Eureka Canoe

[Walesey]

Hi All. This is a very interesting site especially when I see nothing newer then
2006. or maybe I missed some newer post.
The Moose

Welcome aboard Moose.
On My computer, page 19 covers from 2003 to midway through 2005. For me, the most recent posts are on Page 1. It may be a setting that can be changed or something. I, for one, have added about 20 posts to this thread so far this year on my Eureka. My sons have been building a Eureka with their Grand dad since about April or May. I add pics occasionally as I am able.

With the photo's, if you scroll down the page (when you are in the "Editing post" section, you will find a button labled "Managing Attachments" (or something similar). If you click on this button, it should let you browse navigate to the file on your HD that you want to upload. Choose the file (one step) and then upload it (second step). It should then tell you that the file is sucessfully uploaded.

I look forward to seeing your progress. From the sounds of it, you may be finished before we are! I am racing "Midge"!

All the best!



Mik,
Should I also move my posts to the new thread you have set up?

regards
Walesey

[Walesey]

Just me again!
The boys have let me play with their canoe again in Grand dad's absence, and I have some pics to post.

We got the "Bulk heads" shaped and fitted over the weekend. Fiberglassed the inside of the air tanks. Tonight (Tuesday) we got the glue fillets on the outside of the Bulk Heads. (see photo)

We have deviated very slightly away from the plans as written in an attempt to make our canoe as smik as some of the others we have seen photos of.

So that the ply hull will not be visible between the edge of the deck and the gunwales, we "buzzed" about 5mm of the height of the hull around the air tanks. This will allow the deck to fit neatly (I hope) between the gunwales, but on top of the side panels. The deck supports are then all flush with the top of the side panels.(does that make sense?)

Tonight we also glued in the "Centre Stringer" to support the deck and glued in the "Fairing Battens" to support the edge of the deck.

Grand dad can not make it out tomorrow. He is going to the dentist, but hopefully the boys will have shaped all the deck supports to the right curve and sanded down the outside of the hull by the time I get home from work.

The photos show 1. the glue fillet around the bulk head. Masking tape has been used to keep the fillet edges nice and crisp. 2. The boys applying glue/bog to the fairing batten/side deck support and 3. the centre stringer, and fairing battens all glued and clamped. Note also, a piece of copper pipe has been glued into the nose as a rope attachment point, as suggested by Mik in an earlier post.

I hope, before the weekend, to mark out and roughly cut the decks and to glue on the gunwales before fitting the decks on the weekend.

I am thinking through how I might cut the Inwale spacers using a drill instead of a saw, to give nice curved ends on the spacers. Does anybody have an idea as to how this might best be done?

Till next time

Walesey

[Boatmik]

Howdy Walesy,

You need to converse with the Midge - he got pretty keen on this sort of thing with both the GIS and the Eureka.

There maaaaay be some pics in Midges Eureka thread about how.

But I'm not sure.
MIK

[Walesey]

Howdy Walesy,

You need to converse with the Midge - he got pretty keen on this sort of thing with both the GIS and the Eureka.

There maaaaay be some pics in Midges Eureka thread about how.

But I'm not sure.
MIK

Ah! I found it! Thanks Mik. Post #55 on page 16 shows the jig that Midge used for his curved innwhale spacers. If you are not using it this week Midge, perhaps you could post it down! (just kidding of course!) I wonder if a "speed bore" bit will work instead of the Fossner bit that Midge used?

all the best

Walesey

[bitingmidge]

Walesy,

When I built the Goat Island Skiff, I didn't own a drill press, so I wired my hand drill to a bit of ply, made a drum sander out of a bit of 3/4 dowel with a screw in it (trued on a bit of 60 grit) and sanded the curves in.

It took a bit of time, but that works too.

Cheers,

P

[Walesey]

Walesy,

When I built the Goat Island Skiff, I didn't own a drill press, so I wired my hand drill to a bit of ply, made a drum sander out of a bit of 3/4 dowel with a screw in it (trued on a bit of 60 grit) and sanded the curves in.

It took a bit of time, but that works too.

