Beginnings from the bush

Back in the bush now.
This was the first weekend to attempt some work on Shan Skailyn. Altogether about 3 hours worth. I'm using a bunch of lumber that has been here since we originally built our house back in 2004. It's all rough cut stuff and looks all moldy and mildewy from years of sitting under the house on a storage rack. So the first step needed is to plane it down. Found a couple pieces of what is called 'ton' (sounds like 'tone' in Pidgin English - the national trade language of Papua New Guinea). One thing I've learned about ton is that it's very prone to dry rot. 25 minutes of planing these pieces reveals that they are totally unusable; full of dry rot. Might make some good firewood or something.
I actually have a few pieces of teak, but not enough to use for the gunwales as I would have wanted. Probably a good thing because that stuff gums up my saw and planer blades pretty bad.
So I dug through and found some other lumber that might work for the gunwales. Fairly heavy and tight grained stuff. NO DRY ROT!!! In Pidgin they call it 'galip' (pronounced 'ga-leep'). Not sure what we know it to be in English. It's a bit like mahogany though. I wonder if it's the same. It seems too heavy and a fair bit more dense. Anyone out there happen to know what this might be? It would be nice to know. Gary D., you seem to have had some experience with PNG lumber. If you're reading this, any idea what 'galip' wood is? It grows on the coast. It has nuts that the people eat.
Anyway, I planed it down and cut all the pieces for the gunwales, which I want to be a stronger variety of wood than the chines. As far as the chines are concerned, I'm hoping to cut those maybe next weekend.
Other than that, I spent a bit of time sharpening my hand planes, organizing my shop a bit in preparation for this 'little' weekend hobby, and chatted with some of my Mibu friends that were in the area and wanting to hang out a bit. I almost always stop work to spend time chatting with them!
WIth just about 20 minutes left available to work, I decided I'd start planing the edges of my plywood, which I had only rough cut when we were out in town recently. I had cut all the matching pieces at the same time so that they matched exactly. Did the same with the edge planing, checking with a combo square as I went along. Since any mismatches will come together creating a warped hull, perfection is important here more than almost anywhere else.
Oh yeah... also found out that my bamboo has been cut (I hired a friend who wanted a little work) and is currently soaking in the river. Should be just a matter of weeks before I see it and can judge whether or not it will work for me.
In this picture, you see the four pieces of 6mm plywood that will make up the sides of the two end sections of Gary's Wa'apa design. In the foreground is what will eventually be the stern and the bow of the canoe. I've put a screw through each end of all four pieces to hold them together so I can plane all four edges to a perfect match.
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Bamboo

I've been looking into how best to coat my bamboo spars when they're ready. The advice one can find online ranges from passing through fire, scraping the outer layer off, sanding, varnish, glassing, and on and on and on it goes. Hmmm, what's the best?
I've heard that the outer layer of bamboo resists adherence to it. Any thoughts out there?
Found some folks that may know... the Texas Bamboo Society (Do they grow bamboo in Texas???). They're saying definitely do not take that outer layer off, but didn't say why. All the bamboo that they are knowledgeable about (they're not sure about the varieties available to me here in Papua New Guinea) have a waxy substance on the surface. So when you varnish, it ends up scaling off over time. They do recommend heat curing. Hmmm. I'll have to experiment. I'll also have to try acetone and see what that does for adhesion. Wouldn't that break down the oils/waxes pretty well?
Hoping to get a couple spars soaking submerged in water for a few weeks to de-starch the things here soon.
Any thoughts or advice out there about just how to treat my bamboo would be much appreciated. Surely there's some experienced users out there? Anyone have any luck with their coatings lasting a long time? Did you scrape? Sand? Remove much of the nodes? Leave them?
FYI, the kind of bamboo available to me that seems most likely to do the trick is a very thick walled bamboo that the Mibu people call 'bovat'. Down at the base it's so thick walled that there is nearly no opening at all. It dries lightweight and is extremely strong. A 1-1/2" dia piece with a wall thickness of maybe 1/4" spanning 6 feet will hold my body weight (190 lbs) and then some with only about an inch of flex. I'm planning on using Gary's recommended size (around 3 inch dia) and going for thicker walled stuff.

My coast... Rai Coast

Left the coastal town of Madang yesterday. Flew up to Goroka, in the highlands. The flight in our little cessna 206 took us by the path of Shan Skailyn's intended maiden voyage. I fly over this area somewhat frequently. Anymore I'm looking for where the villages are where we might find a place to stay overnight should the trip require it. Lots of little villages along the way. Culturally here, people are very hospitable and I have no doubt that it would be easy for us to find places to bed up for the night.
Anyway, I took the opportunity to photograph the longest length of the coast (which is called 'Rai Coast') which I'm hoping to sail one day, if and when I can finish building Shan Skailyn.
BTW, where my family and I live is out toward the horizon in the first picture. From the coast out there, go up up up into the steep mountains. We're so high up in the mountains that our weather is actually cool most of the time. Imagine that in a country known for it's HOT tropical climate. It's total bush out there too. No roads. No airstrips. Only way in our out is by helicopter or a loooooong treacherous hike! That's where most of Shan Skailyn's construction is going to happen over the next year or so.
The last picture is typical of the many islands and tons of coral found in these crystal blue waters around Madang, Papua New Guinea. Often times the coral is just a couple feet under the surface of the water, full of color and life. Sweet! Can't wait to be cruising these areas in my own sailing outrigger someday!

