying different ways to set it up for gluing took about an hour.

Two Stabilizers + Seat Preliminary

2010-09-30T21:27:00.000-07:00

The two stabilizers are now just about ready for wrapping in glass and epoxy. With a little more sanding to remove the excess resin from the touch-up, they will be all set.

Now if only I can find a source of biaxial tape, I'll be all set!

Meanwhile, I tried an initial setup of the seat back.

This will require some thought as to what sort of jig or bracing will work best to secure the pieces for glassing. If worse comes to worst I might succumb and resort to stitch and glue techniques.

Second Stabilizer Cleanup

2010-09-28T21:53:00.001-07:00

Tonight I spent an hour and a half with the belt sander carefully cleaning up the excess resin on the four surfaces of the second stabilizer.

First, I had to remove the shrink wrap plastic, which turned out to be somewhat more difficult than expected. Why? Some of the resin had solidified around folds in the plastic and managed to hold it in place. Also, at one end where I had to pinch the sides together and have them rest on the flat top panel, the plastic managed to get pinched between the side and the top piece.

The plastic was strong enough that I could gently pull it out, but of course the plastic prevented the resin from securing that section of the two pieces together.

Anyway, after spending some quality time with the belt sander making everything flush and smooth, I mixed up a tiny portion of resin and used it to fill the gaps.

I also weighed the first stabilizer on a wife-approved food scale. It was 4 pounds, 0.5 ounces. This is before adding the external layer of glass or glass tape and resin.

Second Stabilizer Assembled

2010-09-26T18:03:00.000-07:00

I didn't have much time this week to work on the boat. Still, I glued the short section of the first stabilizer where the side did not quite meet the deck, making sure to apply a clamp there to keep things together.

After the resin hardened I belt sanded off the excess, and smoothed out the other drips I had missed the first time through with the sander.

Today I double checked the fit of the side pieces at their tips and did some touch up belt sanding to get them to meet flush at the ends. The 6 inch wide belt has a bit of an upward curl on both edges, so this makes it a bit of a challenge to not remove material that I really want to keep.

I rigged up a long work board (8 feet by 1 foot by 1.5 inches) on which to apply resin to the stabilizer panels, and lined it with shrink wrap plastic. This was much more ergonomical than a long sheet of waxed paper on the floor of the garage.

After mixing up another cup of resin I glued the second stabilizer together. The only hitch I ran into was that one of the foam bulkheads was a couple of millimeters too tall. I was not pleased, especially since I had just applied resin to it.

After some judicial use of paper towels and the little belt sander the bulkhead now fit much better.

As with the first stabilizer I clipped the bow and stern, though this time I added some force from a C-clamp to the bow clip to get things to fit tighter. A bit more weight was added to various points along the top board to make sure of a good joint.

The shrink wrap used to keep the main workbench clean was much better than the waxed paper to see if the sides and the top and bottom were properly fitting together. I could feel if the sides were pushed in too far or were sticking out too far, and see it as well.

With the second work table the process of applying resin to the boards went a bit faster this time. The resin in the mixing cup didn't get hot, and a second batch wasn't needed to finish the job.

Time spent today: approximately 1 hour.

Plastic Bags and Epoxy

2010-09-22T21:27:00.000-07:00

When working with epoxy it is good to have something under the thing being epoxied to separate the thing from the table upon which it is sitting. This keeps the table clean from drips and keeps the thing being epoxied from being glued to the table.

I often use something cheap and readily available such as waxed paper. The downside to waxed paper is that it can leave a waxy residue on the surface of the epoxied part, and it sometimes doesn't release properly. Instead, it tears and leaves pieces embedded in the epoxy.

People often use polyethylene plastic sheets or bags instead. It is pretty cheap, and generally available from builder supply and hardware stores. It comes off epoxied surfaces fairly easily. However, it is optically translucent and difficult to see through. Thinner sheets also have a tendency to wrinkle, and those wrinkles transfer into the resin. The resulting surface, even if you smooth out the wrinkles, is dull in appearance.

As I happened to have two kinds of polyethylene available, one from the bag my morning newspaper is delivered in and the other which was used to secure the bottle of resin as it was shipped to me, I decided to see how well they worked for bagging wet resin surfaces.

I also happened to have a large roll of shrink wrap plastic, so I tried that as well. Shrink wrap plastic is optically clear and about as flexible as the newspaper poly bag. The resin bag was a bit less flexible, but intermediate in terms of optical clarity.

The results were amazing: While both poly bags did pretty much what I expected, i.e., dull finish with wrinkles, easy to remove with a bit of tugging, the shrink wrap plastic delivered a superb glossy finish with very few wrinkles. The plastic practically fell off the resin with no effort. Wow!

Even the area where the steel block was used to press against the bag against a test piece of epoxy soaked glass was flatter and shinier than where the poly bag was.

I'm going to see if the shrink properties can stand in as a replacement for vacuum bagging, too. It almost certainly won't be quite as "tight" as vacuum bagging, but it might be adequate.

Prep Stabilizer for Glassing

2010-09-21T08:10:00.001-07:00

Last night I removed the waxed paper from the stabilizer. As expected, much of the excess epoxy ended up along the bottom edge where it formed into a somewhat flexible flash. Some of this could be removed by snapping it off. Some of the thicker sections were quickly removed on the bench belt sander. I had to take care to not go too long on any given edge so as to not chew into the joint.

The rest I removed with a hand held electric belt sander with an old 80 or 100 grit belt. This actually worked very well, as I paid attention to the direction of the belt and the grain of the wood. It is important to apply sanding pressure against the edges where it was supported by the underlying wood so that the edge doesn't split or fray.

Along one edge the side managed to get glued slightly recessed from the edge of the top. While this could be handled with filler paste and faired smooth I chose to sand the top edge to be even with the side. One way or the other needed to be done so that when the exterior was glassed there would be no cavities.

I then belt sanded smooth the remaining high points of epoxy. This went pretty quickly.

Most of the seams turned out fine. Unfortunately, however, there was not quite enough weight put against the bottom, so the edges did not quite meet in one area. This will be addressed when the glass layer is applied as it should be easily filled with epoxy.

Tonight I think I'll either have to get more waxed paper or, better yet, some polyethylene plastic and put together the other stabilizer.

First Stabilizer Glued

2010-09-19T18:17:00.001-07:00

Yesterday was spent out on the water near Olympia at the Sound Rowers Budd Inlet Race. I took some 650+ photos, and edited it down to 630. They were finally uploaded and posted this afternoon - leaving me a couple of hours to work on the new boat!

First, I replaced the belt in the sander. It was an old, well used 50 grit, and it took two trips to Sears to get a good replacement. The new belt is a 48" x 6" 50 grit, and it is perhaps a bit too quick at material removal. The second stabilizer's tips are perhaps half the thickness of the first stabilizer, and it took only 5 minutes to do all four ends.

Just for fun I weighed one of the stabilizers with the foam pieces. It was about 3 pounds, according to my more or less accurate scale.

The next step was to actually glue a stabilizer together. After lining the workbench with a sheet of waxed paper, I set the top piece on it. I nudged the paint cans towards the piece so that the waxed paper was folded up on both sides of the stabilizer's top piece. This would prevent the epoxy from sticking to the paint cans when they were shoved against that piece and the sides of the stabilizer.

After mixing about a cup of epoxy resin, using a paper hot beverage cup for the container and reused chop stick, I squeegeed the resin all over what is to become the interior surface of the top piece.

I then remembered that I would have to apply resin to the side pieces as well and needed a place to apply resin to the them that wouldn't leave a mess. Quickly I laid another length of waxed paper on the floor of the garage and placed the first side piece on it.

I dribbled some resin down its length on its inward side and squeegeed the resin all over the broad surface as well as the edges. After separating the board from the waxed paper it was put on the top piece on the workbench in roughly the correct position.

The second side piece was then covered in resin on the inward side as well the top and bottom edges. It was placed on the workbench adjacent to the other side piece.

I rubbed the bulkhead foam pieces in the excess resin on the waxed paper on the floor, and put them in place between the two sides of the stabilizer on the bench. The paint cans were adjusted to squeeze against the top piece and to keep the sides flush with it.

