It was a busy month. In addition to all the usual holiday festivities the dust was flying in both Alabama and Pennsylvania as canoe work accelerated with new help. Down at the lake several canoes got canvassed and filled: Catherine’s Thompson, Sam’s Otca, and Mark’s Morris. It will be February before the filler is ready to paint so they will all be turned over for interior finish work and outfitting in the meantime. December also involved some major structural work on a 1914 Fay & Bowen launch, replacing the aft section of the sheer clamp on one side of the stern along with sistering some deck frames. I had Barry holding a backer block on the decking as I came up from underneath with an oscillating saw. There were some colorful comments from outside the hull as I cut into the nearly 100 year-old boat! January will see the stern decking replaced and windshield frame rebuilt.
After Christmas I headed north for some quality time with the parents and some very long days/nights getting several boats started in the PA shop: Ian’s 50# is getting a complete restoration including several ribs, most of the bottom planking, half-ribs for his tripping use, and a new skin. It had some unusual home-brew repairs involving strips glued to the planking in between the ribs. The stuff did not want to come out (except for the single one I popped out by hand as I loaded the canoe on my truck). The strips had an oddly familiar size and shape to them which suddenly became obvious when the back side of one revealed the markings of a yard-stick! We also dove into a complete restoration on Jeff’s 1920’s Carleton and did some minor planking patches prior to canvassing and filling an 18′ Old Town Guide. Most of the tear-down got completed on the Carleton including removing an old fiberglass job and the largely intact sponsons. I decided to load it up and bring it back south with me since it will be a more involved project than anticipated.
Several other canoes are either at the stripper or ready to go (Old Towns for Kay and Venetia). Terry’s needs new inwales and some other structural help before stripping.
Somewhere in there the rest of you celebrated the arrival of 2013. I missed it.