Here's One I Made Earlier

The latest injury to my shoulder has taken me out of paddling for over four months. I've been able to canoe on only a couple of occasions since it happened andit still isn't cleared up. Both try outs last month went okay but still showed problems that don't look like going away any time soon. In the meanwhile I've been revolving around the local parks at a slow jogging pace and assailing the local Parkruns on Saturday mornings. At least I don't need a fully functioning rotator cuff to jog.

I recently came across a small business that specialises in canoe building courses. This is something completely new to me and intriguing. Located in Cumbria near Penrith, it provides a workshop, tools and materials to build your on canoe. There's a choice of two, the larger 2/3 seater that I opted for and which takes about four days to complete, you get to carry the completed article away on the finish of the fourth day.

It's really quite a unique experience. I'd hummed and hawed over it for a few weeks but finally took the plunge and travelled up to Cumbria for the May bank holiday weekend having secured the last place in that weekend's course.

The first day involved cutting out the panels from stock marine plywood and rough assembly onto a  jig. It's held together with a few cable ties and loops of string which when tightened pull the whole thing together and more or less into shape. The second day is for applying glass fibre tape and epoxy resin over the seams to secure it all together.  That's all followed by fitting the gunnel strips to the upper edges of the shell to stiffen it. The final day is for fitting out seats and thwarts and all the other fiddly bits. I opted for a couple of cane woven seats and a beautifully carved central carrying thwart which makes the whole thing look a lot better.

My handiwork skills are okay-ish and there wasn't anything too onerous to cope with, but another helping hand would have helped a lot. As it was I got some help from the other helpers and from the two guys that run the show. Even so I had had enough by mid afternoon on the fourth day when others were packing up and leaving with their creations on their roof bars. I finished the main construction including a couple of modifications I dreamed up, but didn't have enough time to paint the thing in the colour of my choice.

Since returning home I've sanded the whole outer shell off and painted it white. It still needs another coat and some go-faster stripes applied. There's also a couple of other glue jobs to be done which I've found necessary on closer examination. The fact is that I rushed a couple of jobs while trying to keep to the deadlines necessary to keep up with the finish times each day.  

So... I now have a canoe stuck on the garden table awaiting a second coat of paint. If it stops raining I may well get it finished for next weekend and give it its maiden voyage some time then.