At the ends I folded the excess waxed paper over and held the ends together using plastic chip bag clips. These provided adequate clamping action and spread the force over a reasonable area.

At the stern I had two somewhat smaller clips to cover the larger area.

The remain 1/3 cup of epoxy was getting quite warm by this time. In fact, it had actually started solidifying. Rats! It would have been the perfect amount to have finished coating the bottom piece and the remaining edges. I poked at it with the chopstick and it went "poof", with a small vapor cloud emanating from it. It was nasty!

There was a bit of liquid resin below the solid section, so I tried to apply it to the top piece. I only needed a little! This was not a smart thing to do. I had forgotten how gooey this stuff gets when it has begun hardening.

I had to scrape off as much as I could, then clean the squeegee.

Hurriedly I mixed about a 1/4 cup of resin and applied it to the bottom piece. Before placing it on the other pieces on the workbench I took the chopstick and sort of dribbled and painted it on the edges of the sides. It work pretty well, though there were a couple of drips here and there.

The bottom panel was applied and centered. A weight was placed on the section that bends upward at the bow so that the panel would meet.

I noticed that the sides were not quite flush with the top piece. Adding a big hunk of iron to the center section solved that problem.

Hmm, the side pieces were sticking out on either side by a millimeter or two. Adjusting the pain cans didn't solve that, so I added a few C-clamps along the length, lightly closed. Some additional weights were applied at various places to help make sure that there were no gaps between the pieces at the seams.

The whole process took about an hour.

According to the instructions provided with the resin I have 72 hours to finish working with this stabilizer before I would have to sand it for a subsequent application of resin. Tick, tick....

Chamfering Edges

2010-09-13T20:20:00.001-07:00

On weekday nights I don't have a lot of time between preparing dinner, interacting with the family, work-related stuff, clearing out more of the family room and, oh yes, sleeping!

Anyway, there is time enough tonight to chamfer the edges of one of the stabilizers on the belt sander, which would probably go faster if I replaced the belt with something a little newer. Still, the plywood is a hard wood and by its very nature it takes longer to remove material.

Here are the front and rear ends of one of the stabilizers, chamfered to about 1.5mm at the edges:

Here is a view of the sides and top, with the bulkhead foam blocks in position. The paint cans are an experimental alternative to making forms. With the nice, flat table surface and the side panels held in place by the reasonably heavy paint cans, force can be applied where needed, and adjusted as needed.

Here I'm holding the two sides of the bow together. When gluing I'll use spring clamps instead of the nylon cable ties that Rick suggested. That eliminates the need to drill holes and then fill the holes later on.

Since the bottom of the stabilizer curves upward at the bow, it will need some weight along its length to make sure that the panel follows the curvature of the sides. For the picture I'm merely holding it in place.

Bulkheads cut

2010-09-12T21:22:00.000-07:00

Progress has been surprisingly slow due to other commitments. Photo shoots at two races pretty well shot the Labor Day weekend and this weekend. Still, it was fun being on the water - even if it was in my slow boat.

The workbench is now cleared of most extraneous junk from previous projects, and the stabilizers have made their way to it.

I spent way too much time tonight cutting the 6 blocks of foam to be used as bulkheads. There was a foam beam left over from a previous boat project that was perfect for the two bulkheads near either end. Unfortunately, it was mostly just a smidgeon too narrow for the central bulkhead, except for a couple of short sections here and there. I managed to mess up a few of the pieces, sanding them just a bit too much on the disc sander. After a bit more care two central bulkhead pieces were finally produced. Sigh...

New boat

2010-09-04T12:59:00.000-07:00

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.

Deception Pass Dash 2008

2008-12-07T17:14:00.000-08:00

Today the Deception Pass Dash was held. The roughly 7 mile long course starts at Bowen Bay, in Washington, goes around Deception Island to the west of Deception Pass, heads through Deception Pass to go around Strawberry Island, and returns through Canoe Pass to head back around the first island and then to the start.

There was a pretty strong SW wind (15+ mph, gusting to 26, so flags spread almost completely horizontal), which turned this into a rather interesting event.

Approximately 132 boats were there at the start, including one Cadence pedal boat.

Having never been on the water here before, other than in a big whale watching vessel a couple of years earlier, I figured that it would be a good idea to have the outriggers on the boat. While we were supposed to be going through the pass around slack, the area was still known to have lots of waves and eddies. In addition, since this area was new to me I decided to make this more of a photo excursion than a serious race.

The start was rather chaotic with all the boats trying to keep station at the starting line in the not quite headwind. The 1 to 2 foot chop in the bay also splashed me and my camera lens. This resulted in most of the pictures I took to be of poor quality.

As we headed out to the island the waves quickly grew higher, and most of the paddled boats started falling behind. Piercing wave after wave I needed to open the speed bailer, or suffer with a flooded cockpit.

Interestingly enough, the prop on the Cadence didn't aerate very much, and I was able to keep within fairly close range of some of the really strong paddlers. My heart rate was in the upper 150's, and the speed was over 6 mph.

Since I was doing pretty well relative to the paddlers, and since the camera was being continually spattered by spray, I decided I might as well put forth a little more effort and actually do a bit of racing after all.

Going around Deception Island I encountered a tandem surf ski that had capsized, but by the time I reached them they were back under way.

Shortly after that I ran into a large kelp bed. After clunking into one with the prop I paddled through the rest of the bed into clear water. The prop was able to spin, and off I went towards Deception Pass with the wind at my back.

Heading east I was able to surf on quite a few of the waves. The outriggers worked very well in their raised position, though every so often they would dig into the water and rotate on their axis into the lower position. I just flipped them back up and kept on pedaling. While I could have secured the outriggers into place with their integrated spring pins I didn't bother. There might have been a situation where I would want to be able to put them down and it might have been more of an effort to so do. (I can't think of any good reason right now. Sigh.)

Heading downwind I was able to catch a couple of outrigger canoes and another surf ski, but as the water grew calmer in the pass they stuck close to the shore. I stayed a little further out into the channel, but realized that the ebb tide must have begun. My pace was only 4.2 mph as I pedaled under the bridge at the pass, perhaps 200 feet above me. It was also possible that my prop still had some kelp or eel grass fouling it, but I didn't want to stop and clean it.

Not much further we reached Strawberry Island. There was a big kelp bed on the southern and eastern side, so I steered clear - until I noticed a kayaker taking a line very close to shore in an area that seemed kelp-free.

A paddler I had been following headed towards the shore through an area that seemed clear, and I followed. It was great - no problems were encountered and the route was several hundred feet shorter than the "great circle" route.

Heading back towards Canoe Pass (the pass on the north side of Pass Island), the wind started rising. Again the paddlers dropped behind, due to their more significant windage. I stopped for a moment and cleared the prop, seeing bits of eel grass float by in the reverse prop wash.

Canoe Pass was much like a narrow canyon, but at the west end I saw some really large standing waves as the ebb flow met the Sound. Some of these waves were 5 or 6 feet in height. I decided to try going around the waves rather than through them, which was what I had inadvertently been doing by concentrating on photography rather than navigation. Outriggers really work!

Heading into the waves was getting a bit tiresome, and with the temperature in the upper 40's or low 50's I was even starting to get a little cool. Getting plastered by waves (not spray - full-on waves) tended to reduce my body heat a bit, even though I was wearing Gore-tex insulated winter cycling tights, two layers of wicking shirts under a thick PFD covered with a large windbreaker, and thick wicking socks on my sandaled feet. I really hoped that we merely headed back to Bowen Bay after Canoe Pass.

Unfortunately, however, the guys ahead kept heading west towards that Deception Island. I kept pedaling, and even managed to catch up to them on the other side of the kelp patch.

The other guys took a course that kept them far away from the rocks and breaking waves on the west side of the island. They were near a couple of safety boats that had their lights flashing for some reason, probably picking up some defunct paddlers. I took a course a bit closer to shore, but with enough of a margin that the side wind and waves wouldn't force me against the rocks.

