|
This
simple guide sets an accurate nailing line on
an irregular edge. You only have half of 3/4
of an inch to play with when nailing into the
chine.
|
Remember
to scribe a line to guide the nails that go into the
bottom of the bulkheads.
I decided to take up the hull
so I could get all the excess glue wiped up. This saves
a lot of work in sanding later. I had to pry the boat
from the strongback because I couldn’t get at
the nails that I had driven to attach the frames to
the strongback. Something to watch out for.
Luckily, I used a total of just five finishing nails
so the prying went well. I had two spots of damage on
the forward bulkhead, but I glued the slivers back in
place.
By turning over the hull now, I was able to re-attach
the wood batten on the centerline to fight twist now
that the hull was completed and removed from the strongback.
After I attach the gunwales, I’ll flip the hull
again so that I can attach the two 3/4 by 3/4 keel strips,
which I’m trying instead of a skeg, to make for
better tracking while keeping the bottom from oil-canning
when one gets into the boat. The Reverend’s boat
oil-cans; this one won’t.
|
Those
glue runs cleaned up with a paper towel. Left
to dry, they would have required scrapping and
sanding, and still the finish would have been
ruined. Pic also shows the slight damage on
the top of the bulkhead from prying the hull
off of the strongback.
|
Time:
2 hours.
Costs: $10 for
screws and hardware.
The gunwales:
I used 5/8- by 1 1/4-inch hem fir for the gunwales.
I clamped on the strips equally from side to side to
fight hull twist. I scribed a glue line and nailed and
glued the gunwales with 3/4-inch boat nails.
I
made a pencil index mark at each clamp spot to make
assembly easier when I do the gluing and nailing and
to avoid gaps between the strips and the plywood sides.
After assembly, I cut the ends of the gunwales to the
same compound angle as the chines.
Keel strips:
I scribed a line 5 inches on each side of the centerline
on the bottom of the hull. The 3/4 by 3/4 keel strips
go to the outside of these lines. The combings for the
hatch covers will be set on the same measurements.
Since the keel strips are 3/4 by 3/4, I could choose
the side to bend. The easier bend came from using slash
grain instead of vertical grain.
|
Gunwale
bend in place and clamped.
|
General note:
When attaching the chines, gunwales, and keel strips,
I was careful to dry-fit the pieces. The boat is 8 feet
long, and the various strips are the same length. Placement
is critical; I had about an inch to play with.
For the keel strips, I drilled holes every 6 inches
through the hull. I was careful to drill on the outside
of the scribed lines. After driving deck screws through
pilot holes into the transoms and the bulkheads, I flipped
the hull and drove 3/4-inch screws into the keel strips
to pull the strips and the hull together. I wiped off
the excess glue before flipping the hull.
Time:
1 ½ hours.
31 August 03:
I took the deck screws out of the keel strips on the
bottom side and replaced them with steel screws bedded
in Elmer’s Glue to give the wood some protection
from moisture where the screws have compromised the
wood.
I found some cash, so I’m able to use epoxy thickened
with wood flour to seal the seam on the interior of
the hull. The first thing to do is use masking tape
to outline the places where I want the epoxy confined
to. Then I cover the rest of the interior with newspaper.
This makes a good bead of epoxy with no mess or fuss
– no sanding of glops that drip off the brush,
for example. If I have it – and I do – I
prefer 3M blue masking tape to define the epoxy beads.
Duct tape will work, too.
The prep time is surprising but what one avoids is runs,
ripples, and globs of epoxy that can’t be removed
without damaging the face of the plywood and running
into hours of sanding, in the worst case.
|
Keel
strips in place. Line of nails holds hull to
bulkhead.
|
Time
for prep: 2 hours.
Time
to apply epoxy: 1 hour.
This is the third boat that I’ve finished with
epoxy on the interior seams. I’m getting better
with each repetition.
This one went extra well.
Better
than ever.
I used about a pint of epoxy and 1/4 pound of wood flour.
I like the epoxy to be thick because of the vertical
surfaces that are involved, especially, but also because
epoxy runs thin without some sort of thickening agent.
I have used microballoons (expensive and staining) and
silica (expensive). Now I use only wood flour, which
is cheap and effective.
|
Blue
masking tape defines the size of the epoxy bead
that will seal the hull on the inside.
|
After apply masking tape, I cover the rest of the interior
with newspaper. This catches all the drips and mistakes
that occur during the job.
