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Finished leeboard and rudder

Here's the pix of the finished leeboard and rudder. Not a whole lot else to say. I would like an opinion on my rudder hinge (whatever that thing is called). Is the way I have it set up going to be alright with the forces that it will encounter? I'm just a touch concerned that the little 'tongues' that are holding the pin just may want to tear.
Bob from Arkansas, any thoughts on that?

Response to comment

Hey Bob from Arkansas, great info! Thanks a ton! A blacksmith, eh? I've been emailing Gary on occasion with my questions. Yes, he's always great to respond with helpful info. I'm trying not to bug him too much though! But he does seem happy to help when he can.

I'm curious what the wall thickness of the bamboo you use is. We've got some stuff here that is really thick walled. It's usually dried in the sun and doesn't crack unless you leave it out for a year or so. When it's dry, it's extremely lightweight and more rigid than an equal size diameter hardwood timber. The stuff I have drying now is just a bit bigger diameter than Gary recommends in his book (that should answer your other question about the book or the plans, BTW) but I'm thinking I'm going to give it a try anyway.

Stay tuned. I've had a busy week so haven't had the time to take and post pix of my final rudder and leeboard. I'm really pleased with how the rudder assembly turned out. It's got nice smooth action with just a small tolerance, seems like it's going to be really strong, and looks halfway decent. I sure used up some of my saw blades and drill bits cutting and shaping that stuff though! Wish I'd known about the cold chisel thing back then!

So, you're a blacksmith, eh? I'll have to keep you in mind sometime with some of the other practical projects I that are so inevitable around here.

Hey, any idea how I can drill a small hole through the end of a 1/4" diameter stainless steel shaft? I want to put cotter pin through it, but have only managed to bind up and break my small drill bits. Any ideas? I first hammered the end flat to make it a bit easier to drill through. Helped, but still no go! That's hard stuff!

(You'll have to pardon my method of responding here. No internet from out here in the bush. But I can generate new posts via email. So welcome to my way of responding to comments!)

Response to comment

Hey Bob from Arkansas, great info! Thanks a ton! A blacksmith, eh? I've been emailing Gary on occasion with my questions. Yes, he's always great to respond with helpful info. I'm trying not to bug him too much though! But he does seem happy to help when he can.

I'm curious what the wall thickness of the bamboo you use is. We've got some stuff here that is really thick walled. It's usually dried in the sun and doesn't crack unless you leave it out for a year or so. When it's dry, it's extremely lightweight and more rigid than an equal size diameter hardwood timber. The stuff I have drying now is just a bit bigger diameter than Gary recommends in his book (that should answer your other question about the book or the plans, BTW) but I'm thinking I'm going to give it a try anyway.

Stay tuned. I've had a busy week so haven't had the time to take and post pix of my final rudder and leeboard. I'm really pleased with how the rudder assembly turned out. It's got nice smooth action with just a small tolerance, seems like it's going to be really strong, and looks halfway decent. I sure used up some of my saw blades and drill bits cutting and shaping that stuff though! Wish I'd known about the cold chisel thing back then!

So, you're a blacksmith, eh? I'll have to keep you in mind sometime with some of the other practical projects I that are so inevitable around here.

Hey, any idea how I can drill a small hole through the end of a 1/4" diameter stainless steel shaft? I want to put cotter pin through it, but have only managed to bind up and break my small drill bits. Any ideas? I first hammered the end flat to make it a bit easier to drill through. Helped, but still no go! That's hard stuff!

(You'll have to pardon my method of responding here. No internet from out here in the bush. But I can generate new posts via email. So welcome to my way of responding to comments!)

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.

Strange Trimaran in Madang, PNG

I've had the pleasure of being able to go out with one of my buddies here in Madang, fishing on his motorboat. Went out Friday afternoon and saw this boat out there. I didn't have my camera with me so couldn't take any pictures of it. Went out fishing again today and brought my camera. I've never really seen anything like this. Not that I'm mister experience when it comes to anything on the sea. In fact, quite the opposite. Maybe this kind of thing is really common and I'm just too ignorant to have ever noticed. What is it?

It has two amas. The amas are made of bamboo lashed together. It looks as if there is actually a lower ama (see picture) and an upper ama. The lower one looks like just a single piece of bamboo maybe. It's suspended below the much beefier main ama. I would guess that this is so that the main ama isn't always creating so much drag in the water; the lower, simpler ama giving just a touch of stability to the ship until it needs more. Not sure though. Note too the curvature of the ama. Though not as easily visible on the other side, they both have about the same curvature built in.

Then on the iakos (they're huge!) are stored a bunch of these little wooden boats. Even these little wooden boats are a style that looks different than anything I've ever seen before.

This boat just sticks out as different... and it's an outrigger (though not a sailing boat) and so I thought I'd post some pix here and see if anyone has ever seen or knows about anything like this? What is the purpose of this boat with all it's little boats?

The other picture was just a nice shot I got of some kids out on the family dugout.

Just a few more days until we go back into the bush. We've been out way too long. As well as looking forward to seeing my friends and talking about some exciting things regarding the church in Mibu, I'm looking forward to getting some little bits of time here and there to work on Shan Skailyn.