Rounding the island I was again able to surf downwind, though not quite as well as before. I was getting a bit tired, or perhaps there were some weeds on the prop. Clearing the prop seemed to help a bit, and then I had to dodge a field of kelp that had grown up in the bay between the start of the race and now. I hate it when that happens.

Just before the finish a pink double sea kayak managed to slip ahead, putting me in 23rd place overall out of a field of 92 or so boats that completed the race. My time was 70:41, which surprisingly enough was about what I thought I'd do before encountering the waves and wind.

For me this race was a blast! It would have been suicide without the outriggers, which pretty much let me do whatever I wanted with the camera - like wipe off the lens time and time again. Many strong surf ski paddlers and kayakers did not finish the race due to the waves, wind and kelp.

After beaching I had a great lunch of home-made vegetable soup, garden burger with roasted chilis, chips, etc., provided by the organizers. The raffle was fantastic, and everyone who stayed got some sort of prize. I got a nice, warm paddling vest.

Woo hoo!

After the race I heard that the Sheriff's safety boat encountered waves of up to 8 feet as the currents in the Pass grew to full strength. Wow!

My stats

More Stats

My photos can be found here.

High Tech Racing

2008-08-11T21:15:00.001-07:00

A couple of months ago I made it easy for my family to figure out what I wanted for a birthday present by picking up a Garmin Forerunner 305. This large wrist watch sized GPS came with a heart rate monitor so I could finally keep track of my engine's performance at each point of an outing rather than just the highs, lows and averages that my Polar HRM did.

Since this particular model of equipment has had a checkered history of water proofness and durability, I chose to try it out on a few boat races first before getting the cadence sensor to go along with it.

Well, the first race I used it was the Manchester Race. I had mechanical (boat) and mental (perceptual) difficulties. The drive tower had become loose and I had to return to the start to pick up a wrench to tighten the bolts securing it to the hull. By then, of course, everyone else had gone far from the starting line and I was racing alone. Oh, yeah - I guess I should check how my fancy wrist dangly thing was doing. Oops! It wasn't told to start timing until about a third of the way into the race. Just because the thing was showing speeds and heart rates doesn't mean it actually was recording anything!

The next race I had the cadence sensor installed. Well, the unit is actually a combination wheel sensor and cadence sensor. Of _course_ I could use the wheel sensor, which has a nice adjustable arm to detect the RPM's of the crank, right?

Well, no, as I discovered after the race was over. The wheel sensor is just for wheels and the cadence sensor is the only device that will actually be used for recording RPM's at any point during an event.

Ok, so the before the third race I went through a test run on a lake, making sure that the heart rate was being detected and the cadence was being measured. This was very cool!

On the day of the third race (Round Shaw Row) everything was ready. I had my mapping GPS on and ready in the PFD pocket, the Forerunner was on the wrist and had found all the satellites, and the cadence sensor was perfectly adjusted. The air horn signal for the start of the race was sounded and, after pressing the Start button on the wrist GPS I was off and pedaling.

About 9 miles into the race I was tired of looking at the fields displayed on the wrist GPS, which had a minutes per mile display (for running) and not a miles per hour display. Trying to change the display settings I managed to accidentally tell the unit I was now doing a different sport in a multisport event and the darn thing started everything all over. Rats!

Eventually I found the right way to change the data field display and got the desired MPH, heart rate, distance traveled and cadence fields all visible at the same time, and went on to finish the race.

Of course, the handy dandy software that comes with the Forerunner just couldn't be convinced that the two activities were really just two parts of the same race. No - they absolutely had to be two completely different events because I pressed the wrong button in the middle of an oxygen deprived state of mind, and when I could actually think clearly and calmly at the computer was no time to change my mind!

I also couldn't see why Garmin's software decided that I somehow traveled 6 extra miles in the blink of an eye between the two events. The shareware SportTracks software did a much better job of joining the "two events", without padding the distance whatsoever.

Oh, well. I'll post stats and graphs some day when I get my act together with those tools. Meanwhile, the photos at the Sound Rowers web site will just have to do.

Dan Harris Challenge

2008-04-27T20:52:00.000-07:00

This race was one that would probably have been on the Sound Rowers schedule, but didn't make it. Hopefully, they will be on the schedule next year.

Anyway, the weather was perfect: calm, light overcast and cool temperatures. The launch was very nice, too: a coarse sandy beach, protected from most waves and not very far from the staging area.

There were quite a few paddlers, rowers, but only one pedal boat at the start of the race.

I was trying the outriggers in a new configuration on the Cadence. The mounts where they connect with the hull have been angled slightly upward with the intention that the floats would be just above the water when the boat was occupied and perfectly balanced.

Unfortunately, the angle was not quite enough. The floats were still in the water, though not by more than perhaps half an inch or so of depth. It was a definite improvement as the drag was reduced, but it was still present.

After cruising around the boats at the starting line taking photos I found a spot near a couple of guys in a Merry Wherry and waited for the signal to start the race.

In the distance I heard a countdown, and then we were off!

With the outriggers deployed the Cadence did not have the acceleration nor the high cruising speed it otherwise has. I was working hard to keep up with an OC-1 and the Merry Wherry as we traveled en route to the first turn, but eventually I decided that I would have to bite the bullet and remove the outriggers if I wanted to be competitive. With the flat seas and no wind there was no need to have them deployed.

After rounding the buoy I tried pedaling while pressing on the release button and pulling out the aka (support tube), but it took a bit of effort before the right one finally was removed. I had to stop to remove the left one, and after a short time of pedaling along with them held across my lap decided that there had to be a better way.

I reinserted the outrigger akas back into their mounts on the hull, but with the floats up side down. This left them both several inches above the water but still available to provide stability if the boat tipped to one side or another. Hmmm, perhaps future amas could be mounted to be this high normally!

Having stopped for a while to make these modifications meant that I had fallen still further behind. Oh, well. It was time to put the pedal to the metal.

Never having been here before it was good to have other racers ahead to point out the way. Still, from what I recalled from the various maps of the race course as well as maps of the area, it seemed to me that most of the racers were heading quite a bit to the west of the land mass I thought to be Chuckanut Island, which marked the halfway point. I decided to head on a more eastward heading.

A little while later I encountered the first of the racers returning en route to the finish. The rowers tended to be on the right side, and most of the paddlers tended to be closer to shore on the left. Maybe the paddlers knew something about currents or something, or the rowers didn't want to worry about navigating around the rocks near shore. I don't know.

Eventually I reached the north end of Chuckanut Island, where I decided to go around clockwise, which was the opposite direction that the racers were heading. There were still some photo ops to be had, and meeting the racers face on was better than from their backs.

The island was rather pretty. Apparently made of sandstone, there were quite a few interesting erosional features along its eastern shore. I shot a few pictures of the sculpted rocks and sea stacks between shots of racers. It was very nice!

Rounding the south end of the island I encountered some seaweed, feeling the tug on the pedals as it wrapped around the propeller. A couple of cycles of pedaling forward and then reverse seemed to do the trick of clearing it and I was on my way again.

There were still a few kayaks heading south towards the island as I headed away from the island and towards the turn buoy. During this time I saw Todd and Lucia, two Cadence owners who apparently started the race quite late, having missed the entrance to the park several times.

I began pedaling in intervals at higher speed, followed by a more moderate cruising speed. This strategy enabled me to slowly catch up to and pass a couple of kayaks that had been about half a mile or so ahead at the island shortly after I reached the turn buoy.

There was one more kayak ahead that I hoped to catch before the finish. My legs were starting to talk to me, though, and for whatever reason I couldn't seem to go much faster than 6 to 6.5 mph. Hmmm, perhaps there were still some weeds in the drive train.

After going through a quick cleaning maneuver I continued towards the finish. The speed didn't appear to change much, so I just kept plugging away at the pedals.

The distance between me and the kayak was slowly shrinking as we passed the Washington State ferry at the shipyard, getting a new coat of paint along with other repairs. A train also passed by on its track along the shore, with it horns blaring.

Soon we could hear the air horn at the finish line signaling that other boats had completed the race. Pedal faster!

The finish line came too soon and the other boat crossed before I did. Oh, well.
With a time of 1:36:37 I finished the race. Whew - what a workout!

