What have you done for your boat lately?

Jeff Dodd

Steelhead
Built a bow anchor extension.
View attachment 23018
One pin removes it so I can access the bow light when needed.
That looks great! I paid handsomely for mine but I am not complaining. I don’t have the building skills…
I am installing my similar bow anchor pulpit this weekend on my fiberglass Moocher. FF5EB765-8E84-4444-8A04-14F831BB455F.jpeg LeeLock in Ferndale built mine.


When I remove the battling ram I can have the quick change bracket outfitted with a bow roller. This will be useful.
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Old406Kid

Life of the Party
Forum Supporter
That looks great! I paid handsomely for mine but I am not complaining. I don’t have the building skills…
I am installing my similar bow anchor puppet this weekend on my fiberglass Moocher. View attachment 56730 LeeLock in Ferndale built mine.

View attachment 56730

When I remove the battling ram I can have the quick change bracket outfitted with a bow roller. This will be useful!
View attachment 56731
I might change to the Leelock rope lock...much more positive and I think easier to use.
 

Jeff Dodd

Steelhead
Leelock is just down the road from my house.
The owner, Eric, is real easy to work with and seems a great guy. He took is existing product and made it fit the quick release mount for me. Then helped fit a pin-mounted roller to the front.

Quality workmanship!
 

Wanative

Spawned out Chum
Forum Supporter
The owner, Eric, is real easy to work with and seems a great guy. He took is existing product and made it fit the quick release mount for me. Then helped fit a pin-mounted roller to the front.

Quality workmanship!
That's good to know Jeff.
Maybe you can get up to Baker lake this year for sockeye.
 

Jake Watrous

Legend
Forum Supporter
Sealed the decks, gunwales, thwart, yoke, etc.
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Figured out how to build the seats, including the sliding/adjustable bow seat
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Built clamps out of scrap wood that will hold the seat brackets in place while the epoxy sets
88ED89C0-EA93-45C3-A9FB-6CD27F3F5835.jpeg45583C9D-92AD-46D2-8CEB-0F1498CE9F6E.jpeg
And discovered a bug in the varnish.
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Jake Watrous

Legend
Forum Supporter
Nothing like Jake’s project but install is complete on the 15’ Mighty Moocher’s battling ram.

View attachment 56852
Different kinds of boats. I get to build from scratch, while you’re remodeling—which is much trickier in my book, with less margin for error. Well done!
 
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Jake Watrous

Legend
Forum Supporter
Began making the seat frames in earnest. Epoxy doesn’t like teak sealer, and the varnish isn’t quite the same color, but no real fix for it. The stubs will just be a different color. Seats will match the ash gunwales once they're sealed. Also made the stock for carving the paddle shaft.
BACA4DAE-8BD0-436D-AA59-340214E5B87C.jpeg51F70368-1612-41DB-8525-2161DBAC2405.jpeg9C9E1095-5872-46A0-81AE-E5F95C75170F.jpeg7FD9000A-3DBC-4FE5-94E3-8A17DCFE0B9D.jpeg6FF8BBE9-5981-4DCB-A936-1060DE30A6E5.jpeg9C419DE6-9166-42AC-B618-F3942B9794FE.jpeg
 
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_WW_

Geriatric Skagit Swinger
Forum Supporter
So I got one of those fold up wheels to put under my pontoon boat. And when I went to use it I noticed it was hard to keep the boat balanced while you're rolling it down the road. So I decided to fix that.

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I would like to add to my initial post that these wheels worked fabulously at Lenice this past week. The boat was balanced so evenly that it felt almost weightless...until pulling it the first hill coming from the launch, :)
 

Wetswinger

Go Deep
Forum Supporter
Began making the seat frames in earnest. Epoxy doesn’t like teak sealer, and the varnish isn’t quite the same color, but no real fix for it. The stubs will just be a different color. Seats will match the ash gunwales once they're sealed.
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Jake, do you know what the approximate weight of your finished canoe is going to be? I'm interested in a comparison between the weight of canoes using modern materials (plastic roto mold, glass, kevlar) vs. wood.
 

Jake Watrous

Legend
Forum Supporter
Jake, do you know what the approximate weight of your finished canoe is going to be? I'm interested in a comparison between the weight of canoes using modern materials (plastic roto mold, glass, kevlar) vs. wood.
I haven’t weighed it since I started putting the seats and thwarts in, but I’d guess it’s going to be about 65 lbs all told. The boats it's sort of modeled after (there's been a bit of customization, like the watertight compartments that guarantee ~100lbs of buoyancy when swamped) are between 55 and 70 lbs. which is not bad for a nearly 18' boat (17'9"). Once it's done I'll put it on a scale for a final figure.

For comparison:

17' fiberglass canoes are 80-90 lbs.
17' aluminum canoes are 80-85 lbs.
Plastic boats such as Oldtown's Penobscot 174 (smaller than my boat) is 83 lbs.
Inflatable 1-person Outcast Fish Cat 9-IR pontoon boats are 65 lbs.
17' kevlar canoes are about 60 lbs.

So, aside from kevlar, wood and epoxy win the weight competition.

Furthermore, in my experience and research, kevlar boats are not nearly as durable as epoxy and cedar, and much harder to fix. I could put a hole in my boat one weekend, and have it back on the water the next.
 
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Wetswinger

Go Deep
Forum Supporter
I haven’t weighed it since I started putting the seats and thwarts in, but I think it’s going to be about 65 lbs all told. The boats it's sort of modeled after (there's been a bit of customization) are between 60 and 70 lbs. which is not bad for a nearly 18' boat (17'9"). Once it's done I'll put it on and step on a scale for a final figure.

For comparison:

17' fiberglass canoes are 80-90 lbs.
17' aluminum canoes are 80-85 lbs.
Plastic boats such as Oldtown's Penobscot 174 (smaller than my boat) is 83 lbs.
Inflatable 1-person Outcast Fish Cat 9-IR pontoon boats are 65 lbs.
17' kevlar canoes are about 60 lbs.

So, aside from kevlar, wood and epoxy win the weight competition.

Furthermore, in my experience and research, kevlar boats are not nearly as durable as epoxy and cedar, and much harder to fix. I could put a hole in my boat one weekend, and have it back on the water the next.
Excellent !. I've had royalex WW boats that are strong but overly heavy. A fiberglass solo tripper that was still pretty stout but better than the roto-oil can specials popular today. Aluminum boats are strong but their flat bottoms will never handle as well as the shallow arc designs as on your boat. I'm confident your boat will be joy to paddle. My last surviving canoe is a Wenonah 17ft. Kevlar which I'll take to my grave. As Waylon said, " there's only two things in life that make worth living, lightweight canoes and firm feeling women"....
 
Fourbtgait.... I had one of the earlier versions of that dolley and used it on a 10 ft rowboat for awhile. Be careful of how much weight is in the boat as my wheel junctions of the aluminum framework actually disintegrated the junction with the plastic. They have now gone to a plastic wheel as well. Mine was pneumatic and was always flat when I wanted to use it. I make an oak dowel to supplement the axle arrangement and it was okay but the wheels were still not as functional as I would like. It drove me nuts. I hope their improvements are a help and you enjoy the mobility of a cart.
 
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