I used a 2-inch disposable brush to paint unthickened
epoxy onto the seams before troweling on thickened epoxy
with a tongue depressor. The corners are the hardest
to get right, but I find that it’s better not
to overwork the application. I just apply a lot and
smooth it out once.
1 September 03:
To get ready for the decks, I used a belt sander to
make the tops of the transoms, bulkheads, and gunwales
ready for the decks. Then I ripped the remaining plywood
into strips of the proper widths plus a little for the
decks and hatch covers.
I lined up the square edges of the plywood with the
bulkheads and scribed the other edges. First I marked
an opening 10 inches wide on the transoms and bulkheads.
The side combing pieces are attached to the decks before
the decks are glued and nailed to the hull. Also these
combing pieces are half-lapped on the ends to accept
the transversal combing pieces. And because of the decks,
a shim of the same 1/4-inch plywood is nailed between
the deck pieces on top of the transoms and bulkheads.
These pieces help stiffen the hull at the ends. The
combings are 3/4 by 3/4. I used hem fir and spruce.
|
Side
combing pieces lapped and glued and nailed in
place. At right in pic, you can see the shim
that levels the space on top of the bow transom
between the deck pieces.
|
I cut the laps on the table saw by setting the blade
for the proper depth of cut and using the rip fence
to define the length of the lap. For example, to make
a lap 3/8 by 3/4, I set the blade to cut 3/8 deep and
positioned the rip fence 3/4 inch away from the blade.
The first cut defines the joint; the next cuts remove
the rest of the wood. You can cut in both directions;
just be careful. I used a piece of wood off-cut for
the shims because it was already the right dimensions.
Time:
4 hours.
Costs: $5 for
boat nails.
Hatch covers:
I used off-cuts of 3/4 by 11/16s hem fir with half-lap
joints on the lateral pieces of the locating cleats.
The locating cleats go inside the combing pieces.
To put the cleats in the proper position, I scribed
centerlines on the cleats, the plywood hatch cover pieces
of plywood, and the transversal combing pieces. After
cutting the lap joints and all the pieces to fit, I
nailed the cleats into a rectangle and checked the fit
with the combing pieces. Then I drilled a holes through
the plywood and the two transversal cleats, and screwed
them together but without any glue. After checking the
fit, I glued and nailed the cleats to the plywood.
I made a saw kerf in each hatch cover and the combings
as an indexing mark. I can tell at a glance which way
a hatch cover goes by locating the kerf.
|
Bow
combings in place. Hatch cover locating cleats
at left and hatch cover at right are ready for
assembly with screws and nails.
|
Time:
2 hours.
2 September 03: The first job was to
nail and glue the cleats to the hatch covers. I used
brass screws to dry fit the two. I applied glue and
reset the screws, after running a countersink bit to
make the screw heads flush. The brass screws, though
pretty, are useless as screws. They did plug the holes,
though, and boat nails supplemented the screws nicely.
Time:
1 hour.
Costs:
2x6x12-foot spruce at $6 for paddle blanks and 15 feet
of 3/16-inch shock cord at $7 for the hatch covers.
With the completion of the hatch covers, the hull done,
too. What remains is to sand the plywood flush, finish-sand,
do any sealing of seams or exposed plywood edges, fill
any screw holes made by temporary use of deck screws,
and install the eyebolts and shock cords to seal the
hatch covers; make double paddles for both boats; and
prime and paint, and varnish.
I want to be done in a week so we can have an outing
in our little paddle boats. I’m on track. I got
the 3/16-inch black shock cord and a beauty of a 2x6
plank of spruce for the paddle blanks this morning.
|
Ends
of gunwale and chine have been cut to 45-degree
angles.
|
The final sanding presents opportunities to decide how
to fair edges and seams. It is a hands-on bonding with
the boat. I use 60-grit papers for my belt sander and
random-orbit sander. This gives a good level of finish
as well as an aggressive capability.
I sometimes use finer grits for hand-sanding between
paint coats, or I just grab a well-worn piece of 60-grit
paper.
For nasty hand-sanding, such as messy epoxy squeeze-out,
runs, or ripples, I have three large sheets of 20-grit,
36-grit, and 80 grip heavy-duty papers. The 20-grit
cuts like a steel file, the 36-grit is a workhorse grade,
and the 80-grit is so long-lasting that it seems to
cut like a much coarser paper.
