Replacements

Wow I can't believe I haven't posted since my July float. Looking back I can clearly see the reasons, I have had a busy couple of months. So here is a little update on one of my projects. I will try and get posts out more frequently.

At the end of my July float my oars were stolen.

 These oars.

Funny enough they were not completely finished. I had left the blades very square, my plan was to trim them to shape sometime after the float. Unfortunately for the oars and I, some doomed bastard pinched them from me. This event led to me talking with the cops and a extensive awareness campaign on Facebook. Not surprisingly the cops did nothing. Surprisingly the good river folk  in the surrounding area turned up nothing.

After a week or so of no information and a trip or two with my old oars I was convinced. I needed to build another set  using the beta gained from the original set.

The layup remained the same, still a solid three piece spruce affair. I did use screws to clamp the pieces together this time. (After the epoxy cured I pulled the screws and filled the holes with epoxy and filler.) This really made the layup much easier than the first go around.

The first big change came with the blades. No longer square and possibly not the final shape I tapered and rounded this pair.

I also gave them a snazzy paint job. I don't know exactly why but I love color on my river equipment. I get funny looks sometimes from other boaters but at least my gear isn't boring tan, olive green, or black.

The other big change is in the placement of the wraps. ( I'll talk about them at a later date with some better pictures.) Finally and most importantly these perform fantastically. Well balanced and flexible. If you have never used a pair of spruce oars your really missing out.

Deeper Into Summer

My world has been moving lately. Friends visiting, soon to be father, week long boat trip, and stolen oars.

At the concrete shop we built this fantastic looking vanity.

At the tail end of the vanity stand project my old friend Alex came out for some Montana time. We went fishing and were able to meet this fella.

Shortly after Alex headed back to the east coast I took off on a week long trip down the Yellowstone. I'm not going to do a huge write up on the trip. I'm just going to let the pics speak for themselves.

Yellowstone R. July 1-5, 2015.

 Around Sheep Mtn.

 Camp one with Stephanie.

 I90 cut above Springdale, with train.

 Camp two. Last island in the Little Timber Creek mouth island chain. Very close to where Clark camped on July 16, 1806, about 209 years ago.

 Camp three.Second island above Four Banger Waves.

 Sunset above the Crazys.

 Camp four. Below Twin Bridges.

Itch-Kep-pe park boat ramp. I tied up the boat and carried my oars up the ramp putting them in the grass along the turnaround. Then I walked down the ramp and snapped this photo (photo) finished loading and cleared the ramp. Getting out of the car I walked around to load the oars. Poof they had vanished in no more than five minuets.

Well there you have it. Its been a bizarre few weeks. Stick around its gonna get bizarreer.

Enki Boat Model

It has been a busy few weeks here in the great state of Montana. Along with furniture projects and river trips I started to work on the Enki in ernest.  In order to properly estimate material needs as well as double check the boats shape I always find it important to build a model. So here is that process.

I have seen folks build boat models that are perfect representations of the finished boat, including seats decks and even oars. For the purpose of material estimates i don't find that entirely necessary. I start by building a strong back with the station lines marked out.

Then I cut out all of the frames and glue them to their corresponding locations on the strong back.

Finally i use thread to follow the sheer and chines. This last touch isn't necessary but it helps to visualize the finished shape.

Once the model is done you can really get an idea of how its going to look from every angle.

The next step in the process is to cut paper to scale 4x8 sheets and figure out how much plywood will be needed to complete the hull. Then write out the build order including the materials list. This process is necessary but really boring so I doubt there will be a blog post about it.

Well till next time,
Cheers.

High Muddy Water

I'm sitting in northern Wisconsin writing this post about the last two floats on the Yellowstone. It all seems really far away compared to the quiet lake outside but it wasn't more than a week ago. The first trip was sunny and clear.

Brian, Heather, Lea, Nelly, and I did a stretch at fairly high water.

The birds were out in force, I always love seeing Pelicans on the water and Brian got a fantastic photo as we scared some out of a eddy.

Nelly had a good time checking out some of the camping spots we use through the summer. As usual the spring runoff is changing many of the beaches and gravel bars, hopefully for the better.

Heather paddled a ducky the whole trip (see the video at the end of the post) but she and came aboard for a bit of lunch.

Sunset on the drive home was mind blowing.

Two days later and I was back at it with my friend Mike and his son Eric. We went a little further up stream and the water was still on the way up. This trip saw the beginning of some serious wood movement on the river.

As we headed out a huge storm formed up right over head then got out in front of us.

It was great fun to follow it all day.

The storm and the huge cottonwoods floating with us kept the whole trip interesting.

So the spring high water trips are here, I hope they are still around when I get home.

Till next time,