Hull Assembly

This weekend, I was able to finish the dry assembly of the entire Shan Skailyn hull. Then I double checked how it would all fit together with the bolt hole alignment. Had to clamp it after passing the bolts through due to a mix up in my hardware order. Got the right bolts this time, but the wrong hex nuts. All clamped together, everything is good and true. Everything is square with less than 2mm difference between diagonal measurements. That shouldn't cause any problems right?
I know I've already said this, but 24' is one big canoe! You don't realize it till it's together! I'm starting to wonder how I'm going to have to rearrange things when I'm working on it as one entire hull.
After checking it all, I managed to glue up both end sections. I might manage to be able to fillet the watertight bulkheads in place if I have a bit more time tomorrow afternoon (sunday).
Oh yeah, I got the sixth and final coat of varnish on her leeboard and rudder. Decided to go with what may be overkill with 5 thick coats (sanded in between each coat) and 1 thin final coat. I don't know of any 'spar' varnish available in country here, so I'm just using the next best thing; exterior varnish. Hopefully the many coats with a good sanding between each coat will give me a nice long lasting protective coat. That pretty much finishes things up on the leeboard and rudder now. Hardware is all done. Woodwork and finish is all done. Pix forthcoming.

Getting the dry run out of my system

OK, I know I just posted something today about the hardware I worked on yesterday (sat). BUT, after we hiked back up from the church meeting this morning, I had a little bit of spare time. The idea of having all the pieces for the hull ready to assemble, but holding off because of a shortage of nails is driving me nuts. Next best thing... do the dry run to make sure everything is going to fit right and to make sure all is good and square. Didn't take long at all (about 1/2 hour) and was totally worth it! Nice to see some fruit from my labors instead of all these small pieces. This is it, Shan Skailyn's hull coming together! I had my friend Trip (pronounced 'Tree') help me with bending the stern together. For now, I'm happy to see it held together just with screws. Actually had my family come down to check out the momentous occasion! Trip's wife, Jepit, was watching (and laughing) through the whole process too. Trip and Jepit have never seen anything like this built before so it's fascinating to them! Fun to watch them watching and hear their comments throughout!
So I measured all the angles and distances and everything is totally square! Whew!
Oh yeah, I also put an initial coat of varnish on the rudder and leeboard yesterday.