Cool boat for sale

When I point out a cool boat, my Dad always reminds that there are always LOTS of cool boats for sale, as in move along nothing to see here. But I’m a sucker for good looking wood and this one has it in spades. It might be a bit small for most, but wow it’s a looker and a bargain at $4,000. See the good folks at the Evening Hatch in Elllensburg, WA for more information. Built by Greg Tatman of Tatman Wooden boats.

14’ Greg Tatman, hand-made by Tatman himself.

Terrific small boat for two people, although it can handle three people with two side-by-side in the front (only good in this configuration for pulling plugs, however). It’s a beautiful African mahogany boat with a UHMW skid shoe on the bottom making it slippery over rocks and tough as nails.

It’s for sale because we are just not using it enough. When we get time to go fishing, I seem to use a guide rather than pull the oars myself. It looks like a piece of furniture, and always attracts attention when it’s in the water…and it’s light and easy to use.

A few tips for gluing the inner rails on a Wee Lassie Cedar Strip canoe

Gluing the Inner Rail On A Wee Lassie Cedar Strip Canoe

My only complaint about Mac Mcarthy’s book Featherweight Boatbuilding is that he covers some very complicated tasks very quickly with little fanfare. Sometimes tasks that take an entire afternoon are covered in one sentence.One such instance goes something like, “Install the inner and outer rails.”

One of the things he says to do is glue the outside rail and inner rail at the same time. While this would be faster, I find messing with two items at once, both slippery with glue, can be a nightmare. So if you have the time, just glue them one at a time. I also don’t have enough clamps to do both the port and starboard sides so I’m doing them one at a time. At this rate it will take me about four days what he could get done in one. But in a project as long and drawn out as this, does a few extra days really matter.

Secondly I discovered why he says to round over the rails after you install them. I rounded my rails over before I installed them. I thought I could get more consistent results with the table vs. hand held router. But now the rails under the for and aft decks will have a radius where they contact the decks, and thus a slightly diminshed gluing surface. Probably not a big deal, but still something to think about.

5 secrets to fibergalssing a Wee Lassie cedar strip canoe

Still on the building board, the wee lassie Nelda Ruth is being glassed.

I’ve been building the Wee Lassie, a cedar strip canoe designed by Mac Macrthy at Feather Canoes. I’ve discovered a few things that might be helpful to the firstime builder, like myself that were left out of his definitive book on the subject, Featherweight Boatbuilding A Woodenboat Book.

1. Seal the Outside and the Inside before you put your glass cloth on. In the book he says to seal the outside with epoxy before you put your first layer of glass on. However if you seal the inside as well you minimize the risk of the wood pulling air through the inside and turning into air bubbles on the outside. Also make sure the initial sealer coat of epoxy is done during a falling temperature, this will tend to suck the epoxy into the wood instead of outgassing air and causing bubbles. (This tip came to me via Larry at Raka, where I got my Epoxy)

2. Sand it smooth, extra smooth. I sanded through 220 on the outside of the hull before I put any epoxy or glass on. On the inside I didn’t sand quite as much. Consequently, the inside had a few more issues with air bubbles that I had to work extra hard to smooth them out. Had I sanded a little more on the inside it would have been as easy as it was on the outside.

3. Don’t cut the overhanging extra glass until it dries. Perhaps I misinterpreted it, but in the book it says to cut the excess cloth with a razor knife and it sounded like it said to do it before the epoxy dried. I tried this on the first go-round and it turned into a royal mess! So when it came time to glass the inside I waited for the cloth to dry and it cut like butter with a fresh Stanley knife. So wait for it to dry before you trim off the excess glass cloth.

4. Thinner is better! Don’t over do it on the epoxy. Multiple thin coats are better than a few thick ones, you will sand your ass off if you end up with runs like I had. The funny thing about epoxy is that it acts like a twerpy teenager.Everything looks cool when you are around, but the minute you turn your back, BAM trouble. You can tip it off with a brush all you want and get it looking really nice, but the minute you leave the room it starts to sag and run. If you come back in an hour, it looks like one of those wine bottles my roommate in college had with all that wax all over it, not good. So thinner is better, this may seem obvious to some, but some of us are a little slower than others. You can see in the photo above, the runs paid me a visit.

5. Be neat, have everything you will need laid out before you start mixing and wear double rubber gloves. This is really like three tips in one, but hey this is a Top 5 list so I had to mash em all togther to fit them in. Be neat and careful not to get epoxy on you. This is bad stuff and you don’t want it on your skin if you can ovide it, pretty obvious but worth pointing out. Also you don’t want to be rooting around in your workbench or digging through drawers with your hands covered in epoxy, so make sure everything is laid out in plain sight. Third, wear DOUBLE gloves. One set just won’t do. If you snag one on something or it breaks for some reason, and they will, you want that extra layer of protection there just in case.

So there you have it my top 5 secrects to glassing a Wee Lassie from the perspective of a first time boat builder.

Obligatory first post

Dale Vanderpool and Friends in Goodale Park Columbus Ohio

Here at the Fiddle and Creel we will be exploring the cultural overlap between good music and good pastimes. We will concern ourselves with the daily happenings of the bluegrass and fly fishing communities and explore anything else that may be of interest to those of us who participate in those activities.

This weekend I was fortunate enough to help kick off the Goodale Park Music Series Concerts in Columbus Ohio. We had excellent weather, great sound provided by the venerable Mark Miller and a beautiful audience. Thanks to Alex for putting it back together and all those who showed up, had a great time

The line from left to right is — fiddlin Dan Cade, Ethan Smith – Mandolin, Terry Mullins – Guitar, Ben Lamb – Upright Bass, and the legendary Dale Vanderpool on 5 string Banjer.