Basically the construction of the Quetico is all but complete. I have sanded back the hull and will now leave it for a few days or more for the epoxy to fully cure before varnishing and rigging. For the seat I am thinking of just using a Skwoosh gel pad and a SOT backrest. I’ll fit a couple of “Hairy Handles” (refer Mick’s Okwata build) and some bungy cord for a paddle float recovery.
To say that I am impressed with this boat is a complete understatement. As a boat for sheer paddling enjoyment it is simply brilliant.
On reflection, there are a few things I should mention about the build. Firstly, I used 3mm Gaboon (Okoume) plywood. The best I could find here in Australia is pretty ordinary, but none the less acceptable. Using the skinny ply is more difficult. It is hard to keep from having wavy panels, and there is not a lot of thickness in the outer laminations which poses problems with sanding. The fact that I took a lot of care with the accuracy of the panels and spaced the stitching reasonably close probably helped me achieve a pretty good result. In hindsight however, the boat has come out weighing in at only about 13.7 kgs. without fittings. The additional weight of 4mm ply would be not be all that great.
The stitching was at about 8 inch centres except for the bow and the stern where I reduced them down to about every 2 inches. I used copper wire because
a) the smaller holes are less noticeable than those needed for plastic tie wraps and
b) the copper wire is easier to bend and does less damage to the ply than steel tie wire and
c) with a number of the stitches around the bow and the stern it is easier just to run the thickened epoxy over them and then just cut them off and leave them in place.
If I was to build this boat again I would seriously consider using butt blocks to join the panels. I think it would give a neater finish on the hull exterior.
Attaching the deck was just a tad fiddly. Not difficult, but requiring a little patience. A commodity I am afraid I lack. It probably would have been really easy if I had have built the boat with the No. 5 panels as part of the hull, but that would have meant fibreglassing inside a hull with tumblehome panels. That was not a job I enjoyed on the Northwind.
The main problem that I experienced on this build is that it all went together too easily. As a believer that Murphy was an optimist, I kept on expecting something to go wrong, but nothing ever really did.
When the Quetico is finished and all tarted up I’ll post more pictures and hopefully a more detailed test report.
Once again I would like to offer my thanks to Matt. I know he had a lot of better things to do at the time he designed this boat. But as he said at the time, he is a design junkie and gee I’m glad. Matt’s assistance, as always was fantastic and the plans were clear, accurate and easy to read.