I pedaled around the finish line area for a few minutes taking pictures of the incoming paddlers. Eventually I returned to shore and examined the propeller for entanglements.

Sure enough, a bit of eel grass managed to get past the weed cutter and was wrapped around the prop shaft in the ball bearings. It was just enough to prevent my sprints from exceeding 6.5 mph and passing that last kayak.

Oh, well. It was time for lunch!

During the race my lovely wife and son went to the local natural foods co-op and bought some vegetarian beef hamburger, organic mushrooms and some non-dairy, non-soy chocolate cocoa nut ice cream. The burger and mushrooms were grilled by the race chef along the other, lesser race-provided burgers and came out absolutely delicious. The ice cream was also very tasty, even on a cool day such as this one.

In addition to the awards there was a drawing for various prizes, including paddles, PFD's, etc. As luck would have it, I managed to drive away with absolutely nothing but memories and photos of a good race and friendly competition.

More photos can be found
here.

La Conner 2008

2008-02-09T14:53:00.000-08:00

The weather preceding this race had been quite chilly, with lows in the low 30's and highs in the low 40's.

This year's La Nina had been depositing close to record breaking quantities of snow in the nearby mountains, and there had been several days of snow on the ground in the lowlands, too.

As luck would have it, however, the low temperature on the day of the race was in the mid 40's. It was still pretty gray and windy, mind you, with occasional showers, but at least it was relatively warm.

As has been sort of a custom for me over the past couple of years I had a brand new Cadence pedal boat for this race. It was a full carbon, green and black painted boat, with pin striping, and matching green carbon fiber outrigger floats. I just hoped that my body was up to the task of powering this boat as fast as its paint job!

Registration for this event was pretty easy. Since this was the first race of the year I had to fill out two forms. One form was for the annual Masters Rowing Association waiver that all club members have to fill out, and the other was the club waiver for the race. Non-members have to fill out both forms at each race and pay higher race fees. The cost for the race for members was a mere $8. It still amazes me that people attend other athletic events, paying $20, $50 or more for the privilege, and not frequently not getting the benefits of numerous awards, meals, race photos, etc., included in the price.

It started drizzling at the pre-race meeting. Greg Gilda, the race director, described the course, the hazards one was likely to encounter, and repeated the requirements for the race participants. Racers needed to have PFD's on board the boat, they needed to have noise making devices (whistles, etc.), they needed to stop to assist any other racers that were in trouble until those racers were truly out of trouble and back under way, and that everyone was supposed to have fun.

The Skagit Search & Rescue team also spoke for a few moments and identified the boats that were part of the team. These included several power boats and a pair of large jet skis.

After the meeting people returned to their cars and/or boats to prepare.

I wheeled the boat to the dock, intending to launch it from the end of the dock into the water. Unfortunately, however, the freshly and fully inflated wheels of the dolly refused to roll up over the steel plate at the landward end of the dock. Instead, they stayed in position and the boat slid.

Growling a little I then tried to lift the boat and dolly over the hump - and promptly managed to drop the boat approximately half a foot onto the edge of the steel plate. Ouch!

A brand new boat and the paint was already scratched by this misadventure. Sigh...

With the assistance of some of the other folks trying to use the dock I got the boat into the water and ready to go.

As I backed away from the dock I heard this crunching sound as the boat came to a sudden stop. Oh, no! Not another ding!

Sure enough, the stern had collided with one of the pilings, smearing creosote on one side. I guess the crunching sound was from the barnacles being crushed by the stern.

I hoped that this was not how the rest of the day would go!

After adjusting the position of the pedals to suit my leg length I began to do the warm up. I was wearing a polyester long sleeved t-shirt, a nylon shirt, a Kokotat PFD and a nylon windbreaker on top, bike shorts and Gore-tex (front half) biking tights, wicking athletic socks and bicycling sandals below.

Just standing around at the pre-race meeting I felt a little chilled in that combination, but on the water I had concerns that I might be over dressed during the race. Several other folks decided to leave their dry suits or other gear that they would normally wear in non-racing situations since they most likely would be rescued by others in short order if they ran into difficulty.

The boat was handling well. The stiffness of the drive train was readily apparent with every cycle of the cranks. The outriggers were working well, too, though it would be better if they were mounted perhaps an inch or so higher. This would have them skimming just above the surface of the water. As it was they extended about half an inch or so into the water, creating unnecessary drag.

I began taking photos of the other racers as they, too, warmed up. The vinyl waterproof bag in which the camera was contained was a little stiff from the cold, but the warmth of my hand in the bag's glove began to loosen it up over time.

The tide was slowly ebbing, but there wasn't much current in the Swinomish Channel. The GPS wasn't registering more than perhaps one mph in the southerly direction. With the wind from the south more or less counteracting the effects of the current this was probably as close to calm conditions as one could expect.

A long, light blue boat with white outriggers was being launched. This boat had very high sides to it and appeared to be a bit different from most other boats, so I went closer to take a look.

This boat was built to use the Hobie Mirage pedal powered flapping fin drive for propulsion. For going in the reverse direction the pilot used a paddle.

The boat seemed to be quite stable in the water. Given the long and narrow hull with the outrigger floats suspended slightly above the water this boat should give the Mirage drive an excellent chance to show its stuff!

Boats were beginning to congregate at the starting line, so I joined them. Signals were given for the 5 minute and 1 minute warnings, and then we were off!

The scene was pretty chaotic as paddlers and rowers tried to maneuver their craft down the narrow channel.

As usual, most of the rowing shells and a bunch of surf skis slowly pulled away from the pack. The surf skis tended to sort themselves into drafting groups while the rowers generally stayed more or less in the middle or towards the generally emptier right side of the channel. My speed was about 7 mph for the first 100 yards or so, then dropped to about 6.5 mph as I decided to pedal at a more reasonable pace.

A couple of outrigger canoes were keeping pace around me as we passed some yachts and fishing boats moored on the east side. Our speed seemed to have dropped to about 6 or 6.5 mph.

Just as we reached the end of the piers we encountered some logs and branches floating in the water. Ah, so this was the debris to which Greg referred!

Some of the smaller branches clunked against the hull - no problem.

As we continued down the channel the boats tended to stick closer to the east side of the channel. I'm not sure why, perhaps they thought we were fighting a current, or perhaps they felt they were being better sheltered from the light breeze. Personally, the breeze felt good as I unzipped my windbreaker in an effort to cool off.

The misty rain continued to be a problem for the camera. Prior to each shot I had to wipe off the optical port on the waterproof casing to remove the droplets that had accumulated in the short time since the last shot.

I could only hope that the shots would work out on this dark, wet day.

Eventually we reached the end of the channel, passing the navigational marker on the shore and turning westward towards Deception Pass.

The wind was a bit stronger here, and coming generally from the east-southeast. The breakwater kept the waves to a minimum, and most people were still moving at a moderate 6 to 6.5 mph pace.

My breathing was not especially hard at this time. I figured that with the drag of the outriggers preventing the boat from truly zipping along at planing speeds there was not much point.

Ahead and off to the right in the shallows I saw what looked to be a kayak with its paddler in the water.

Nobody else was over there, nor was anyone stopping to assist, so I headed over.

As I got closer the reason this guy was being "ignored" was that he was not a kayaker after all. He was a paddle board racer! We chatted for a few moments before I sped on ahead.

The tailwind kept blowing and the misty rain kept falling. A couple of boats were keeping pace with me as we approached the #5 green can buoy.

Meanwhile, the first of the racers on their way back from the turn buoy heading to the finish line were passing by. I did my best to keep out of their way and still take photos, though the camera was making the job difficult. It kept adjusting its aperture to the maximum open setting, and it took a second or two to readjust for proper exposure. During that second or two, of course, the mist would again coat the lens. Oh, well. Maybe it was time to bite the bullet and get a new camera after all - or perhaps not bother trying to shoot in the rain.

The incoming racers were scattered pretty widely across the width of the course. Some chose to stick close to the log booms, rocks and breakwaters on the south side of the channel. Others chose to head down the middle, fairly close to the stream of racers still heading out to the turn buoy. I was in the middle between them in order to take photos as close as possible, yet still trying to stay out of their way.

