December 30, 2021
August 19, 2021
Building a Canoe: Finished!
On our final day of canoe building, we cut the strings that held the ‘skin’ (ballistic nylon) in place, trimmed the skin back to the gunwales, and made a few other final, last minute clean ups. We took the canoe for a test paddle to make sure it floated (and yes, it floats!), and we’reContinue Reading
August 9, 2021
Building a Canoe, Day 10 (and 11)
After everyone’s COVID tests came back negative (phew!), we got back to work on the final parts of the canoe build, including sizing the fabric to the skeleton of the canoe, sewing everything up, and then applying the goop! Most of the final work was done on Friday, while Dennis from Urban Boatbuilders was stillContinue Reading
August 5, 2021
Building a Canoe, Day 9
Today certainly took a turn none of us were hoping for! One of the folks who has worked on the canoe over the past two weeks had a family member test positive for COVID. In an effort to be as safe as possible, we ended the youth-facing portion of the canoe build. We were sadContinue Reading
August 4, 2021
Building a Canoe, Day 8
We’re in the phase of our canoe build that requires a fair amount of repetitive detail work. All the rivets are in place, we did our final steam bending, and now we’re cleaning things up. Tomorrow, we should be able to start sewing the fabric cover! This program is made possible with the generous supportContinue Reading
August 3, 2021
Building a Canoe, Day 7
The weather was predicted to be calm overnight, so we gambled on being able to keep the tent up. We guessed wrong. When we arrived this morning, it was to a bit of a shambles: Fortunately, we were able to recover relatively quickly, and had everything back up and (more or less) spic-and-span before theContinue Reading
August 2, 2021
Building a Canoe, Day 6
After a restful weekend, we were back to canoe building today! There were a few new faces helping us today, but mostly, everyone had already put in several days, and knew how to work on the canoe, and what needed to be done. Today, we installed the inwales, trimmed the ribs, and riveted the ribsContinue Reading
July 30, 2021
Building a Canoe, Day 5
Today is the end of our first week of building a canoe! We finally turned the canoe over, we steamed the secondary ribs, and fitted all the secondary ribs into place. We’ve already lashed 99 joints, and we have another 88 or so to go. The guidance we’ve received from Dennis, from Urban Boatbuilders, hasContinue Reading
July 28, 2021