No Paddle

Well, there was no paddling for us today. My better half was napping as the launch time came and went for the SSAK trip near Shelton.

It was a chilly day, felt like a good day to work on a boat. We decided to try out the new Lowe's, nothing special just a brand new store. The parking lot was a solid sheet of ice. I did pick up a nice 4x4 green cedar post for a couple of paddles, I check the big box stores every now and then to see what's in the pile. Not bad two paddles for $21.00.

I was looking for wood for the gunnels of two new boats, so off to homey depot. I got 3 1x6x12' peices of pine, I am going for light weight boats this time. One hour to rip and glue up the gunnels for two boats.

Power planer does a nice job of cutting the scarf joints for the gunnels. Each step is 9" back, keep cutting till it is a long flat plane. Glue up with Gorilla glue.

Next came the marking out of the deck beams and the ribs. I'm going for a play/surf boat, gunnel's are 14' 7.5" 22" wide, I had to add a extended to the middle brace from the last boat.

One and a half hour's to mark out the deck beams and rib's. I'm putting a lot less deck beams and ribs, hope I'm not going too light

One more hour to route out the rib mortise's and shape the sheer. Around 4 hour's so far. Enough for the day.

Butchering

Well it has been a few day's since I have done anything boat wise. Cold and snowy here. Yesterday I started on a stripper surf boat, not sure how far that will get.



Today I butchered a lot of heat seal able fabric trying to make spray skirt for my boat. With minimal success, I did manage a nice cockpit cover. After making the first one too small.


Then came the spray skirt. With having an ocean cockpit and the size of my belly there was not much room between the deck and the tunnel. With the heat seal able material it got close and hot, I put a hole in the deck. Generally messed it up. Will try it another way another day.

I did manage to get 4 float bags started. I need the plastic tubing and valves, sure is a lot of empty space in our boats. Hopefully we will take them out tomorrow for a paddle

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Christmas day

Nothing to do with the sof boat, but my favorite kayaking by far, Surfing.

I was up early 3:00 am, not because I was excited over Christmas. Some night's I am up early. Left the house for the beach at 6:00. I live near Seattle, so in the winter we head for the Strait of Juan de fuca. As our coast is no place to be most of the winter.
It is a two hour drive to Crescent beach just outside of Port Angeles. I had to pull over after I crossed the Hood canal bridge, could not keep my eye's open. I slept for a half hour at a rest stop/pit stop on the turn off to Port Townsend. Woke up ready to go.
Got to the beach at 9:00. It looked very small and inconsistant, not inviting at all. If I were not waiting for friends I would of drove back home. I'm here and I might as well go out.
I took the fin's off of my Megatron, Mega kayak. I have only had them off one other time. I paddled out into the 2'+ surf, they were perfect little left's. They ran into the creek mouth, as close to a point break as we get there. I had the most fun today on those little waves. With no fin's I sideslipped, spinned, surfed backwards. Fun,Fun,Fun.
The East wind really knocked the swell down, by high tide the waves were down to under 1' every 15 minutes or so. End of the day. The drive home was like driving from fall into winter, by the time I was home it was snowing steady with big flake's. Another great Christmas day surfing.

Out again

Took the boat out again today. Have to remember what I built it for, exercise and getting miles under my belt.

Put a pad down for a seat, much warmer on the bottom. Then tried a 1 1/2" pad to get closer to a lay back. Oh so tippy, perhaps some day I'll feel comfortable to raise the seat. The boat track's very well, no weather cocking in the 5-ish knots that were on the water today.

Launched at Olalla ramp again, paddled south towards Gig Harbor. Beautifull Winter afternoon, birds were out as was the sunshine. Nice one hour paddle. 4 miles so far.

Merry Christmas all, off to the beach surfing tomorrow.

This is my first sof 18'8"x 21" It's too deep for rolling.
This is my wife's boat. It is also way too deep, but she like's it. 17'8"x 23 1/4"

First adjustments

After our first time out my boat needed some adjustments, as it was so tight I could not twist in the seat at all. My legs were jammed in so tight as to make them numb after a minute or so.
Here I was taking a saw to my boat after it being in the water for less than a hour. First I removed the bottom part of the rib that was under my feet, this improved my size 12's placement in the boat. I also shaved a crescent shape in the back brace, to aide in getting in and out of the boat as well giving my legs some more room to move in the boat.
Adjustments made, time to take her back out. Helaine and I head back to Olalla ramp. We paddled towards the head of the bay, much improvement on the fit of my boat, not easier to get in or out of but much more comfortable on my legs.
The wind had picked up, outside the bay there were 1' waves. In my Sirocco I would not even thought about the wind and waves. Paddling into the waves the bow of the sof was diving into the bigger waves. At 21" wide the sof was challanging to turn in the wind and waves. Once turned down wind it took off surfing quite easily, although I was not very far from the calm waters of the bay. I did a couple of laps then we called it a day.

First trip

Helaine and I took our first trip in our new sof boats.
Helaine liked her's right away, I built it to be stable, straight running and to be lighter than our plastic kayaks.
My boat on the other hand was such a change from the only kayak I have ever had. I built it too tight as I had no room to move my lower half.
We paddled Olalla lagoon, a small bay on the east side of Kitsap peninsula. The ramp is 5 minutes from our house. It was a short shake down paddle, perhaps a half mile. We went out into Clovos passage, between Vashon Island and Kitsap peninsula. Much cleaner water than the bay, as the rain washes all kinds of stuff out.
I tried a roll, man was it ugly and unsucessfull. Luckly Helaine was close by as I was wedged in the boat, unable to get anywhere near the back deck. She came in and performed a hand of god to right me. We headed in so I could adjust alittle.