Back in April 2006 - ya, '06! - I removed the skin from my second SOF boat. I wanted to reduce the volume and to give the boat a tighter fit and also lower the freeboard to make it an easier rolling boat by permitting more comfortable laybacks. I took off the old skin and reduced the ribs along its length, but then I stalled.
The more I worked with the frame, the less happy I was with it. The gunnel wood was heartwood and was beginning to split here and there and some of the ribs were iffy at best. So I hung the boat from the rafters of my workshop and went on to other projects. Two paddling seasons have passed with only my original SOF boat to paddle and frankly, I miss having a boat that I can happily mess about in (my original SOF is fine, but it 's very tippy, hates rolling back up and is way too high volume).
Yesterday, I took the frame down and in spite of its problems, I'm going to put a skin on it, paint it and take it to Delmarva in October. The picture shows me about to sand off the paint which worked its way through the original canvas cover. I'll add some slats under my feet to make it more comfortable to paddle and I'll redo the stern shape a bit. Hopefully the changes I've made to the hull will reduce its weathercocking tendencies as well.
25/100
2 comments:
A great project!
All SOF frames are beautiful by their ver nature.
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