I have large sheets of these three grits that were left
over from a floor-sanding job I did years ago.
Time:
2 ½ hours.
Since I’m not putting
fiberglass tape on the exterior seams, I’ve decided
to sand the chine edge only enough to remove the knife
edge. I’ll be interested in whether a square chine
edge affects the flow of water around the hull. (Note
from later: It doesn’t). To maintain the visual
balance, I sanded the gunwales the same way, removing
just the knife edge; I’ve seen this described
as taking
off the curse.
|
I
brushed on epoxy on the gunwales, chines edges,
bow, stern, decks, and interior of the hull.
|
I decided to paint some epoxy on the outside seams.
I moved the boat outside to the garage, with the Reverend’s
help. I could have done it alone, and did with the first
Flats Rat, but I decided to give my tendons a break
and to avoid the dings that happen when I go it alone
up the stairs from the basement with a finished project.
It’s crowded in the garage bay that I use for
building. There are three boats in a space 8 feet by
16 feet.
The epoxy went on well. I had enough mixed to paint
the decks and gunwales, too.
Time: 1 ½
hours.
Cost:
$5 for epoxy.
3 September 03: I had a little bit
of Interlux white primer and thought that it was enough
for the whole boat.
By the time that I got done with the job, I felt like
I was trying to feed the 5,000 with one pat of butter
spread very, very, very thin.
I think that I got a fairly uniform coat, though, and
I did use up all the extra primer.
|
Primer
coat used up every bit that was left over from
the last boat project.
|
A boat like this is fun because you can do whole jobs
with stuff left over from bigger projects. I paid special
attention to the cracks along the chines, gunwales,
and keel strips. It will take two coats of green Interlux
paint to finish the job.
The epoxy that I applied last night was well-behaved.
I didn’t have any significant spots to sand.
I first gave all the epoxied surfaces a light sanding
so that the primer would stick.
I’m going to flip the boat and varnish the interior
and the forward and aft air chambers. I’m going
to leave the 3M blue masking tape on between coats of
green if I can. I do worry about it sticking too well,
though. I seem to want to rush things and cut corners
when I get to the painting and varnishing stage.
I put some blue masking tape on the keel strips before
flipping the hull. I did re-decide on the blue tape.
I took off what was there and put on new tape so that
I could varnish everything that I wanted to varnish
rather than leaving the tape on from the painting.
Time: 3 ½
hours.
Cost:
$6 for varnish and $5 for primer.
I think that tomorrow I’ll put on the first coat
of green paint and no varnish. The second coat of varnish
can go on whenever; the paint would benefit from some
time for curing. I just remembered that I forgot to
bring the hatch covers outside from the basement ....
. Stuff happens.
|
The
paddle blank takes form. This one had a lot
of curve in the shaft.
|
Double
paddle: I’m making two double
paddles.
The
one that I made for the Reverend’s Flats
Rat broke on our way home from our vacation
in August. I didn’t tie it down, and it bounced
on the highway and broke.
I used the broken paddle to make a template from plywood
to use when scribing the ends of the paddle blanks to
set the arc of the blades. I designed this double paddle
by coping the arc from Mac McCarthy’s Wee
Lassie double paddle and from Jim Michalak’s
double paddle design for his Toto
kayak design.
From
Jim I copied the narrow-blade approach; from Mac I copied
the 3/4- by 1 ½-inch blank to accommodate an
arced blade. Jim specified a plywood blade; Mac specifies
3/4 by 1 ½ sticks cut to the proper arc and laminated
to a shaft blank.
I bought a beautiful 2x6x12-foot
spruce plank that I ripped into 7/8- by 1 ½-inch
boards. I three pieces long enough to yield Select grade
blanks 8 ½ feet long. I make the blanks long
by kayak standards because the Flats Rat has more freeboard
than most traditional kayaks and a heck of a lot more
beam – 32 inches plus vs. 22 inches or so.
I cut the first blank on the bandsaw and used it to
scribe the arc on plywood for the template. I’ll
also use the bandsaw to cut the blank to 3/4 by 3/4
or thereabouts. If you don’t have a bandsaw, you
can use a saber saw and some kind of sander –
belt or random orbit.
|
Plywood
blade is bent in place and glued.
|
I used a piece of 1x12 pine to cut a template for the
blades. I wanted something that wasn’t cupped.