Through this leg of the race I was pedaling moderately hard, but not breathing especially hard. I was pretty toasty, with my nylon shirts and jacket soaked either by the mist or by my sweat. The two OC-1's that had been pacing me earlier were now ahead a bit, mainly because I slowed down a little for the photo ops. A couple of other boats were just ahead of me as we cleared the end of the log boom and entered a short stretch of water marked by one to two foot swells.

The turn buoy was now just ahead.

With the wind driven waves and the current it appeared to be a bit of a struggle for the other boats to make a straight line to the buoy. On the other hand, the outriggers on my boat and the propeller drive made it pretty easy for me to not only make a fairly straight line, but also let me concentrate on taking photos at the same time. Woo hoo!

After rounding the buoy we now found ourselves going almost directly into a stiff head wind. The mist was a bit lighter now, but with the wind it was actually a bit more difficult to keep it off the camera lens.

I decided it was time to concentrate more on racing than on photography.

The boats that were with me at the turn buoy were almost immediately dropped. I targeted the pair of OC-1's, and noticed that a safety jet ski was heading at high speed in their direction. Uh-oh - one of them had huli'd, i.e., he flipped over.

By the time the jet ski reached them the capsized boat had been flipped back over and the paddler was back on board. It had taken no more than a minute.

Traveling into the wind is one of those things where the Cadence really shines compared with just about every other human powered boat. Even with the extra drag caused by the outriggers I was able to shrink the quarter mile distance between my boat and the lead OC-1 quite rapidly, passing him at the east end of Goat Island. This was about the same place where a couple of the safety boats were stationed, so I took a few shots of them as I passed.

Along the shore on the north side I could see Traci paddling her surf ski. Ahh - perhaps I could catch her, too, though that would be a rather surprising feat with outriggers.

She continued along the shore as we neared the turn at Hole in the Wall where the Swinomish Channel met Skagit Bay - and then she disappeared. I swear, I looked away for a moment in order to snap a couple more photos and to check the progress of the last OC-1 I had passed, looked back and Traci was nowhere in sight.

Pedaling across to the north shore and heading around the turn I finally caught a glimpse of her. She was at least a quarter of a mile ahead of me, making her way up the channel. Rats! In the relatively sheltered waters of the Swinomish she was making excellent time. That meant that the OC-1 might also be able to catch me!

Desperate times call for desperate measures. In the calm water I had no real need for outriggers. If I could remove them while pedaling then I could go faster up the channel.

After a bit of effort, mainly due to my wet hands slipping on the carbon amas as I attempted to pull them out from their mounts, I was able to extract first one and then the other. With both amas laying across my lap and being held with one hand I was able to increase my speed up the channel by perhaps half a mile per hour.

That increase in speed was critical. The OC-1 had come within talking range shortly after the turn at Hole in the Wall, and it was highly likely he would have passed me by the finish. Instead, he was soundly left behind as I crossed the finish with a time of 1:13:01. He crossed with a time of 1:13:23. Woo hoo!

After a short recovery time I decided to try some speed tests without the outriggers. As there was still some tidal current I made two runs. The first run was north, up the channel and against the fairly feeble current.

The second run was south, with the current. According to the GPS there was not much difference between the two runs, possibly because I was running pretty low on energy. The highest speed reached was a little over 10 mph, not too bad considering this was the first time I was on the water since November.

With the assistance of some folks on shore I loaded my boat onto its dolly and more or less rolled it up the extremely rough concrete boat ramp. I washed off the boat, changed into some drier clothing and returned the boat to the top of the car. The damage caused by dropping the boat on the ramp prior to the race wasn't too bad. Some of the accent paint on the bottom was roughed up a bit, but there appeared to be nothing else amiss.

With the rest of the competitors I drove over to a nearby marina club house for the race-provided hot soups, fresh sourdough bread and desserts. Let me tell you, it was delicious!

Greg Gilda made the post race announcements and handed out the awards. The first boat over the finish line was a double rowing shell crewed by John Alberti and Tyler Peterson. They had a time of 52:15. The other pedal boat, piloted by Jamie Wells with the Mirage drive, finished with a time 1:29:13. The last boat across had a time of 2:22:30, and one of the two paddleboarders apparently did not finish. The one that did finish had a time of 1:34:23.

All in all it was a pretty fun race, even with the mist and wind.

My stats:

The entire set of photos can be found at the Sound Rowers site.

Cascade Distance Race

2007-11-01T12:05:00.000-07:00

It was darn chilly on the morning of this race. At 8:30 AM the temperature was 38 degrees Fahrenheit at my house, and 35 degrees at the Renton Boat House at the mouth of the Cedar River on Lake Washington. Brrrr! The lake was pretty well socked in with fog, but the surrounding land was generally clear of all cloud cover.

There were about a dozen vehicles in the parking lot, all with one or more boats on their roofs. People were slowly moving about, bundled up with winter coats, hats and gloves. Gloves - those would feel pretty nice while handling nearly ice cold fiberglass. Why didn't I think to bring any?

As luck would have it, I remembered that I kept a nice pair of winter cycling gloves in the car for when I drove to my old job in Beaverton. They worked well in keeping the sun off my hands on that 3 hour southbound trip each week. It had been quite some time since I last used them, but they were still there.

Bundled up with a couple of layers of jackets, shirts and pants, hat and gloves, I unloaded the Cadence from my car, loaded it up with the outriggers, camera bag, cycling sandals and water for the race. I took a couple of short plastic Halloween statues, one of a pumpkin headed man and the other of Dracula, and duct taped them one per outrigger. I had forgotten to take the inflatable skeleton and his coffin. That was going to be placed on the rear deck of the boat. Oh, well - no skeleton crew for this race!

After dropping the Cadence off at the boat ramp I walked over to the Boat House and registered for the race. The cost was the standard Sound Rowers member rate of $8, which included the support boat, ribbons and lunch. It is such a good deal!

Returning to the boat I changed took off my outer garments, put on my PFD and cycling sandals, and launched. I wanted to get to the boat house in time for the pre-race meeting.

As luck would have it I had troubles finding the channel through the sediment at the mouth of the river. There were a few logs and branches that fooled me into thinking they were in the shallows rather than lining deeper water, and the angle of the light made it difficult to see how deep the water was until you right on top of it.

After a few tries I finally made it past the bar and pedaled over to the Boat House.

The pre-race meeting was over but Dan Henderson, the race director, said there were no changes from the previous year.

I returned to the boat and headed out to warm up and take photos.

The new production outriggers were not the only new thing I was testing today. The drive train was outfitted with a pair of chain tensioners. Their purpose was to even out the peak loads applied to the propeller during each complete turn of the cranks.

Whether you are pedaling a bicycle up a hill or turning a propeller through the water it is better to apply a constant force to the wheel or propeller, respectively. Over powering in the power portion of a stroke and under powering at the full leg extension or retraction causes losses. Tests done by an acquaintance of mine riding a specially modified bike in the hills around his home proved the concept for bicycles. This test would, hopefully, prove or disprove the concept for boating.

All I knew was that the modifications to the drive system made it a bit noisier and added a bit more friction to overcome.

The sun was now breaking through the fog that had been covering much of the lake, and the wind was starting to pick up. With the increased wind from the north the water was starting to get pretty bumpy, too. Maybe it would be a good day to have the outriggers after all!

It took a while, but eventually all the competitors made their way from the parking lot, down the river and to the starting line. After a bit of jostling by the wind and waves we managed to sort out positions along the line and waited for the starting signal.

We waited some more.

We waited some more.

Just before I was about to drift behind a massive hulk that had been moored at the south end of the lake for eons the air horn signaling the start of the race sounded. We were off!

The side wind made it a bit tough for many of the rowers as it tended to push other boats into the areas required for the oars of the rowers., or pushed the rowers into other boats that happened to be downwind. I had to be a bit more careful as well since the outriggers now made the boat much wider than I was accustomed. Still, it was very nice not having to concern myself with balance while I turned my body this way and that to take advantage of the photo opportunities.

