Oar Fixin'.

I have long been a firm believer in you get what you pay for. You can skimp on things like a clamps, small drill bits and varnish. When it comes to important stuff like dry bags, climbing rope and oars.... Well you get the idea.

When it came time to build a set of oars for the IRH i was seriously sick of building oars. I had been working on the Powell boat project and during that time i built something like ten oars. On top of that i didn't really know how long i wanted them or what the final design should be. I admit i was still surprised when my inexpensive oars cracked along the lamination with only two uses.

Now that i have em i may as well fix em. So here is one way to fix an oar blade that has been cracked or damaged. If you break a shaft you also have options but i am not covering that in this post.

Start off by sanding or scraping the finish off the blade or blades to be fixed. I really prefer a good scraper, sanding makes a dusty mess and will take two or three times longer.

Once you have the oar scraped clean you need to make a decision about how to fill the crack dent or damage.

The oars i am fixing only had small cracks running vertically up the blades along the laminations. If you have broken chipped or rotty oars begin by picking out all the loose material. Next if there are whole sections of the blade missing build replacement sections and glue them on using epoxy. Mix some thickened epoxy. I like to mix West Systems 406 and 407 50/50 for this task. The consistency your going for is thick peanut butter.

Using an chemical brush apply un-thickened epoxy to the blade then spread the thickened into all those dents, dings, and cracks. Let dry. Try to get this layer as smooth as possible it will save you a lot of sanding later.

Now sand that surface until it is satisfactorily smooth.

For the next step i decided to apply two layers of 6oz fiberglass cloth. Start by trimming four pieces to fit.

Next brush on un-thickened epoxy to the area of the oar to be covered and place the first layer of cloth on top. Now saturate the first layer. Place the second layer of cloth over the first and saturate it. The goal here is to use enough epoxy to thoroughly saturate both layers but not to much where the cloth floats on the resin.

When dry use a utility knife to trim the edges. Flip the blades and repeat the cloth application.

Once top and bottom are covered you can do the edges with cloth if you wish. Getting cloth to bend and stick over an edge can be finicky so take your time.

Once there all finished i used black spray paint then a light blue house paint followed by varnish to finish off the fix.

Now that there fixed up i hope to get a year or two or use out of them. Maybe then ill be ready to make my own oars.

While all of this was drying i used SeamGrip to glue on tie off points to my seat cushion. The Velcro i had been using failed and it was sliding around.

Cheers,
Stuber

IRH Cleared for use.

Well after the IRH's first outing there were some modifications that i felt needed to be made to make the boat a little more comfortable.

I added these webbing loops for and aft, port and starboard. They allow the rower to ship the oars for or aft without forcing them to put them under their knees or leaving them to drag in the water.

I next added cleats. One on the forward bulkhead and one on the aft deck to hold the bow and stern lines.

I also re wrapped the oars, as seen in the previous post.

With the boat all fixed up it was off the the Bear Creek to Hatchery  section of the Sol Duc with Joyce, Morgan, and Larry. This is the section above the IRH's first run, and is much more technical than the lower run. 

We had more water than the last time i ran this section, we figure about  2500-3000 CFS. For kayaks and Canoes this is a fantastic section. Boulder gardens abound as the river winds its way through lowland rain forest.

At this water level the rapids are defiantly class III. The waves and holes can be surprisingly large. This combined with multiple moves within the drops really spices up the run and makes it fun.

We had light drizzle with the sun coming out every once in a while. As hard as it was raining when we passed Lake Crescent the weather seemed fantastic.

I have no idea the names of the rapids but about two thirds of the way down there is a fantastic long class III with some big pushy holes and waves. At one point i stood the IRH up on the transom. No matter where i went i never took in a drop of water over the bow.

It turned out to be another fantastic day on the water. Good people and good times.

As any good day on the river requires some quality boat stacking on the trailer.

Finally here is a really short flick that Morgan from Olympic Raft and Kayak put together.

Next time.... How to fix a cracked oar blade.

Oar Wrap the Final Frontier.

Well i have now wrapped a bunch of oars. I have a nice little system that should make a lot of our lives way easier. So here is how it works.

Start by clamping the oar onto the bench. By using staves you can securely hold the oar out away from the work surface as in the picture below.

If you are unfamiliar with this blog or just need a refresher please read this blog post. In the post, Serving You the Perfect Oar Wrap, i describe a serving mallet. This simple tool is still the best way i have found to do this non mechanically so build yourself one.

With the oar all clamped up and the area to be wrapped marked off begin at the handle end of the oar. Start by un-braiding or un-twisting about four or five inches of the line.  Then with electrical tape wrap it down so that the live ind of the line sticks out facing the handle.

Now set up the serving mallet and begin wrapping (serving) the oar working your way to the blade. If your wondering about how to use the Serving Mallet see the above post. Keep going until your six wraps from your end mark. You can figure out this distance by measuring six finished wraps.

For the last six wraps a loop of rope needs to be put under the servings. Make sure that the knot is facing the handle.

With the last six wraps in place remove the malet and cut the line leaving about ten inches of spare. Run the end through the loop that you wrapped in and use  it to pull the loose end through.

When your done it should look like this. Now grab the free end and pull it as tight as you humanly can. Then with a razor trim off the excess where it comes out of the serving.

 You will now need some quick set epoxy like this.

Mix the epoxy and apply it to the place where the tail came out of the serving as well as right ware the tail cuts under the servings at the end of the wrap. This will hold the tail tight. Be careful not to glue the wrap to the oar (you'll have a hell of a time replacing it should you ever need to)

Ok so here they are, get out on the water and have some fun!

The Great Trailer Project 2014

I have had a bit of a problem ever sync i started building drift boats. If your into wooden river boats you will soon realize that trailers are a necessary and annoying part of the gig.

I ended up looking at a whole lot of trailers. Finally i bought a Ez-Loader. This trailer was designed for keel boats, not  flat bottom drift boats (or possibly a raft). After the launching of the IRH i got fed up with using the trailer bunks, here is what i came up with.

I know many drift boat trailers simply have two rollers. This is great if your only going to haul drift boats. I have a feeling my trailer is going to haul all sorts of things like rafts, wood, and god forbid appliances.

I started by removing the existing trailer bunks and building a platform. Two by fours with half lap joints at the corners and carlins joints where the longitudinals meet the horizontals.

I also installed support blocks notched around the axle to stiffen up the longitudinals, they can be seen in the two pictures above.

I next installed and recessed u-bolts two to a side and one for and aft to hold the platform onto the trailer.

Then i covered the platform with one half inch CDX.

CDX down i laid astro turf over the deck and nailed cedar trim on to cover the edge.

With the deck complete it was time to start on the roller. I bought a one inch id steel rod and slid a one inch hardwood dowel into it. I drilled several holes into the dowel and drove nails through to hold the wood in place. I then drilled holes in the end (below) to accept the threaded studs.

With the studs in place i wrapped the whole thing in old bike inter-tubes for a little more grip.

I then dismantled the old trailer bunks. Taking the plates seen above and installing them into the side of the trailer.

Finally i bolted the roller onto the plates and added ring tie downs.

I know that this trailer isn't as bad ass as some high end drift boat trailers but i also know that it was way, way cheaper. I also know that this deck will eventually rot off. Hey by then i'll probably want to redesign it anyway.

Up Next, Oar Wrap The Final Frontier.

Cheers,
Stuber