I used the bandsaw to cut the shaft blank to 3/4 by
3/4. The blank has taken on an interesting but possibly
helpful warp. I figure that a stick that takes a bend
will be stable. The only way to control this would be
to cut sticks that could be laminated.
I like surprises, too, though, and I’ll go with
this blank and see how it comes out.
If all this sounds like a big pain, you can always buy
a double paddle or make a simple one form 1-inch fir
closet rod stock and a plywood blade. It’s your
paddle. Got $75? Mine cost $10.
I checked the paddle blank and the plywood blade. The
blade can make the bend.
Time:
2 ½ hours so far on the paddle.
4 September 03: I put a second coat
of varnish and a first coat of green Interlux Brightside
on the boat. The varnish is disappearing rapidly, since
it is both seal coat and top coat.
The
green paint went on unevenly, as is the nature of this
green paint. I have enough left over for a second coat,
which will fix the unevenness. The paint is left over
from the painting of the
Piccup Squared project that
I finished this summer in time for our vacation.
I had a few visitors today. One guy said that he did
a lot of work with fiberglass boats and aluminum boats.
Yesterday the gas meter reader was interested. The guy
today was part of a crew paving our street.
|
Leftovers
on the menu again; this time its green marine
enamel paint.
|
I cut out the second double paddle blank. The first
blank has the blades glued and clamped in place. A sliver
broke from one end of the second blank, so that is under
the clamp, too.
I glued but didn’t nail the blades to the blank.
I may put on a coat of epoxy before varnishing the finished
paddles.
I have confidence in the glue alone after road-testing
the first double paddle. When the paddle bounced on
the highway at about 40 mph, the shaft broke at a know,
but the blade glue lines held. Two cars ran over the
paddle before I got to it to pick up the pieces.
Time:
3 ½ hours.
Costs:
$10 for varnish and $5 for paint.
05 September 03: I started with the
double paddles. It’s been in the 60s F., so the
glue had not completely kicked from the work that I
did last night. At warmer temps, the Elmer’s glue
should kick in about four hours, and the label says
to wait overnight before sanding or painting.
This morning, I glued and clamped the second paddle
blank to the plywood blades. I was satisfied with the
repair of the sliver that had parted form one end of
the blank. In fact, I couldn’t locate the glue
line.
I’m interested in any differences between the
two paddles, since the first one that I glued up has
a pronounced reverse curve in the shaft and the other
one has only a slight arc.
After I put on a second coat of green paint on the hull,
I’ll shape, sand, and epoxy-coat the paddles.
Tomorrow I’ll varnish the paddles and install
the eyebolts that accommodate the shock cord that secures
the hatch covers. We’re planning an outing on
Monday. Still on track to be done by then.
Time: 1 hour.
|
A
second coat of green paint does wonders.
|
Painting: As
was the case with the primer, the green paint barely
stretched for a second coat – but it did, just.
I’m pleased with the overall quality of the paint
job and preparation.
The fishes won’t complain, anyway.
The hatch covers need a second
coat of varnish. They soaked up the first coat.
Time: 1 ½
hours.
Costs:
$5 for paint.
|
One
double paddle is done and the other is being
clamped.
|
Paddles: I’m
done with both double paddles. The first one that I
made, with the reverse curve in the shaft, I rounded
equally. The other paddle, which has a slightly arc
only, I rounded on the face looking at the paddler and
rounded less on the face looking away from the paddler.
This improved the balance some.
I compared these two paddles with the one that I built
originally, the one that broke during road-testing.
That paddle is much heavier, because I had shaped the
shaft at 3/4 by 1 inch and rounded it to an oval profile.
The new paddles have shaft dimensions of 3/4 by 3/4
and the blades are made of lauan instead of the much
heavier and stronger bc pine plywood that I used on
the road-tested paddle.
I’ve decided to skip the epoxy coating and go
directly to a couple of coats of varnish on the paddles.
I notched each of the paddles at the center on the face
looking at the paddler. This is a visual and tactile
cue for persons new to boats. They often don’t
know which paddle face goes where, even with the spooned
blades ... .
Time: 2 ½
hours.
Later: I decided
to make a third double paddle. I don’t like the
balance of the paddle with the reverse curve. It takes
too much muscle just to keep the blades perpendicular.
I want to have some options, and the practice at paddle
construction is good, too. I cut out the blank and blades
and glued them together in about an hour.
