Another damaged Swift boat...

Yet another damaged boat. The club use the boats a great deal so accidents do happen. This particular one happened when the bow got trapped between two rocks whilst turning in a tight spot.

The bow had lost all rigidity and was floppy! The deck was cut open at the bow to allow access, repairs made inside and bonded back on once the hull was straight. The outside was glassed and faired, then primed and painted. 

8' Sitka Spruce Oars

It's been a couple of years since I was last asked to make a pair of oars. This new order for a pair of 8' Sitka Spuce oars was welcomed as it is an enjoyable process. However, I had forgotten what a time consuming process it is. First up was collecting the timber and laminating the blade section to the loom with the Sapele veneers in between. Then the scoop and plan view of the blade was cut on a large bandsaw. Next up was shaping the blades using a homemade bollow plane, spokeshave and block plane. Once this was done the sapele tips were glued on and the looms (or handles) were rounded off. Then it was sanding, more sanding and then varnishing. Finally, I fitted some leathers to protect the oars from the rowlocks and delivered them to the customer near Southampton UK.

The finished 8' sitka spruce oars

Another Swift Rowing Boat Repair

The local rowing club had an incident whilst towing their boat resulting in a large pair of splits right through the hull, about 1.5m long. The hull had distorted around the damage.

Filler card showing the severity of the damage

 I had to cut the deck off to get to the inside and key up the areas to be repaired.

 The outside was sanded right back to the core material either side of the splits. Once the inside was glassed up the lid was bonded back on.

 Work began on glassing the outside with layers of very fine glass cloth and epoxy that were eventually feathered into the original skin. This was then covered in a very thin screed of epoxy filler, faired, primed and painted.

 The bow was badly chipped and looked pretty rough so that was tidied up and received a coat of black paint to smarten it up. The last thing to do was flat and polish the white paint and apply some black cove line tape to the deck/hull joint.

Coastal Rowing Boats Completed

The 2 Coastal Rowing Boats are complete and they left for Switzerland on a single trailer earlier this week. The hull and decks of the 4 were all painted in the same week and the rigging (seats, stretchers and their tracks) turned up in the nick of time. A couple of weekends were ignored entirely and several very late nights meant that the boats were ready for the trailer just in time. They were built largely from kits supplied by a group of guys in Guernsey who are really into coastal rowing.

The central trough clears water to a sump for the self bailer

Unusual wave breaking deck shape

The single prior to fitting out

Interesting built in riggers feature on both boats

A very tight squeeze between the bars on the trailer

 The finish on the hulls came out really nicely and made all the preparation worth it. The unusual design of these boats will mean they can be used even in the most choppy conditions on Lake Geneva.

About 11m from tow hitch to transom!

Coastal Boats Update

The single shown above is now upside down and having the hull faired, the chines filled and rounded. Over the next couple of weeks both boats need to be completed, ready to be trailered over to Switzerland. There is still plenty of sanding to be done. The ply needs sealing with several coats of Eposeal, priming and painting.  Then all the fittings should be here and can be fitted.  

The Coastal 4 with the riggers being bonded into place

The unusual bow section on the 4 

The riggers prior to being sheathed

Coastal Rowing Boat Builds

After several months in the planning, the kits have been delivered for the next project. This involves building a Coastal Rowing 4 and a Single. Once the boats are completed they are destined for Lake Geneva in Switzerland. I'm renting a large unit in Newton Abbot as the longer boat is around 11m long! They are coming together quite quickly and are essentially stitch and tape boats built from elite marine ply and epoxy that are built for long races in coastal waters.

The Single

The 4

Shaldon rowing boat gunwale replacement

A local artist approached me with a view to renovating a 14' rowing boat that he had just bought. The wood work was in a sorry state and one gunwale was broken in two.

Once the old varnish was removed and the surface sanded, it was clear that the Iroko that I had in stock wasn't going to match. So I got a plank of Sapele and machined it up to make the inner and outer sections. The inner has a lip on it that hooks over the edge of the GRP and the outer is screwed and glued to the hull and the inner section. The old one was held on with lots of clenched copper nails and was hard to get off. I had to cut it into about thirty pieces to break it free from the hull. 

The knees were plywood and were in surprisingly good condition but the boat would look so much better with solid wood knees. Something for the future perhaps.

 

The new timber wouldn't bend to the bow section of the boat so it was steamed for an hour and then pulled into shape and clamped up for a day in the sun. Once bonded and screwed, it was then sanded smooth and all the wood work was coated up with a product called Rapidcoat. It leaves a "hint of teak" semi-gloss finish but best of all requires no sanding between coats and you can put 2 or 3 coats on each day in warm weather.