Seattle / Hemel

Last week I had an Elsah Boat business trip to Seattle to visit and collaborate with Hemel Stand up Paddle Board company's owner and founder, Steve DeKoch.  He is an old friend and coincidentally also has a love of water and watercraft.  His babies are definitely more modern and hi-tech than mine.
His site:
hemelboards.com
My goal with the visit was to learn his proprietary laminate, and vacuum bagging system as well as to design stand up paddle blades for him.

We had a great week of shop work and some great meals in Seattle.

His boards are hollow and made of cored top and bottom panels.  His laminate schedule is very strong and the boards can take some abuse.  Since they do not rely on a solid foam core for structure and strength,  he has no weight penalty.  They are right in their weight class. 

This design prevents small nicks from causing water intrusion which makes standard boards heavy and shortens their life.

During the week, I designed two blades.  The first is a standard blade with a 12 degree ferrule offset.

The second is a high cadence blade for racing.  It has a longer narrower blade.  Both have a triangular cross section.

They are designed to use a carbon fiber shaft.  There will be carbon versions as well as glass versions.

Here are photos of the excursion...

A Hemel SUP

Hemel is located on the water near Fisherman's terminal across from Ballard.

Here is my ferrule for a SUP paddle blade plug in the making.

Steve De Koch about to enjoy a cuban sandwich.

My SUP paddle plugs almost ready for gelcoat and polishing.

First Sail in the sailing canoe

We had a beautiful breezy October Saturday yesterday and we were able to jury rig a sail for the canoe.  A Sailrite sail has been ordered and is on the way.
The sail we came up with was a small canvas photographic back-ground, it held up for two hours of sailing.
My son and I had a great beam breeze on our way out to Elsah Bar.  Elsah Bar map
Elsah Bar is a tiny island in the middle of the Mississippi.  After a hike and explore of the island, we paddled up river to gain weather to make a dash across the main channel back to our port.
The canoe performed very well.
The small sail moved the center of effort forward, but even still we were able to point fairly high.
The outrigger has a v sectional shape and provides some lateral resistance.  A dagger board attached to the forward Iako may be added.  It would gain a few degrees to windward.
The rudder is designed to swing up and needs a spring line to keep it down.  In its swept up position it still steered the boat.
After this modification is made, the new sail is added and all parts get a final coat of varnish, the sailing canoe will move to St. Louis Sail and Paddle were it will be for sale.

Mississippi River Skiff: Skeg

We have given the hull it's first course sanding (40 grit).  At this stage we are setting the skeg.

According to Howard Chapelle's lines, it should be 6.5 inches at the stern and taper to 0 before station number eight.

Instead of a single piece of wood for the skeg, we are building it up of poplar strips.  The first couple layers are 1 inch wide and then they drop down to 3/4 s of an inch.

The strips are set in colodial silica thickened epoxy.  Several layers of kevlar will end up on the skeg.

Mmmm, smells like Walnut ! and the MRS transom

Today I visited Lumber John to get some Ash for the missing oar as well as some Hickory for a non-boat job, and dang it all, he had a beautiful stack of fresh cut Walnut.

Walnut has a weird smell that might be a hallucinogen. Before I realized it, I had a pile of it in my truck.

Here is the transom after it is cut to size.  The sculling hole is marked and faintly visible.  It is a doweled glue up of inch thick cherry.  The sculling hole is offset to starboard to allow for a motor.  The transom is not curvy, but I think it looks nice.


Here is a boatload of hardwood that's too heavy for building boats, but it will make some nice trim pieces.

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Mississippi River Skiff update:
The boat is formed.  The glass and one set of oar locks arrived.  The hull will have a laminate of 9 oz glass with Kevlar below the waterline.  The interior will have 6 oz glass all set in Raka epoxy.  http://www.raka.com/    The transom will be installed tonight.

Bringing in the sheaves

We installed the halyard sheave in the sailing canoe's mast today.

To do this we cut a slot with careful skillsaw work.

Next we filed the cut clean then plugged the top of the mast with thickened epoxy.

After this set, more filing then we drilled a hole for the bolt and fabricated a cap.

For the sheave we didn't use a Ronstan or Schaefer item, but a sturdy nylon clothesline sheave from the hardware store (about three dollars).

Next, we will take it apart and varnish.

Paddle forming

We are making a set of paddles for a new retailer.
Out of a chunk of walnut and some steel we made a new display.  It holds seven paddles so we are delivering fourteen in a stair-step of sizes.

Here are some photos of the process after we have the basic glue-up ready...

The blade is marked on thirds.

A batten is used to scribe an nice curve on the blade.  It is pulled to the edge of the blade on the bottom third.  C-clamps are used as the pinion points.  After the curved cuts are made the bottom of the blade is finished with a cross cut.

Next we use the power hand planner to start taking the blade down to thickness. 

This particular paddle is made of Basswood, Walnut and Cherry.