A number of racers were having problems with the beam seas. Many of the rowers were moving a bit slower than normal, catching quite a few crabs on their way. Most of the surf ski and kayak paddlers seemed to be pretty much in their element, unaffected for the most part by the chop.

My boat was moving around 6 to 6.5 mph. This was not a bad speed but definitely slower than I normally race when not using outriggers. Also, I found that every so often a wave would hit the upwind outrigger just right, splashing me a bit in the process. The nylon jacket helped a bit in keeping the water off, but my bike shorts were starting to get wet. Oh, well. The effort pedaling was starting to heat me up; perhaps the cooling effects of the water would balance.

I was most of the way towards the Atlantic City turn buoy when I encountered the first of the short course racers on their way back to the finish. The wind and waves had diminished considerably by now, and the rowers were slowly regaining their normal places in the racing heirarchy. Still, there was a good chance that the first place finisher in this race just might be a surf skier.

I soon reached the first turn buoy. Most of the boats around me made their turn and headed back to the finish. It looked like most of the boats that were on the long course were far ahead.

My legs were telling me that they would be very happy if I, too, turned around and headed back to the finish. Unfortunately, however, I promised Todd, who was racing in his pedal boat in the short course, that I would be doing the long course. This would give each of us a first place ribbon and me some much needed exercise.

I'd just have to tough it out.

The drive system and outriggers were definitely slowing me down. I had a difficult time catching a guy in a kayak as we headed north towards Seward Park. The water was pretty calm here, and I toyed with the idea of removing the outriggers and stowing them. Nah! It would be better to test them further and perhaps on the return leg see what sort of speed could be attained with them removed at that time.

Upon reaching the second turn buoy just south of Seward Park I could see crowds of people at the finish line for the Pumpkin Push run/walk at the park. I could also see that I had nearly caught the kayaker who had been ahead of me for the past couple of miles. Go legs, go!

Try as I might, I wasn't able to catch that kayaker. Perhaps the air drag of the pumpkin headed creature on one outrigger and that of Dracula on the other outrigger was hindering my progress. Perhaps the drive train modifications had too much friction. Perhaps the outriggers just made my boat as slow as a kayak. Perhaps the combination of all three conspired to keep me behind as we headed around the north end of Seward Park where we encountered the first of the long racers as they headed back to the finish line.

This was interesting. The first boats heading back were surf skis, not rowing shells. Where were the rowers?

A few minutes later the first rowing shell, a double manned by Adrian and Rob, appeared and quickly passed on its way back to the finish.I wonder if they would be able to catch the pair of surf skis?

Quite a few more paddlers passed on their way back to the finish, and I was starting to gain on the boat directly ahead of me. Perhaps I could catch him after all!

Heading into the cove on the west side of the park I found half a dozen more boats beginning the second half of the race. I guess I wasn't all that far behind the other racers after all, but began to doubt that there was anyone left behind me!

The kayak ahead made his turn around the buoy and I finally recognized him. It was Tom, a regular racer whom I normally leave far behind.

That settled it. I was going to have to do something!

After rounding the 3rd buoy I was pleased to find there were several boats still behind. Yay! I wasn't the last boat after all!

I continued in pursuit of Tom.

It was time to try pedaling with a single outrigger.

While continuing to pedal I pressed the release button on the right outrigger support and tried to twist it out. It wouldn't budge as my sweaty hands slipped on the smooth carbon fiber tube.

Wiping off my hands I tried again, and it moved. Yay!

After pulling it out I rested the tube across the gunwales of the Cadence. This kept the float ever so slightly above the water.

Now, of course, the remaining outrigger was sinking a bit lower in the water as I leaned more to the port. Perhaps removing a single outrigger would not help as much as I thought.

I tried leaning more to the starboard. This was a bit better, and I started to pick up a little speed.

I had almost caught the kayak as we reached the second buoy.

It was at the second buoy that I decided to try removing the other outrigger, too. With a little effort I was able to release it, pull it out and balance the aka (the carbon fiber tube) across my waist on the gunwales, with one float on one side of the boat and the other float on the other side of the boat.

This generally seemed to work, so long as I held it with one hand and steered with the other hand. Once in a while, though, either the bow or the stern of one float or the other would dip into the water and act as a brake.

With my hands thus occupied, I couldn't take any photos. It didn't matter much, anyway, as the shots would have mostly been into the sun and would not have turned out. On the other hand, my speed increased by nearly a mile per hour and I quickly passed Tom and his dastardly kayak.

As I passed he said "I was wondering why you were taking so long to pass me". I told him about the outriggers and said "See you later!".

There was quite a distance between me and the next boat, but I kept on pedaling. My legs were very tired by this time, and all I had left to drink was another bottle of water.

I sure hoped there would be some food left at the finish!

The distance between my boat and the one ahead seemed to be shrinking, but there was no way that I'd catch him before the finish.

A couple of quick stops to remove weeds from the propeller didn't help, either.

With that being the case as I neared the mouth of the Cedar River I decided to reinstall the outriggers and take more photos.

With a time of 2:22:27 I finally crossed the finish line. Whew!

Thirteen seconds later Tom crossed the line. I guess I wasn't as far ahead as I thought!

I tied up at the dock by the boat house and made my way up the ramp and through the shop. The lunch was set up on tables lining the dock, with Dan Henderson manning the grill. That food looked and smelled good!

I grabbed a plate and filled it with a burger, salad and dessert. Yum!

The sun had warmed up the day considerably. The temperature had risen to the low 50's and the wind had mostly died. Still, it was a little chilly in the shade wearing wet clothing so I basked in the sun. It was a good thing I had on my sunscreen!

After a while the awards ceremony was held. Ribbons were handed out for winners in each of the classes for both the long and the short courses, though many of the short course winners had long since gone home. This year, due to the rough conditions at the start, there were several DNF's (did not finish). The conditions also enabled surf skis to be first overall in both races.

After the ceremony I returned to my boat and headed up the Cedar River to the ramp. A guy in a rather unsteady high kneel canoe accompanied me. We pulled our boats from the water and went our separate ways.

It was a good day for a race!

For all the photos taken, head over here.

Medina-Mercer 2007

2007-10-08T21:21:00.000-07:00

The standing joke here is "What do you call the sunny, warm day preceded by two cold and wet days? Monday.".

While the US Midwest was basking in clear skies and temperatures in the upper 80's, we in the Pacific NorthWet were having a typical weekend: sunny Friday, drizzly and chilly (low 50's) Saturday, drizzly and not quite as chilly (low 60's) Sunday, and partly cloudy Monday.

Two layers of shirts, fleece lined jacket and a wind breaker were not enough to keep me warm before the race. Replacing the fleece jacket with a kayak PFD did the trick. Putting on an insulating headband and baseball cap certainly helped, too.

After registering for the race I returned to the car and prepared for the race. This involved taking the Cadence off the roof of the car and onto its dolly, loading it with water bottles, seat pads, tow rope, GPS receiver and a safety paddle. The Coroplast race number was then taped to the rear deck. I carefully walked it down the steep asphalt path to the beach where the guy in the backhoe had just finished smoothing the beach for us.

With all the construction gear and concrete forms blocking most of the access to the beach I decided to park the boat as far from the access path as possible. I couldn't be accused of blocking anyone by leaving the boat there!

As it was still a bit early and the drizzle was getting a bit heavier, I decided to return to the car. It was quite a bit warmer and drier inside, and it gave me a chance to put the camera in its waterproof case in preparation for the race. It also seemed to be time to switch from sneakers to sandals, as there were very few dry places around the registration shelter where I could conceivably stash my belongings.

About 10 or 15 minutes later the rain subsided. I got out and took more photos of other folks preparing for the event, most of whom were bundled in warm clothing, hats and jackets. Some even wore mittens or gloves.

The pre-race meeting was held soon after my return. Rainer Storb, the race director, told us about the two courses, the long and the short. They both start at the same place and time and head the same direction - south, towards Mercer Island and the East Channel Bridge. The short course turns back after crossing under the bridge while the long course continues down the East Channel, rounds the bottom of Mercer Island and heads back to Medina Beach park by way of the west side of Mercer Island.