Cheers,

P

...and therein lies the problem.... TIME!!!

It is 28th November today and we were hoping to launch our canoe on the first day of our holidays at Jervis Bay on 14th December. That is only 15 days away, and we don't even have the Gunwhales on yet!! (and a lot of time inbetween taken up with Christmas parties and Christmas Carols!)

I LOVE those sweet curved Innwhale spacers, but might be forces to settle for less in the hopes of having SOMETHING to keep us dry above Jervis Bay! As it is, I have abandoned hope of having any seats in the Eureka by then. (Maybe Port Stephens, AFTER Christmas might see seats?)

Thanks for the hints, anyway Midge. You are an inspiration!

Regards

Walesey

[b.o.a.t.]

G'day MIK
Getting perilously close to the point where I will have to wave money at Ted for ply & 'poxy & etc. Just a bit of varnish & paint left to do on current build. (photo below)
At Dave's suggestion, I've been doing my kayaks in 4mm ply, & being several boats familiar with the material, am thinking to do Eureka in same. 6oz glass outside, & probably on floor & chine panels inside. Have also read carefully the ultra-light build article at your web site. The idea of a canoe coming out at not much more than my kayaks (12-14kg) is seriously appealing - I'm a lazy sod at heart.

Do you see any glaring issues with using 4mm pac.maple rather than 6mm, and other scantlings as per the 3mm build ?

cheers
AJ

[hairymick]

G,day B.O.A.T.

I don't wont to hijack this thread, but could you please provide some details on that lovely one you are building?

[b.o.a.t.]

G,day B.O.A.T.

I don't wont to hijack this thread, but could you please provide some details on that lovely one you are building?

*blush* Awww shucks...
Been mucking around with Gregg Carlson's "Hulls" program. This is hull #4 that I've actually built from it. Attached the zipped .hul file FYI. Modified from its predecessor in a hurry so as to fit my size 12's, I made a few errors in the lines not picked up until I cut the parts. Carried on with the build anyway because a] the money was already spent, b] I need the practice & c] wanted to experiment with a few things. The errors are (hopefully) more cosmetic than anything worse.

Boat #5 will be "right".... maybe - #4's deck on #3's bottom. But somewhat delayed. Eureka comes first. Probably posted it before but here's my webpage. http://users.sa.chariot.net.au/~ajulian/
cheers
AJ

[Boatmik]

Howdy AJ,

I have replied to your questions in another thread - as this one will cloud up the already cloudy Eureka thread.

Sooooo, if you want to pop over to
http://www.woodworkforums.ubeaut.com...156#post637156

You will be able to see my reply.

Cheers
MIK

[Walesey]

...and therein lies the problem.... TIME!!!

It is 28th November today and we were hoping to launch our canoe on the first day of our holidays at Jervis Bay on 14th December. That is only 15 days away, and we don't even have the Gunwhales on yet!! (and a lot of time inbetween taken up with Christmas parties and Christmas Carols!)

I LOVE those sweet curved Innwhale spacers, but might be forces to settle for less in the hopes of having SOMETHING to keep us dry above Jervis Bay! As it is, I have abandoned hope of having any seats in the Eureka by then. (Maybe Port Stephens, AFTER Christmas might see seats?)

Thanks for the hints, anyway Midge. You are an inspiration!

Regards

Walesey

Me again!
Oh. Why arn't there more hours in a weekend?
The gunwhales are glued on. Inwale spacers glued to Inwhales. (Flat ended, not curved ). Inwhales cut to size, and trimmed to fit under the decks and ready for gluing. Decks trimmed, ready to glue.

We need to Epoxy coat all the raw bits (bulkheads, inside and out, decks, inside and out, deck supports, gunwhales, Inwhales, etc, and glue the Inwhales and decks on, fit the "centre Spreader, and then "Aqua Cote" the lot.

By my estimation, the canoe has about two weeks worth of work left in it (not counting the seats) until it is finished. Launch date is due to be 14th December at Jervis Bay (about a week and a half away!!)

