All Done!!!!

Yacht varnish done inside and out and all done.

Shiney Shiney!

I just can't wait to get it in the water now!

Putting in Seats

Decided to put seats on bars at either end. I figured that as I don't want to drill or screw through the side of the canoe then I would need as much surface area to epoxy on the inside.

Taped in place so they are spot on before staring to epoxy

Taped round the joins so the fillets are all good

Epoxy on

With the tape removed the fillets looks good.

Seats in!!! Not much more to do now.

Last epoxy coats inside and out

The last coats of epoxy I spread on using the plastic card that came in the fyne boat build kit.

Seems to go alot further and gives a better finish than using the rollers
All finished and smooth. Spent some time going back over it and sanding a few drips out etc. Over all a good finish.

Webbing on Seats

Cut all the webbing strips and sealed the ends with a candle

Went along the long side first then pulled tight and stapled the other

4 Staples in each end should be plenty

One done. Only took about half an hour to staple them all in on each seat. Stapler was not strong enough to sink each staple fully in so I had to go along and tap them home with a hammer.

All Done, now just need to fit them

Seats varnished

Above shows the colour difference between varnished/unvarnished. Obviously the one onthe right has been treated but I was quite surprised how much darker it went with clear varnish on. However the varnish brings out the grain and gives it a lovely shinny finish. 6 hours till touch dry....Man! I am desperate to get the webbing on as I can then fit the seats.

Solar panel Frame

Whilst in B&Q last I bought a thin strip of shaped pine to finish the solar panel off. Just mitred the ends then epoxied down.

Seats sanded and sat in place

Joints all sanded down and flush

Front seat is slightly wider than the rear as there is more space

Rear seat

Ready to cut and staple the webbing

Finally sand down and then epoxy/varnish

Building Seats

Seats laid out and ready to be joined. I am going for a gap of just over 25 cm between front and back as I have ordered 5cm thick webbing. This will allow 5 lengths left to right.
Cutting seat hangers, not fun, I ended up messing up a few of these.

Marking out where the seats will go on the inside of the canoe

This is one of the seat frames that I smashed. I didn't listen to the little voice that was telling me to cut down in more than one spot before going at it with a chisel. Luckily I had just enough of cuts to make another, but only enough for one. So it was a bit tense chisel the rest of the joints.

All done and epoxied together (Faithful clamps once again employed)

Gunwales all sanded down

A bit bright in the photo but they are all sanded down nicely.

After I attached the outwale I filled between them with epoxy. This meant that there was quite alot of sanding to do to get them flush. Quick trip to B&Q for some new sanding belts (40s!!) and the trust belt sander just ripped through. Took about an hour to get it all done.

Shaped the ends to curves (Again with the belt sander) back past where the screw had been in at the ends.

Ended up buying a sanding 'flapper' attachment for my drill. So glad I did, not cheap at £9.99 but probably one of the most useful things I have bought during this project

Finished off all round with hand sanding with sheets of 80

I will do a final sand of 120 sheets before epoxy/varnish finishing.

Outwales attached

I ended up doing one side at a time, left over night then then other. Glad I did as I needed a clamp about every 6 inches to keep it all in the right spot. As the gunwales are mounted higher than the top of the canoe there was not as much contact between wood and wood (If you see what I mean!) as I would have liked. So Clamps every where were a must.
As I had already attached the splash decks I found I had nothing to clamp the outwale to........Got a bit ahead of my self I think. Next time I will wait till the gunwales are complete before doing splash decks.

Ended up having to use a screw to hold in the gunwale. Not ideal as it will leave a hole to be finished but there was no other way. I tried rope, elaborate wooden contraptions and clamps to clamp, none of it worked sufficiently so..... drilled small hole and half screwed in. This also worked a treat at the end of the gunwale, almost like a ring in a bulls nose to hold the two sides together properly.

Clamps and screws off and it all stayed put!

Pass the sander (again)

Splash decks sanded flush

Bulkheads taped and Fillets done

Just normal electrical tape has been really useful

I found I had to put extra tape down on the seams as it kept trying to lift

Worked really well again, lifted tape of before it had dried properly, just going tacky, so I didn't ended up having to rip it off

Splash decks and Speaker cable done

Sat the splashdecks on and then ran the speaker cable along the gunawale. Taped it as I went to keep it all in place.
Taped all the way along and cable all set to be glued

Splash decks roped down. Found this was the best way as it ment that the decks held the shape of the top of the canoe better. Plus no where to attach clamps to!

Electrics added

Amp is epoxyd on to the top of the box
Charging box glued shut and ready to attach

All the electrics are now in