Rowing shell done at last
Its hard to photograph a 20 ft boat without a wide angle lens, but here goes.
This is my recreational rowing shell, loosely based on CLC's Oxford Shell. I bought Chris Kulczycki's book 'Stitch and glue boatbuilding' which provided some detail shots and the offsets for the hull planks, which is really the most important bit. The rest is improvised.
I'm quite satisfied with the result. The only disappointment I have is the weight - 22kg - way heavier then I wanted. This happened because I used 4mm ply where 3mm was called for, beefed up a lot of components and used very heavy white oak for the solid timber, rather then something light like oregon or cedar, and coated all parts in at least 3 coats of epoxy. I console myself that it is probably a bit more robust as a consequence - but really it was just a result of inexperience - next time I'll aim for 18 kg.
Now I need to make the sliding seat and riggers, and the oars. These will be time consuming but at least I will be in familiar ground.
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