The weather behaved wonderfully -- sunny, no wind, quite warm but not too hot. Because of the weather we decided to commit the entire day to the kayak.In this photo we nearly completed the bottom canvas installation. The old canoe is on the ground behind me, which we kept handy for reference.
During the cooler hours of the morning Schuyler painted the rubbing strips that go on the gunwales, the bilge keels and the main keel (rubbing strip). We built and varnished the floor boards. After lunch we put the canvas on. I didn't remember actually how difficult it was from my experience in the original build. It was so much easier and straight forward then, profiting most likely from complete ignorance of the task at hand and blatant inexperience.
We managed to get all the canvas on and were hoping to have time to put the first coat of paint on but the sun was setting quickly by the time we finished the canvas. You will see from the photos that we had to move the project several times to keep the project out of the shadows and in the heat of the sun.
It is
now starting to look like the lovely craft that it was intended to be. From this point on we are really finishing the canoe.In this photo Schuyler is the proud future boat owner - somewhat amazed at what has developed before his eyes.
Some technical boring stuff:
To fasten the canvas, we decided to continue to go with Lepage PL Premium construction adhesive -- which we already used for the wood, and a regular staple gun and staples rather than copper tacks . Copper tacks are not a regular hardware item in these parts. Besides that the use of a staple gun makes the installation so much easier. I found that the few iron parts that I had on my old canoe didn't really show much corrosion, again because it was usually well stored, and such parts were well painted. In this case, there is one significant difference though. Schuyler lives in Nova Scotia where probably half of the paddling will be in salt water and half in fresh water. I very rarely ventured into briny water yet with the old boat so have no experience with the salt exposure.
Based on my professional career though,
I do recall that salt water was significantly more corrosive on untreated steel. Another reason that I was not too worried about this decision was that for the old kayak the copper tacks had minimal impact on the integrity of the canvas installation. The tacks being almost completely tapered were extracted easily after a while and the glue was doing all of the work. Since we are using the very strong and effective PL Premium to hold the canvas, I suspect that the staples' main role will be in keeping the canvas in position while the glue hardens. My ony concern now will be if the staples rust if they will stain the fabric. I will be keeping an eye on the progress of this vessel and will most likely blog on this again in 10 years if blogs are still in vogue.
