Chasing square

Spent the last few days squaring up the frame and getting the boat ready to flip. Last night got some fishing buddies over to help flip the boat over. Even with this wood frame it's still light. The boat is sitting a little high so ill try and chop each sawhorse down about 6". Spent today squaring up the center line on the floor, and getting the transom twist out . One way or another this boat will be square. While frustrating my persistence is paying off.. my transom corners were just less than an 1/8" difference to the stem from the back...that's before twisting. Not too bad. I hooked a Prussik to a cord so when it's time to do the final twist I can just pull tight to the right tension. Getting there. Almost ready to trace and loft the floor.

Straightening the frame

Spent today trying to square up the frame. Last night I realized I needed to let the panel do what it wanted to do. My flattish spot wasent loft e aptly right and to make the curve the panel needed to be pulled in a little less at the chine. I fit my rear a stations as they had been in prior, loosened the screws at the front and back bulkheads right at the chine line which faired out the curve on the panel . Once I get the boat upside down I will eye it out with a better perspective and make sure it is fair. I ran a  16' 1x4 strip of mdf baseboard down the top center line of the boat. Got the font attached, and the frame squared up. Tonight ill finish squaring up the back and bolting everything together, then its time to get a few dudes over here to help me flip this thing.

Been thinking about getting the other trailer dialed lately too. I can use it in the meanwhile. It needs some work. Thinking of making a small flat bed, and leave the carpeted front bunk, reattach the side bunks after. I also needs news light and a roller setup but I am thinking of making one out of some of this 1.75" galvy pipe I have. The last roller I built was PVC over galvy pipe, but I used a smaller diameter inner pipe which bent over time. Back to the drawing board....

One step forward, two steps backwards

Progress on the boat has been nerly at a standstill the last few weeks. Trying to fair the curve at full size and loft all the stations has proved to be trickier than I thought. Seems like every time I install one it messes up another, then I start over with usually the same result. Ill keep working on it and hopefully flip it this week.

In the meanwhile he's a ton of random photos from the last week or so.

Lunch counter

My quiver of boats

Shred squirt boat

Bee in the yard

The gros ventre

My garden plot

Boat at night

Selway surf

Fishing carnage

Teton sunset

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