For today's race we had the assistance of the Medina Police Marine Unit as well as a private volunteer safety boat. Of course, we were expected to provide assistance to other racers if they were in trouble and if we could help in any way.

During the meeting another Cadence pedal boat arrived, this one owned by Todd. He parked it alongside mine and quickly got registered.

I asked Todd which race he had intended to do, as I intended to the other one. You see, this would mean that we both could get first place ribbons so long as we finished our respective races. When he replied "The long one" I was pretty happy. Given how chilly it was and how I was feeling about the weather I really did not feel like pedaling the long one.

People started launching their boats, stepping into the cool water and clambering aboard as quickly as possible. The little breakwater did a pretty good job of reducing the chop, so launching and boarding was easy to manage. The water also got reasonably deep close to shore, so I was able to have the bow of the Cadence on the sand, the stern out in the water, and not have to step too far into the water to get into the cockpit.

While still beached I got in the boat, sat down, dried my feet with the socks, and put on the sock and sandals.

Backing away under pedal power worked out pretty well, too. I was able to turn around between some of the other boats and head out into the lake.

There was still a bit of a drizzle and a strong breeze from the south. This kicked up the water a bit and also coated the optical port on the camera case. It was good I carried along a couple of cloth handkerchiefs with which to dry it!

Quite a few people seemed to be troubled one way or another by the conditions. Still, no one seemed to capsize during the warmups, and the two safety boats kept close by in case any problems occurred.

I noticed that turning around in the wind was a little more difficult than usual. Deciding that the problem was due to the sail effect of the race number on the stern of my boat I had some guys in another boat remove the number and stow it flat on the rear hatch. Thanks, guys!

While warming up I heard the 5 minute and 1 minute signals. All too soon the starting signal was heard and I was about 100 feet behind the starting line. Oh, well. At least I'd get some shots of the field as they departed!

I started pedaling at a moderate pace, resigned to the fact that I'd be well behind most of the other racers.

A funny thing happened. I was gaining on just about the entire field.

It turned out that the strong headwind and the chop was slowing down everybody else. With a little additional effort I was able to catch up to the field and motor past almost all the other competitors!

As far as I could tell through the droplet covered bezel the GPS was reporting a speed of around 6.5 mph.

This was especially true of the rowers. Their oars kept catching "crabs" as they hit the waves, and I was able to keep up with rowers that would normally be far out in front. Even some of the OC-1's and OC-2's had problems as during the recovery stroke their paddles would hit the oncoming wave tops if they didn't raise them high enough.

Hurray for propellers!

I kept pace with Rob, one of the normally fast rowers, for quite a distance. He took a slight break at one point, whereupon I scolded him for slowing down. I went around his boat and continued onward towards the bridge.

A strong paddler in a surf ski was keeping pace to my left, while two strong paddlers in an OC-2 slowly began catching up on my right. Their periodic shouts signaling they were switching sides on which to paddle could be heard clearly above everything else.

I timed a similar shout as a joke. Steve, one of the OC-2 paddlers, thought it was pretty funny and was wondering if I was trying to confuse them. Yes, I was!

The closer we approached the bridge the quieter the wind and waves became. The propeller drive advantage was being lost. The normally faster boats started performing "normally"; i.e., they started pulling ahead. If there was any good news it was that the drizzle had by this time mostly stopped. I was getting warm enough that I actually had to take off my hat and open up my wind breaker.

Another rower managed to catch up and pass me just before reaching the bridge. Meanwhile, I took a few shots of the leading racers returning from the bridge on the short course.

I began to wonder if Todd was actually going to go ahead and do the long course. The conditions further ahead looked pretty easy; perhaps he would continue on after all.

I rounded the four pylons of one of the bridge piers and headed back towards the start. It was amazing how far ahead of the rest of the field we had gotten.

Rather than take a bee line back to the start I decided to try to get fairly close to the incoming racers for some photo ops. This worked out fairly well, though I'm sure it slowed me down a little. However, with the wind at my back I was heating up quite a bit. Going a little slower meant I could feel more of a breeze. Ahhhh!

Unfortunately, however, going slower would also mean that other folks would eventually catch and pass. I continued pedaling faster, with the GPS reporting a speed of about 7 mph.

Todd appeared at about the middle of the pack. He seemed to be pedaling strongly and was still planning to head around the island on the long course. Go Todd!

The GPS was reporting my speed as a bit slower than I expected for the amount of effort. I paused a couple of times, pedaling backward and forward in an effort to dislodge any milfoil that might have accumulated. It was hard to say if there actually was an improvement, or whether I was merely getting tired.

Heading further away from the bridge the wind and waves started picking up, as expected. I began pedaling a little faster. This enabled the Cadence to go faster than the waves were moving and eliminated any surfing effects.

About half a mile from the finish I noticed a rower that had slowly and slightly crept up close to my position. Oh, no! I wasn't going to let him catch me!

I pedaled harder, trying to make nice circles with my pedals.

It seemed to work. The boat appeared to be cutting faster through the waves and the rower seemed to be dropping behind.

At long last I reached the breakwater and heard the horn signaling my race was over, with a time of 1:01:55 and 8th place overall. Not bad, but it didn't break my record of 56:23. Of course, that was in smooth conditions with far fewer photos taken.

About 20 seconds later the rower crossed the line.

I circled back and took more photos of some of the incoming racers. It didn't take too long before the wind cooled me off, perhaps a bit too much. It was time to return to shore.

I raced back, passing another boat as he crossed the finish line. Woohoo!

Back on shore I wheeled the Cadence on its dolly most of the way back up the path towards the car. I left it there, returned to the car and changed into dry clothing. That felt much better!

In honor of the Medina-Mercer Sausage Pull name a lunch of freshly grilled fine German sausages was offered. I picked out a tasty bratwurst, some sauerkraut and ketchup and consumed it hungrily. Yum!

By this time the weather had lightened considerably. The drizzle was long gone and every so often the sun would break through the cloud cover. The wind was still fairly strong and chilly, but nylon pants over woolen leg warmers, two layers of jackets, an insulating head band and baseball cap kept me nice and warm.

Many of the short course racers decided to head out rather than wait in the cold for the long race to complete. The rest of us had pleasant conversation and watched for boats as they arrived one by one from across the lake.

There was some excitement when two boats arrived neck and neck. Though they tried mightily, the two man boat finished just behind the one man surf ski.

As the crowd dwindled further it was decided to hold the awards ceremony, even though the last of the racers had yet to arrive.

I found out that another racer started 30 minutes late and was given his own time. He ended up in 8th place, pushing everyone else (me included) down a notch. This didn't sit too well with a number of other racers, as it was felt that the conditions might have been easier later in the morning. I suspect that this might be a topic for the club's annual meeting in December.

Shortly after the awards ceremony was over I walked back to the fence along the shore. In the distance one could see the Medina Police boat escorting a racer from Mercer Island. After much squinting through binoculars it was determined that it was Todd, finishing the course under his own power. Go Todd!

After Todd neared the finish the police boat left to find another boat to escort.

I helped Todd get his boat from the water, pointed him in the direction of the hot food and scored the last of the soft drinks for him. He was a little late and had some family obligations to rush off to. Congratulations on finishing!

Even with the cold and rain it was a fun event. Thanks, Rainer and all the volunteers!

Lake Samish Race 2007

2007-09-29T17:57:00.000-07:00

The boat races seem to be bunched pretty closely together at this time of year, with every race director trying to get one in before wintry weather makes it unpleasant to be out on the water.

Merely one week after the Paddle the Shores event I drove to Bellingham, WA to participate in the Sound Rowers Lake Samish Salmon Roe. The skies were thick with gray clouds. The temperature was around 50 degrees and the forecast was for showers.

Hopefully the rain would hold off until after the race!

I arrived at Lutherwood Park at the north end of Lake Samish at about 8:30 AM. There were numerous people dressed in bright orange safety gear directing traffic to and from the boat staging areas and parking areas. It all seemed vaguely familiar when it hit me. The people running this event also run the Mt. Baker Ski Resort, and they were using the same sorts of techniques to squeeze people, cars and boats into small spaces as they did on the mountain to handle people, cars and skis.

