Gunwales

[mikestenger]

Everyone who has built a stripper can, no doubt, immediately recall what part of the project was the hardest. For me, scarfing, machining scuppers, cutting tapers and attaching the inner gunwales was MUCH harder than any other part to date.

Today, as I was standing in front of my canoe, preparing to mix thickened epoxy to attach inner gunwale, I had a revelation. All I have read on epoxying the gunwales on indicated I should expect a big mess so I had already masked off everything but the part of the hull that would be epoxied to the gunwale. I had also pre-drilled #8 washer head screws to hold the gunwale in place while the epoxy was hardening.

How to get the epoxy on just the gunwale and not on everything else was the challenge. I cut about 15 straight pieces of coat hanger wire 4" long and inserted the wire thru the screw holes in the hull into the screw holes in the gunwale. That insured that the gunwale would go exactly to the right place when clamped to the hull. Pieces of masking tape held the gunwale about 3" away from the hull and allowed me to coat the gunwale with the thickened epoxy along the entire length. Then it was just a matter of drawing the gunwale against the hull, clamping up and inserting wax-coated screws and tightening them up.

Worked like a charm. After the whole gunwale was in place and clamped/screwed, shop towels cleaned up the squeeze out and we are good to go.

I can see the end of the project and am starting to be able to imagine putting this beauty in the water for paddle #1.

[davidb54321]

Mike,

Great idea! It is always interesting to see what people can do when they want to. I will file that little tid-bit away for future use.

David

[Moonman]

Mike,

That really is a great idea. I honestly think one of the best things about boat building is standing back and then figuring out a neat little trick or a fix for a particular problem. Very satisfying.

Cheers,

Moonman.