JEM Watercraft

Geez.... first day on the job and you're sicker than a dog!

But glad to hear you made it through. What type of wood did you get?

i just got luan from HD. i'll use 6 oz cloth outside and 4 oz inside. she'll be a bit heavier than designed, but my options were limited. i will say, that anyone reading this and has never built a s&g boat before....follow the plans. i made the heavier ply work, but i've built a few boats before and have learned how to patiently force the panels into shape. a first timer would be frustrated to say the least. especially with the panels on a canoe! it took some time to get the bottom curled into place, as expected.

a little update. i had some other pictures of the stitching but lost them somehow. here's the hull now. all stitches have been removed and now i'm starting on the gunwales. i have to do them two sections per side and i only have enough clamps to do one section, so this will be a four step process. with the temps here reaching 80 today, i should get one side done today. i'll do another section tomorrow evening and the last tuesday evening. then i'll clean up the outside hull and glass it. then on to the inside.

here's a few pics.

first piece is cured. i just clamped up the second piece on the first side. that will be all for today. got the yard mowed and some pruning done while the epoxy was curing. all in all, a productive day.

Nice!

What kind of wood and what thickness did you use for the gunwales? Did that bend toward the bow give you any trouble?

the gunwales are just white pine. i ripped a 1 x 6 board into 5/8" strips, so my gunwales are 3/4" x 5/8". that bend in the front is a bear! i really have to put some muscle into makeing it bend, but so far, i'm winning! i don't think i could make the bend with any other wood unless i steam bend it.

yea that was the one draw-back to that design. But the suggestions of how to address it in the plans should help a builder.

Looks like you got it worked out, though.

well. i'm done. i had a small dimple at the center, where the bottom panels come together. i added a little epoxy glue and some weight to bring the bottom center fair. i was cleaning up around my work area and the boat fell over. it came completely apart and a few panels cracked. all i could do is stand there looking a pile of wood. so now, that's two hulls that failed on me, and i give up. i'll just bite the bullet and buy a plastic canoe. this hull was beautiful though. i really love the lines of her. all i had to do was get the other side gunwales on and glass the outside. she would have been stiff enough then i think.

oh no!

I'm very sorry this happened. I looked at your pictures and wondered if you finished filling all the seams before attaching the gunwales. If you didn't, that is likely what caused it to break apart when it fell over.

But the reason probably doesn't help. Again, sorry this has been your experience.

i didn't have the seams filled in. it was all still tacked together. i wanted to use the gunwales to help fair the curves before i filleted everything. that proved to be my mistake.