All in all it went very smoothly.

I dropped off my boat, rolled it onto an out of the way spot on a nearby dock, and returned to park my car in a distant parking area.

Upon returning to the registration area I went to collect my pre-registration packet. These guys were so efficient it was scary - except they somehow lost my online pre-registration.

Oh, well.

Filling out the form on race day only meant that they did not have my T-shirt size available. I had to settle for a large and hope for the best when I washed it later. There was no additional cost for day of event registration.

By the time of the pre-race meeting the place was filled with boats and people. There were 108 boats entered, ranging from plastic kayaks to carbon fiber rowing shells and carrying from one to six people. Racers ranged in age from perhaps 10 years to late 70's. This surely was going to be the biggest Sound Rowers race of the year!

The course was to be the same as in the previous couple of years. It starts just beyond the bridge in the main section of the lake, heads southward to a buoy, heads along the eastern shore to another buoy, returns under the bridge to the far northern shore and finishes shortly after making a turn at the last buoy. The total distance is about 5.5 miles.

As the Sound Rowers club photographer I decided to repeat my slightly longer version of the race. This meant that some time before reaching the first buoy I would instead cross the lake to the eastern shore and follow the course backward around the first turn buoy until I passed the last boat in the race. At that time I would then cross the lake to the buoy on the eastern shore and continue along the course as normal.

This would add anywhere between 0.25 and 0.5 miles and 2 to 5 minutes to the length of my race, but I feel that is a small sacrifice for the far greater number of photo opportunities it presented.

After the pre-race meeting completed I went back to the dock. After swapping my pants and shoes for woolen leg warmers and sandals, sealing the camera in its waterproof bag, launching the Cadence and stowing the wheels in the rushes along the shore, I got under way. There was not a lot of time between the end of the meeting and when the race was supposed to start, and the starting line was about a mile distant.

All in all the trip to the starting line served as a nice warm up. The Cadence was working pretty smoothly and my body was starting to warm up enough that I decided to stow my nylon jacket. The insulation of the PFD and the two long sleeved nylon/synthetic shirts quite adequate in keeping me warm.

When I reached the starting line the 5 minute warning was given. Great! Now I could wander about and take some starting line shots.

There were so many boats here that the organizers suggested that if you were a slower racer that it was preferred that you start in a row behind the faster boats. Even so, the starting line stretched across the lake.

At long last the starting signal was given. We were off!

There was quite a bit of mayhem, with paddles and oars splashing, some minor collisions, and folks trying to make their way down the course.

A surf skier next to me splashed me a couple of times, dousing the camera bag with spray. I extracted a cloth from a pocket in my PFD and attempted to dry the optical port on the camera bag, all while pedaling madly and trying to steer a straight course. Sheesh!

I didn't bother trying to draft anyone. The faster guys were already fairly far ahead and I was able to keep pace with the boats around me. These guys were trying to find their way around each other, positioning behind one or another or trying to catch other boats just ahead. For me it seemed to be a better strategy to just snap photos every so often and keep on moving.

After passing a safety boat that was sitting in the middle of the course towards the first turn buoy it looked like it was time to cross the lake to meet the first racers. I snapped a parting shot of a fast six person dugout canoe with which I had been keeping pace and headed off at an angle. Hopefully no one was drafting me as they would be going the wrong way!

The timing was almost perfect. Just as I reached the far side of the lake the first boat, a two man shell, crossed just ahead of me. I think they were surprised to see me, but they just kept on rowing.

The same couldn't be said about a few of the next boats. I did my best to give them room and yet still be close enough to shoot them. For the most part this seemed to work pretty well.

A little while later I reached the first turn buoy. There were racers still coming towards it as far as the eye could see.

Unfortunately, however, the camera couldn't quite keep up writing photos to the flash memory as fast as shots were taken. It was not as bad as in previous years as I was now acquainted with the problem and tried to space the shooting accordingly. There were still a few times I ended up having to wait, missing some excellent photo ops while doing so.

A minute or two later I encountered Todd in his yellow and white carbon fiber Cadence. He seemed to be doing pretty well and was pedaling pretty strongly. Go Todd!

There were a lot more kayaks, surf skis and even rowing shells still coming. I was starting to wonder how I would be backtracking in order to take everyone's photo!

Eventually the last two boats appeared. One was the four man high kneel canoe paddled by a bunch of young kids from the Cascade Canoe & Kayak center in Seattle, accompanied by their coach in a kayak. These intrepid young paddlers seemed to be a little unsteady at times, but they kept on going. Hurray for them!

I made a bee line across the lake towards the second turn buoy. The GPS was indicating a speed of about 7 mph, and the wind was mostly to the side.

There was a large group of boats just finishing making turn past the buoy when I arrived. The group included a couple of OC-1's, an OC-2, several kayaks, a couple of surf skis and a rowing shell or two, with about twelve boats total. Aha! Targets!

This stretch pedaling back towards the bridge was not quite as easy as I thought it was going to be. The wind driven waves were just big enough to jostle the boat so that the camera wouldn't sit still on the deck behind me. The camera would flop over to one side and yank on my neck in that direction, or flop to the other side and yank in the other direction. Flopping either way also interfered with my balance against the wave action. If the camera was on my chest it would interfere with my heavy breathing. There was just no comfortable place to put it!

I ended up doing some zig zagging so that the boat was either parallel to or perpendicular to the wave direction. This worked OK, but prevented me from making headway and catching up to the other boats.

Getting closer to the bridge the waves decreased in size. I was able to put on some speed and caught up to the tail end of the group.

At the bridge I passed a couple of kayaks, one of whom asked if I was going to catch the OC-1's. I told him "Maybe, but not likely" - and then put the pedal to the metal. He tried to stay on my tail but was having some difficulty in drafting.

I was pretty much at my aerobic limit, having been pushing pretty strongly throughout the race. Still, this was almost at the finish line and there were maybe nine boats just ahead. If I could hang on just a bit longer it would make a big difference in the standings.

Towards the finish I normally snap a lot of photos, but this time I decided to race. After one last sip of water I grabbed both steering handles to brace myself and poured it on. Trying to pedal in circles as best as I could and as fast as I could, the distance between the blue and white OC-1 paddled by Rocky grew smaller. We rounded the final turn buoy, and the finish line was less than 200 feet away.

I was right on Rocky's stern as he paddled as hard as he could. With all the strength I could muster the bow of the Cadence crept forward, now even with the cockpit of the OC-1, now even with the bow and, just as the horn for the finish sounded, about a foot ahead of the OC-1. Hurray!

Rocky asked "Were you trying to catch me at the finish? 'cause I was trying my best to keep ahead of you!"

I confessed and said that yes, I was indeed trying to beat him.

After a bit of a rest and some photography I tied up at the dock and retrieved the outriggers for the boat. Terri, the wife of one of the surf skiers, had wanted to try out the boat with outriggers and this was her chance.

A few other folks tried their hand at pedaling Todd's boat as well as mine, and were generally pretty impressed with how easy they were to handle and to propel.

Last call was being made for the BBQ salmon lunch, so we took the boats from the water and headed over to the picnic area.

There was still a line for getting food, but it wasn't long before I had a steaming plate of salmon, mashed potatoes and coleslaw. It was very tasty!

I walked around the tables while eating, talking to folks and snapping more photos.

Eventually I found the table full of door prizes. These were contributed by a number of firms in the Bellingham area, and also included season lift passes to the Mt. Baker Ski Resort.

It was a while before the drawings for the prizes were made. As usual I didn't win anything.

It was still longer before the ribbons were awarded for the race. The fastest finish was by two guys in a rowing shell, with a time of 36:17. They were cooking!

Awards were given out to everyone but the three pedal boats, as we seemed to have been forgotten. This was brought to their attention immediately, and I received a first place ribbon with a time of 52:42. Not too bad for pedaling an extra quarter mile and shooting photos!

Todd received a second place ribbon with a time of 1:01:34. Todd's wife Lucia finished first in the women's pedal boat class with a time of 1:02:43. Way to go!

Thank you, Amy, Duncan and Peter for putting on such a great event!

The rest of the shots taken can be found here.