JEM Watercraft

To My Friends at JEM,Watercraft

I have been on the run, so to speak, and had my daugther email this note to you, but I do not know if you got it or not, so I thought I would re-send and post it.

I have just about completed my Touring Pirogue. I must say it has been a great project. I have been intrigued by the amount of attention I have received since I started this project. Several of my neighbors have come by through out the building process to check on the progress. I showed them the plans and they were impressed with the detail in which things were explained and laid out.

After all the mistakes I made I am really surprised at how well the boat paddles and well it looks. Lots of sanding and paint cover up a multitude of sins. Here are some of my random thoughts.

My compliments to you in several areas:
The forum was an invaluable resource for research and building tips. I used several of them such as the use of washers and zip ties to lace my hull together. Another one was the use of clear plastic cups from Walmart to mix my epoxy in. Keep it up. It’s great resource.

I did deviate from the plans in a couple areas. One: I added watertight compartments in the forward and aft area. I used temporary frames 1 and 3 as the bulkheads in the locations you laid out in the plans for frames to located. I put additional bracing on top of each compartment so I would have a place to add pad eyes for tie off lines. Then made pieces for the tops out of material I had left over. All pieces were filleted and glassed. Two: Because I used Luan plywood from Lowes ( this caused me more extra work than I realized), the entire hull inside and out is fiberglassed. Three: Additionally I added a keel full length to the bottom. Four: I did install a length outwale, but stopped the inwale at the watertight compartments. I don’t know if I should have done this or not, but with the watertight compartments it seems ok.

I mounted my seat on the floor instead of on the sides. I wanted a lower seat height. So my seat is an inch and a half off the floor.

Mistakes: I put way too much resin on in places. I had a lot of sanding to. I think I spent 10 to 15 hours doing nothing but sanding.
I also I learned after wasting resin to mix small batches one at a time.
I used the cheap plywood. While at Lowes I went through 50 sheets of plywood to find 3 with little or no voids. As a result I had to cut around a couple of places, and fill a couple of voids.

The finished weight of Vapor(which is what I named her) is 58 pounds.

A friend of mind gave me some foot pegs out of a kayak he has, and I am thinking of mounting them to aid in paddling. I just need to figure where to place them.
Thanks so much for everyone’s help in building.Here is a link to my blog.

It has pictures of Vapor.http://revdave-coasting.blogspot.com/

I know this will not be the last. I am looking really hard the Sabolo SOT.

Jdfdave

All the mods you made sound very well thought out and are perfectly fine and safe.

I looked through http://revdave-coasting.blogspot.com/ and you did a great job! Can I use those pictures on the site?

I'll let you in on a little secret: I intentionally placed those frames so a builder could do exactly what you did and make water-tight storage on the ends.

Matt

You can use any of the pictures as needed.
One quick question. I have got the foot peg mounting figured out, but was wondering about the best way to install rod holders for fishing?

jdfdave

My personal choice is to make yourself a wide, removable thwart, and mount the rod holders in that. Then you can position is anywhere you want.

Make the thwart slotted on the ends as shown here:



I sell the clamps for this here:
http://www.jemwatercraft.com/proddetail.php?prod=Clamps

But you could probably get creative and figure your own mounting method.

Thanks, that's a design I would not have thought of. It looks likes sometyhing that would work very well for me.

jdfdave

G'day Dave,

Great job mate. Well done. I really like the way you have done that one. Your trailer is a great idea too.

Mick,

Thank you. Your review and pictures of your boat were a great resource as I buildt my first boat.

G'day Dave,

Thanks mate. I was kinda hoping my build would help somebody.

Mate, I hope you love your touring pirogue as much as I love mine. I am just living for when/if we get decent rain again. Our Mary River has about a hundred miles of great paddling with very gentle rapids and gravel races etc and lots of long, slow flowing stretches in between. I think my tourer will be ideal.