Selway

Just got back from 5 days in paradise on idahos Selway river. The tl picked up a cancellation a few weeks back after coming home from the bar at 1:00am. I hopped on the trip 3 days prior to the launch. We kept it nice and simple. Three rafts and minimal but sufficient group gear for 11 people. 5 kayaker s in all, all paddling loaded creek boats except me. I packed very light and got all my gear into a watershed Yukon 70 l and stuffed it on a raft  while I paddled my riot air 55, a 6' playboat. Turns out that was a wise decision because there was surf everywhere...little surf, pocket waves, and some big monsters.. I think I ran most of the river backwards cause I was catching so much surf. Huge surf in a few of the larger class IV rapids. I caught big surfs in goat creek, double drop, and wolf creek. Awesome! Camping and the river corridor was fantastic and the only people we ran into was a group of 4 who passed us at ham...There were on a 2 days schedule. Levels were great.. 3.7' at paradise when we put on and it slowly dropped to just over 3' by the last day. Water was crystal clear the whole way. We caught a lap on the lochsa on the way home and I got a nice surf session at pipeline wave. Good friends, great camping, awesome trip. Can't wait to come back. If I ever pull a permit I may try and get a self support crew, layover at tony point, and hike up moose creek  a full day to experience a seldom run, wilderness gem. If someone ever asks u on a Selway trip, just go, worry about the rest later, u won't regret it!

Paradise boat ramp

Camp on river left below ping pong alley 

Tony Point camp

Moose creek

This tree tried to grow in adverse conditions but fire got the best of it

Double drop

Ladle

Clothes line at Tony Point

Tango Bar camp

Teepee Creek camp

Fog in the river corridor 

Its all coming together

Well, rainy weekend canceling our climbing trip. And the weather left no choice but to head to the river or go crazy. Ran 2 grow ventre laps on Friday afternoon, and headed to the Teton river in Idaho for some exciting class IV-V water. I managed to get some boat work done this weekend wiring in the lines. I had a plan for the bow going in, and only one frame really needed a little adjust ment to work. I ended up rolling the boats naturaul curve in the section between the flat spot former and the front wide bulkhead. My original model idea pushed a little too much width into the floor. This of course lessened the flair and the bow rocker, I went just barely wider than the panel wanted to be on its own at the flow, and pushed the gunwales out a bit until I got the fair curve on the sheer line I was looking for. In the back I kind of went in without much of a plan. Some of my models got close to what I wanted, but I decided I wanted to play full scale to figure it out. On its own, the rocker profile was about what I wanted. I pushed a little width at the sheer line, but tried to keep a fair curve. At the floor, I pushed the adjustable formers just wider than where they wanted to sit on their own. This little bit of additional flair pushed a little excess rocker in the stern. I'm still not where I want to be on transom rocker, still about an inch shy of where i wanted the rocker profile  to be. When I originally designed the boat I wanted a wider rear end, so I made a wider transom to carry width thru the stern more. Seems when I added the dish I really reduced my rocker, so I may trim some width from the transom. This will pull a little rocker into the very rear of the boat but since the shape is there already it will keep the width I had in the center section. Also my center former somehow ended up about 1/2" shy of 54" at the widest point. The bulkheads front and rear of it that make the flat spot are also about a 1/2" shy. I will probably add 1/4" shims to the center bulkhead sides. This will add a bit of width in the center section, make my big flattish spot a little less flat and put a touch more rocker in the tips I bit. When I have it where I like ill bolt everything together and square it up to flip over.

I got very lucky and was able to jump on a Selway trip leaving we'd morning. I'm out of here for a few days of epic Idaho whitewater. The Selway has been atop my list of wilderness multidays to do. The permitting make the Selway one of the most difficult rivers to get on. Only one trip a day launches and the season is short. Compound that with high water and it makes the season even shorter. Flows are looking to be just below high water so hoping for some exciting class IV fun

Even more hull pics

Got the front former in to bulk up the front end. Looking good. People always ask is this boat bigger than your other one and I reply "oh yes". Here's a shot next to the old 16x48 with limited rocker for comparison.

More hull pics

Got my temporaries screwed in and did a little alignment. Hull looks great as it sits. Took a few measurements of what the panels wanna do on their own before I start messing with the shape more. Got a full 4x8 sheet of cardboard to loft out all formers full size before I bring them to the boat. Looking good! Here's a few more pics from today.

Looks like a boat

I've often watched brad dimocks blog to see him assemble boats in an impossible amount of time. They turn on the go pro, start assembling, and before you know it brad is doing a dance on the bottom and taking a whiskey shot. I think I figured out how he does it...special effects. Either that or alot of helpers. Seems that guys always has people stopping by to gawk at his newest project, only to find themselves screw gun in hand hours later, boat building until the wee hours of the night.

Unfortunatly, I have neither special effects or a huge crew of helpers to get my boat assembled. So my assemble has been going painfully slow. If I only had 4 sets of hands or about 40 more clamps everything would probably work out just fine, but again, working with limited resources, things have been going frustratingly slow. The first day I just gave up. There was no way to assemble the stem and transom wi out another set of hands, and I was just slowly denting and wrecking my panels trying to keep things roughly to shape. It's definatly not the same as building paper models, although I have been assembling in roughly the same sequence of events. Today, thru sheer perse reverence and about 100 zip ties I managed to pull the hull into its rough shape. I have been on a tear w zip ties. First I bought a bag at the dollar store that turned out to be too brittle..too bad cause they were the perfect size. I went all over town without much luck and ended getting taken for about $10 for a bag of 100 ties at the hardware store. Those turned out to be brittle also, cracking most times before I could even pull the ties tight. I replaced that bag with for another from the hardware store, but they were brittle also. I found a few ones within the bag that were solid enough to stay in one piece, and after breaking about 40 I managed to get the transom held in place enough for me to put some temporary screws in and make it solid. I stitched up the stem resorting to bailing wire in a few spots because I could not get the zip ties to pull tight without snapping. From there I inserted the center bulkhead, and then the bulkheads in front and back which have the same flair but are an inch narrower. I screwed in the center bulkhead, and did my best to position the ones in front and back. Ill come thru tommorrow and screw those together to free up some clamps to hold the adjustable formers in place.ill start lofting the final temp former dimensions so i can fine tune the shape before I flip it and trace the hull.

Water is on the rise. been paddling the greys and gros ventre. last few days lunch counter wave came and went and had a few epic surf sessions. Off to the city of rocks this weekend on a climbing adventure. More next week!

Temporary formers

Spent the last few days making sawdust in the shop. I pulled the chipboard floor in the shop and turned it into two 52 wide x 78 beam bulkheads. I assembled that and the 53wide x 79 beam bulkhead that goes dead center on the sheer line. I cut a false transom that ill wrap in visquuen and glass over. I also built 4 temporary adjustable ribs similar to what sandy at Montana riverboats uses. I've realized that while my model is close, when I blow it up 12x the size, some things might need some tweaking. These will allow for some adjustment. Ill need to loft these formers full size to make sure the angles are even on both side pieces before i drop them in the hull. 

I need to build a few little jigs and shims to hold things in place while I assemble the shape.  Ill use rope to square things up, then flip the boat over and start lofting out the bottom shape. Getting there. The shop is about to get real crowded.