I will try and get some recent photos up. Trouble is that I have been too busy wearing out the old Triton Work Bench to reach for the camera!

regards
Walesey

PS. Mik, I have Glue filleted the inside seams and Glass taped the outside seams, as I think Midge did (but not taped them). Can you comfort me by telling me that my boat will not sink without glass on the inside. It is probably too late to do much about it now, but I got this horrible "sinking feeling" when I re-read your instructions!

[Boatmik]

Me again!

PS. Mik, I have Glue filleted the inside seams and Glass taped the outside seams, as I think Midge did (but not taped them). Can you comfort me by telling me that my boat will not sink without glass on the inside. It is probably too late to do much about it now, but I got this horrible "sinking feeling" when I re-read your instructions!

That's the purpose of instruction sets - to strike equal terror into the builder (have I done the boat right) and the designer (have I done the instructions right).

We can share the sleepless nights!

I think it will be OK to not glass in the cockpit area as the angle between the ply where the fillet goes is quite deep. And a crack in the fillet can be dealt with very easily there anyhow - not that I think you will get one.

At the ends ... up in the tanks the angle for the topside to side panel join is very shallow. I would be tempted to put glass tape there - the good thing as it is inside the tanks you won't have to finish it to the nth degree.

Hope this helps!

Michael

[Walesey]

At the ends ... up in the tanks the angle for the topside to side panel join is very shallow. I would be tempted to put glass tape there - the good thing as it is inside the tanks you won't have to finish it to the nth degree.

Hope this helps!

Michael

Thanks Mik. I should be able to get to sleep tonight! I actually DID glass tape inside the tanks, taking the glue seams to just inside the tanks. We should be OK.

I have added a couple of photos (for the record). The first shows how I have cut the side panels down to the height of the deck supports. Should let the decks but up against the gunwales without the ply of the side panels showing through. ie, the deck sits on top of the side panels, but flush with the gunwales.

The second photo shows the boys epoxying the inwale spacers before gluing.

I hope we might get the inwales glued on tonight, so that if Grandpa turns up tomorrow, he can have a turn at fitting the Centre Spreader.

Still need to glue the decks,and give a final coat of Epoxy before Aqua Coting. (we don't REALLY need seats, do we? Lowering the centre of gravity will make it more stable. Surely!)

regards
Walesey

[Walesey]

We are slowly getting there. The 'ole boat is beginning to look a bit like a Eureka!

We have the inwales glued and last night got the decks on and centre spreader in place. Despite all our efforts in getting the decks exactly flush, they still ended up a mill proud of the gunwales. Hopefully a bit of sandpaper might fix that. I hope I do not go through the top layer of ply or I will have defeated my aim of having a nice crisp looking join!

One week to go before we will be on holidays (Yahoooo!) The boys are working double shifts; 1/2 hour or so before school in the morning and then in to it again after school.

The first couple of photo's show the inwales being glued. I have put "Pouring foam" in the tanks, for my own piece of mind. (If a shark bites the canoe in half, I want to have SOMETHING the boys can cling on to!)

The second couple of photo's show the decks being clamped. You can not see my lovely laminated "Centre Spreader" very well. That was my main contribution to the boat building effort!.

The 6mm ply is very stiff and hard to bend. I hope the glue holds it when I remove the clamps off the decks!! If I were to build another Eureka, I might be tempted to use 4mm ply for the decks and bulk heads. Would there be any problems with that Mik? Perhaps you could recommend it in future editions of your plans???

Mik, the plans call for the Centre Spreader to be fixed with 4 stainless steel screws. They are the only mechanical fixing devices in the entire craft. Considering how snugly it fits under the inwales and between the inwales and side panels, are the screws necessary?

We hope to get some Epoxy on the decks, gunwales and inwales tonight.

Walesey

[Boatmik]

More nice pics Walesy!!!

Yes - the problem with the ends of the centrespreader is the lack of gluing area to the ply and the under inwale area. So it needs to be a bit beefier.

If you use countersunk screws and keep them up close to the underside of the gunwale it will be almost invisible to anyone but the most prying eyes! Wash the screws in a bit of acetone and put some epoxy up the predrilled holes before driving them home forever.

MIK