Tryin' Trad

Someone I know out in Madang has a dugout canoe (red/green canoe in photo) that was made by some of the local folks of the Tagog settlement. I wanted to see what a completely traditional style canoe felt like so I got permission to take it out with my daughters. The first thing I noticed is that this canoe seems to glide more smoothly than the fiberglass sea kayak I took out several months back, and much better than the homemade canoe from one of our previous posts. Nice.

As we went out along the coast and passed a couple villages, as would be expected, the people there seem pleased (and much more conversational) when seeing us expats cruising along in one of their traditional canoes. Reminds me that while Shan Skailyn's design may not have the traditional Papua New Guinea coastal look, I want to be sure to add as many elements to her design that people here can relate to. Whether it be her art, a bit of carving, and even maximizing the use of obviously local materials, it all adds up to the total of something that, rather than alienating, will actually connect with the local culture.

Maybe I can ask one of my Mibu friends to carve one of his distinct patterns along the gunwale. Lots of potential options to consider.

All cut up

Finished cutting the rest of the plywood pieces today. Not much to say about that except that's all I can do for now till I get back into Mibu where we live and have all the rest of my lumber available to work with.

Work commences!

I decided to go with the 5 ply common grad plywood that was available in town. Bought it. Brought it back to where we're staying for break. I have to get the pieces small enough to get on the plane to take it all back into the bush. So I went ahead and started laying out the pattern on the ply and cutting parts for the boat. The work went really fast. Still really happy with what I'm seeing in the plywood. No gaps to be seen anywhere in any of the plies. Today I got all the sides cut. The thing that stood out to me as I butted them all together to see how they look, was just how LONG this canoe really is!

Out for a spin on a homemade canoe

Took my girls out for a little ride in a friend's homemade canoe yesterday. Out to a little island for fun on the beach. Good to try out the feel of a flat bottomed canoe on the water with the waves and other factors. Helps me imagine how Shan Skailyn might differ and how she'll be on the water. Wish I had a bunch of different canoes to try out!

Gearing up

Up until now, all I've been able to do so far is think and plan for the building of Shan Skailyn. Living in the bush for most of the year gives me very few opportunities to gather needed materials. I've pored over Gary Dierking's Outrigger Sailing Canoe book. I've got many of the details stored away in my head now as I've gone over and over how I want to build. I've got a list of items I'm going to need. I intended to prepare some materials from the lumber I currently have in Mibu (where we live in the bush) but diesel fuel was sent in mistakenly on our last helicopter run, rather than petrol. So no generator, no power, no power tools.

We're out in Madang now for a couple weeks. I've been shopping around in town mainly for marine plywood. Nobody has it. Agmark said they could order it from Lae. Placed the order. Then a couple days later said that even out of Lae they're not going to be able to get it. Now having to look at other options. Either what they call 'proof' ply or 'common' ply. The common stuff looks nice. The 6mm sheets are 5 ply. Both sides of the ply are nice and clean. But they say it will fall apart if exposed too much to water. Then their 'proof' ply is said to be for exterior applications with some exposure to moisture. Bad thing about this ply wood is that it's only 3 ply. And even worse, it's got a super thick middle ply with very thin outer ply. Any thoughts out there about what I should choose between these two?

Also bought some Akzo Nobel Epiglass epoxy resin. Whew! That was the expensive part of the boat. I'm looking for advice/thoughts regarding the possibility of thinning the epoxy (with acetone cause it's cheap) and then giving all the plywood a good once over so it soaks into the wood and dries, possibly making it stand up better to moisture in the future. Planning on glassing the bottom and then coating the rest of the hull with un-thinned epoxy before painting.

Got some 6oz fiberglass cloth, SS blocks, rope, etc on the way from the states in our co-workers' luggage. They'll be arriving in country on the 9th here.

Oh yeah. I found a large 24'x18' polytarp in town too. It's kind of a strange material, but seems just as strong as the recommended reinforced stuff. Interesting thing about this polytarp material is that it's not woven. It's all one solid piece. Doesn't stretch like the weaker, woven stuff. Seems about the same stretchiness as the reinforced stuff. Hoping it will work for my sail. It's got UV protection. There are no seams on it, just one big piece of tarp. So I'm thinking it ought to work well. But what do I know. I've never sailed before. Just going on comparing to the reinforced stuff.

So gearing up here... Sure would be good to get thoughts on anything here, especially that plywood and epoxy. Gotta make a final decision on that one here soon.