Will the fun never end??

I got back from school today with more parts for the IRH. I have been really pushing to finish up so i can get her into the Wooden Boat Festival here in Port Townsend. Seven days in a row on the IRH made me decide i needed  a break. So i'm sitting here with an IPA typing away.

Over the last several days the weather has been great! Fog in the mornings, well most of the day then hot sunny afternoons, perfect.

The IRH gunwale project started with a trip to school. I needed to steam in the complex curve that creates the outwales of the gunwale assembly. As i did not have a steam box at the time a trip to school was in order.

I only got one snap of the IRH at the boat school. I had permission to have her there but the welcome was a little cool. So i steamed the outwales on and loaded her back on the car to finish up at home.

Because i am not using mechanical fasteners i had to back out all the deck screws i used to hold the outwales on for glue up. But as you can see in the cockpit a bunch of clamps, you can never have to many.

Cedar and Sapele look so good together, i can't wait to get this all cleaned up and finished. So i sat thinking about how difficult it was to bend the outwales on, how the hell was i going to get the inwales on?
First i decided to saw the shape into the pieces then i would steam them into place. So i spent a day running around trying to build a cheap steam box.

 The parts are as follows. Two sawhorses, old stuff sack, duct tape, meat thermometer, 1 1/2" x 2' of tubing, oil funnel, thrift store pot, and a MSR Dragonfly.

I had my doubts about how hot i could get it. I was hoping for something in the range of  180-220 deg F. She topped out at 185 deg F, not too bad.

While i was waiting for the steam to rise i cut out the holes for the deck plates, the whole character of this project has changed. I think now i can say i am in the finishing stage.

Glue up.

All cleaned up, and looking good.

Above you can see the plugs that have been installed to cover the scars left from the deck screws.

Finally i filled in the gap between the in and outwales with thickened blackened epoxy. Coming to this blog soon...

...Stem cap, transom cap, and bulkhead trim.

Thanks for reading.

You say good bye...

Big week of goings on in the shops at the school. Sliver left us for the final stage of the build. She is so big and has been at the school for a few years so there is defiantly going to be a strange void left as she departs.

 Seeing her on a truck really brings home how big of a project she was.

In smaller news the Powell Boats left for Flagstaff. It started with a beautiful row through the fog to get the boats from the marina to the school for shipment.

The boats were stored in the water to keep the wood wet, this prevents any shrinking of the wood. It did give all the wee sea creatures a place to live, its amazing how much growth occurred in a short month since they were launched.

 Once the goo was scraped off it was onto a truck and off to the river. The departure of the boats was highlighted again for me as i put in for another canyon trip and was once again denied. At least i can take solace in the fact that something i helped create will get to run the canyon this year...

The IRH has her gunwales curing as i write this. I'll get a post together about that soon.

Cheers

Better Life Through Chemistry.

Life for the general boat world changed with the advent of resin glue. Epoxy in particular really changed things. Mix it with woven fiberglass cloth and various other additives you can make amazing things happen.

I just like the way the cloth looks before you wet it out... Then when i start wetting it out and  i think wow i really like the way it looks wet!

Once the cloth is down its fill coat time. Now it may be because i did the fill coat between the hours of midnight and two AM or it could be because i did the fill coat between 12 and 2 AM bit i forgot to add fairing compound (the coat needs to be applied before the under coat has time to kick off, hence the early hour).

If this was your boat i would take the time to repeat the step, but like the mechanic with the dented car, for this prototype i'm not going back.

Even without the fairing compound it still looks good.

Now the final hull coating, graphite powder mixed into the resin to create a hard candy shell.

You can see a little of the rippling in the outer shell. If the fairing compound had been added there would be black glass here, instead its just real shinny.

I'm really glad to be done with this stage of the build, mistake or not i can't wait to flip her back over again and begin finishing out the hull.

Oh Air Show.

My love of airplanes is equal to my love of boats. This is a bold statement, but hey airplanes are amazing. I am willing to bet that most Americans have no idea how an airplane fly's. Growing up around aviation things like Bernoulli's principle, stol, vtol, stall speed etc were daily discussions. Ok, not "daily" but a lot...

So the Arlington Fly-in came around again, who was i to resist? I apologize about the depth of the coverage, there were unique airplanes everywhere  including a replica of a Stinson Model 0, none of the originals exist. (The only representative of this air frame will be heading to the Museum of Flight. Oh!, i also didn't photograph, sorry.)

So here it is a lot of photographs and a little narration.

First up a Falco. I think this airplane was here last year... Wooden airplane, wooden,  you wouldn't know it to look at it.

Here we have a Zenith Air STOL Ch 750 really good STOL characteristics, no real useful load.

Super Cub!!! Classic STOL

Just Aircraft's Highlander Super STOL is here!!!! The latest incarnation of scare the crap out of yourself (and the hawk you just missed) low and slow flyers.

Ridiculous Storch landing gear aside the leading edge slats and Alaskan bush tires really round off this sweet heart.

Short stroll down the tarmac and this Leviathan appears. A P-47D Thunder bolt, huge, eh? A thought, how much ground clearance do you think she has when the tail comes up for takeoff? I bet its only a skinny foot, sketchy.

With so many places to accessorize she needed some muscle to haul it all around.

Next door a P-51 Mustang. Bomber escort and general goo getter. Helped to end the air war over Europe, look it up people!

Just a military Moose, nothing to see here.

Oh, Bird Dog, Bird Dog!

What's better than one Star Duster??

Two, Star Dusters!

Ok i know what your thinking, Lockheed Electra and Amelia Earhart, i was surprised to find out no, its a Lockheed Model 12 good looker though!

Next is this little odd ball a Aeronca C-2N. I think it was the first plane they produced. 1930 strong work.

This simple looking cockpit it the nerve center for one of the three Newport 17 (in reality its a experimental aircraft whose kits and plans come from Airdrome Aeroplanes. ) I still cant believe people went to war in these.

Boeing Aircraft's Stearman is next, highly modified for aerobatics, of course.

On the instrument panel in the back seat (where the pilot sits) the routine, and ...

 ...the front seat has Snoopy.

Finally the Night Twister, mmmmmmmmmm, Night Twister.

Then it was rush, rush, rush over to the hanger to watch the fun.

My camera does not take great airshow pics so here is a tolerable one. A low pass by the P-51 and the P-47, you don't see that everyday.