Tomorrow I’ll finish all three paddles. I did
some more planing on the one paddle, thinking that it
would reduce the weight at the ends, but the curve in
the shaft is the problem and that can’t be fixed.
Still, I’ll try it out in the boat sometime. Who
knows ... .
Time: 1 hour.
06
September 03: I’m glad that I made a
third double paddle blank. This one is beautifully balanced
to the point that I’m being careful about how
much wood that I remove while shaping and finishing.
In varying degrees, the other two double paddles are
not balanced; I feel that the pull and strain of maintaining
the blades in the vertical position.
This latest paddle blank is 3/4 by 3/4 to 7/8. The greater
dimension faces the paddler. This must be helping the
balance.
I filed a center mark and I also filed a notch all around
12 inches out form the centerline on each side, for
tactile index marks for hands placement. I’m going
to leave the shaft squarish for now.
I’m going to round up the Reverend’s double
paddle, though; she expressed a preference for that
after checking out the blank.
Time: 2 ½
hours.
|
My
fears about re-fairing the curve were unfounded.
I can't tell any difference between the two
boats.
|
Finishing
up: I put both of our Flats
Rats side by side out on the sidewalk
and took some pictures.
I was interested in seeing if the profiles were different,
in view of the extra fairing that I did on the second
hull. I couldn’t detect any difference.
I double-nutted the eyebolts that go one each side of
the hatch covers. I had noticed that the nuts on the
other Flats Rat
were loose.
There was a gotcha when I put long eyebolts instead
of screweyes on the sides of the openings for the hatches.
Because the hatch covers couldn’t shut because
of the nuts being in the way, I had to cut notches in
the locating cleats on the hatch covers to clear the
nuts.
|
Black
shock cord, 3/16ths of an inch, adds a nice
touch to my little boat.
|
I used the black 3/16-inch shock cord that I got the
other day from Obersheimer’s to finish the hatch
cover job. It looks great.
I had a wood cleat – 3 inches – left over
from the Piccup
Squared project, so I attached it
to the forward bulkhead on the centerline (and noticed
a few days later that I had attached it to the aft bulkhead
by mistake; it will need to be moved to the intended
spot).
|
We
must be in heaven, man! No powerboats allowed
at Mendon Ponds Park near Rochester. The
Reverend took this pic.
|
08 September 03: We had almost perfect
weather for the first launching of my little Flats
Rat paddle boat.
A high-pressure zone has been giving us day after ay
of blue sky and fall-tinged warmth with 60s and 70s
F. and a hint of tingle. It’s been T-shirt-and-shorts
weather on the cool side.
We went to Mendon Ponds Park south of Rochester near
Pittsford and Locks 33 and 34 on the Erie Canal. Mendon
Park is out in open country. There are three kettle
ponds – glacial lakes – and we paddled on
the largest of them, Hundred Acre Pond. There was a
strong wind just short of white caps. That gave me a
lot of information to ponder concerning the skeg vs.
keel strips question that I posed for myself.
We launched at a simple dock (no power boats allowed!!!)
and were on our way in minutes.
I
carried a small, round ice cooler between my extended
legs, and the Reverend had a six-pack-size cooler in
her little boat.
The lake is approximately ½ mile wide and 1 ½
miles long, by my estimate. Because it was formed by
glacial action and the kettle-pond effect, its margins
are regular and the overall shape is oval/circular.
|
Lily
pads and beautiful white flowers graced our
time on the water at Mendon Ponds Park.
|
The depth is sufficient for paddle boats; aquatic grasses
grow almost to the water’s surface all over the
lake, and lily pads were present, too, but only in patches.
A few white flowers persisted among the lily pads.
We had the lake to ourselves except for a fellow old
guy in a plastic mini-kayak of the sort that the Flats
Rat gives some competition to.
The
old guy paddled across the lake then flipped onto his
back and drifted with the wind.
Our paths crossed once.
|
Goose
gets goin' when we paddle too close by.
|
As we paddled up the shore against the wind, we came
near a gaggle of geese. After splitting into two groups
moving in two directions, one group of four or five
exploded into flight, honking, flapping, and generally
complaining and accusing.
As we made the turn and began
to go downwind, I discovered that my boat with the keel
strips had what at first seemed like a counter-intuitive
habit of trying to round up into the wind if I paddled
normally, dipping one blade, then the other, etc. etc.,
etc.
