Hardwood Gunwales, Inwale and Outwale, TP-TV

[footonthesea]

Hello all,
Building a Touring Pirogue TV and want the hardwood gunwale option with inwales and outwales. My main questions are:
1). Should/Must the Outwale for each side be a continuous piece?
2). Should the Inwale for each side be broken by the thwarts?
3). What are the best wood types to use?
4). I know I saw a builder's log that included an outwale-inwale section with photos but now I can't seem to find it and my searches for all the "gunwale" keywords I could think of came up empty. Does anyone have directions?

Thanks in advance for taking a moment to help.

[jem]

1). Should/Must the Outwale for each side be a continuous piece?

No. A small scarf of 45 or less angle will join them nicely.

2). Should the Inwale for each side be broken by the thwarts?

You can but I prefer to put the thwart directly under gunwale

3). What are the best wood types to use?

I'm a fan of ash. Strong, light, looks good.

4). I know I saw a builder's log that included an outwale-inwale section with photos but now I can't seem to find it and my searches for all the "gunwale" keywords I could think of came up empty. Does anyone have directions?

Thanks in advance for taking a moment to help.

Let me see if I can post a section from the Wabanaki instructions.

[footonthesea]

Thank you very much for the thorough answers.

I appreciate it.

[Kayak Jack]

Foot on the sea,

Here's something for your consideration. On my canoe, I opted for a single gunnel, an inwhale. I used wooden spacers to provide a "ventilated" gunnel. While my inwhale was made of 1/8" plywood, yours could be made of ash, as Matt suggested. A suggestion I strongly agree with, for what that's worth.

Such a ventilated gunnel will be lighter weight than a doubled gunnel, with a strip BOTH inside and out. And, it will be useful for easily draining water from the boat, and lashing down camp/fishing gear.

My spacers are 45X45X90 degree right triangles. These can be easily cut from a long strip of wood. Mine are about 5/8" thick, and that's too thick. About 1/4" to 3/8" thick is all that's needed. Sand and smooth each triangle. For lightness, drill a large hole in the center of each one.

Premeasure and precut your strips for in-whales. If you are going to scarf joint it to have one piece, put it on a pattern to do that. Use a scrap piece of wood as long as the gunnels of the boat. Clamp i onto the gunnel, and draw a pencil line along it to accurately show the curvature of the gunnel. Mark & cut the real gunnel to this pattern.

I'm a bit simpler. I made my inwhale of three pieces, with a 4' piece in the center, and two more pieces long enough to reach the ends. I scabbed over the joints with a 2' piece of plywood.

Lightly clamp the ends of an inwhale piece. Insert a spacer (with epoxy smeared all over it into the gap. My triangles were placed with the long side (hypotenuse) lining up with the top edge, and alternately the next one on each side lined up with the bottom edge. I have about an inch gap vertically between corners of the triangles so a rope can be easily passed through for lashing.

Glue in only a few, working from the center of the slat outwards towards ends. Let these set up and remove the clamps. Continue until done.

This builds a box beam structure that will robustly withstand stress. MY thwarts are not made of wood, but merely cords tied from gunnel to gunnel. Their job is not to support my weight, but to keep the boat from spreading wide during stresses of use.