At first I was puzzled, and
I noticed that if I paddled on one side only I could
maintain my heading, or would need to switch to paddling
for a while on the other side only.
I
decided that the stern, which has a bit more volume
than the bow, with my upright torso adding to the weathervane
effect, and my weight establishing a pivot point aft
of center, was accounting for the boat’s desire
to round up.
This is a desirable trait in a sailboat – weather
helm – and I’m thinking that it’s
a trait – a feature rather than a bug, in computer-speak
– that I’ll hang with. The other option
was to drag the paddle rather than paddle. This had
the effect of controlling the boat’s drift downwind,
too.
|
The
Reverend's boat and mine both wiggle a bit as
they are paddled; the difference between my
keel strips and her skeg is mostly aesthetic;
I like the looks of strips better. Keeps strips
also fight oil-canning of the bottom.
|
The Reverend’s little boat, which has a skeg instead
of keel strips, did not act all that differently, except
for slightly better tracking downwind. I’ll have
to try her boat to see for myself. I noticed that both
boats wiggle some when we were paddling normally, but
it wasn’t any more pronounced in mine than in
her’s.
I like the keel strips and will continue to use them,
because the lauan plywood that I used in both boats
oilcans in her boat when you step in. I also noticed
flexing when I tossed her boat onto the water while
we were using it on our vacation a few weeks ago.
This
oil-canning is not a big problem, but the two single
strips do give a lot of added structural improvement
for the effort expended, and adds almost no weight.
I copied the twin keel strip idea, which are aligned
directly below the combing strips, from the Piccup Squared
project that I recently finished. It’s a Jim Michalak
design and a design element that he seems to use often.
|
The
cockpit is such that I can comfortably rest
my feet against the bulkhead while paddling.
The Reverend will need some cleats to push against.
|
One alteration in the Reverend’s little boat will
be a few strips across the inside of the cockpit, forward,
so she can have something to brace her feet against.
When I built my little boat, I shortened the cockpit
about an inch at each end after seeing that the best
sitting position, leaning against the aft bulkhead,
still made the boat trim a bit by the stern.
The Reverend could move her cut-down lawn chair seat
four or five inches forward, but that would call for
a more complex arrangement than just throwing in the
chair and paddling away.
Since I am taller, I find it comfortable to brace against
the forward bulkhead and use a boat cushion to sit on,
keeping out of the pint or two of bilge water I deposit
in the boat when I get in (have to remember a big sponge
to get rid of that water next time).
I have noticed that sitting on one boat cushion feels
right and sitting on two boat cushions feels like I’m
in danger of bringing my weight too high for buoyancy.
I’m planning on playing around with a simple built-in
seat. I have several styles to pick among in my library
of boatbuilding books.
After drifting down the lake, we had lunch at the picnic
area across from the dock; it’s called Pond View.
We retraced our route around the lake, back to the dock.
We
had one of the most pleasurable times on the water that
we’ve ever had together. I still have a smile
on my face as I write this down the next morning.
|
Trim
looks just about right.
|
On the way home, we stopped at a bookstore or two. I
got a copy of New
Plywood Boats by Thomas Firth Jones.
I have read and enjoyed another of his books, Boats
to Go. I read some of the newer book
this morning, about a kayak design of his. He mentions
the downwind experience of paddling on one side only,
the use of foot-braces, and his preference for stringer
construction over stitch-and-glue.
In fact, it was a reprint of an article of his, which
appears in this book, that helped me articulate my own
aversion to stitch-and-glue and got me thinking about
ways to used stringers and frames.
The
reprint was on the Internet on the Boatbuilding magazine
website, I believe. I've made a few attempts to find
the article but so have not been successful.
Jones uses half-round pieces of moulding spaced 12 inches
apart, across the bottom of the kayak design in New
Plywood Boats, to increase the strength.
He believes that these simple sticks make the 1/4-inch
plywood more like ½-inch plywood in strength.
This is a trick to remember, and it could be used with
or without keel strips. They would at a minimum add
a pleasing design element. Square strips at the feet
would provide foot-braces for paddling, and strips aft
would give either a platform for a seat of plywood or
cane, or whatever, or would simply keep a boat cushion
out of the bilge water, which in the little boats I
build collects right under the tailbone, since where
you are is going to be to low point of the cockpit.
Here’s what Jones sez about wind:
