[BGillespie]

I'd have liked to take the class, but he was no longer doing them in late 2018

Same, Flag is way easier logistically than Maine.

 

[Gremlin]

I think we need a dory boat forum. Good stuff and I look forward to more! I didn’t understand the appeal until I marveled at them on the Grand. I’m a long ways away from a build of my own but love the open sharing of information and the intelligent discussion. And, the innovation!

 

[Gremlin]

And peel the fat end of your carrots first!

 

[Electric-Mayhem]

I think we need a dory boat forum. Good stuff and I look forward to more! I didn’t understand the appeal until I marveled at them on the Grand. I’m a long ways away from a build of my own but love the open sharing of information and the intelligent discussion. And, the innovation!

Do you mean a seperate Dory forum...or a page on MtnBuzz? If you meant the latter...then you are on that page. If the former, then there are definitely a few forums out there and a facebook group. The forums seem fairly lightly trafficked... so I think having a Whitewater Dories section of MtnBuzz is probably enough.

Having recently become a Dory owner... I was definitely on the fence about how much I wanted to deal with the fun level to fix it level but I completely got it the second I put the boat on the water for the first time. I bought a well used Aluminum boated named Wesley that was built in the late 90's and spent most of its life in the AZRA commercial fleet so I'm hardly the first to row it... but it has been a pretty special experience so far. I never want to row another large craft down the Grand again. You really feel the connection with the river and the ride of a Dory is completely different to inflatables. They are so much more reactive to the water and make even small rapids fun. They are basically like a huge drybox too...so its pretty neat to have gear in a "mostly dry" container.

Really looking forward to seeing this little boat come together... I want one myself now. I just started another thread talking about new and innovative ways to build a Dory...might have to start a build soon.

 

[MT4Runner]

I think we need a dory boat forum. Good stuff and I look forward to more!

I begged the powers that be for a dory subforum with the new software

 

[MT4Runner]

Got the panels connected. Feeling like it’s a bit too deep.


the big Briggs has 29”tall sides at the oarlocks. The Lil Bastard is 19” and IMHO a tad shallow.

sitting at sides.

May trim to ~22.5”.
Open to discussion!

 

[Electric-Mayhem]

Looking good so far... looks like a boat already!

Is it at its 5 foot width in those pics? Maybe try to flare it out a bit more and see how you like it before cutting? If you do trim it...are you thinking an even 1.5" all the way or try to keep the transom and stem the same heights?

I'd love to see a picture from the top looking down and a one from the front too.

 

[MT4Runner]

More flare:

from the bow—I definitely need to spread the bow out more

 

[MT4Runner]

I appreciate the feedback

 

[MT4Runner]

This is a difficult perspective, I’m too close to the boat, but this is very similar to my big boat from a similar distance.

 

[Electric-Mayhem]

Do you like it more or less with the extra flare? I think I agree with you about the extra width in the front...seems like a lot of the boats are going with lot more "cheek" up front then is traditional. Not having done much with the sides I'm not sure what it takes to add width in different places.

Haha...have you set something inside it to see how it fits you yet?

 

[MT4Runner]

Definitely like it more with the extra flare. I thought I had calculated it correctly to hit 60" wide (to fit in the bed of the pickup) and be the same width as the big boat, but it was too vertical-sided. It's now sprad to the angle as the big boat. Will definitely have to trim the middle or the entire side to keep it at 60" with more flare.

Everything moves. With a given panel shape, more flare also adds more rocker. If you spread the cheeks more, it adds a bit more bow rocker. This is at 7-8" of rocker bow and stern.
You can push/pull anything an inch or two and keep things fair. If you shove it more than that, you end up with a "hard spot" and will have a funny outward bump in your sheerline.

I don't know if "cheeky" is traditional or not in all Rogue boats. Definitely a GC dory thing, as McKenzie boats tend to have a smoother curve in plan view. Another point in the "everything moves" view: if you see an up-raked Scimitar curve to the bow, there's either a concave cut in the sheer line, or it's cheeky!

Interesting condition here. I put the ratchet strap on the top line to pull the sides out and help the rocker in the floor. Transom epoxy was not yet cured, so the top 1/3 popped the screws and then glued itself inboard about 1/2".

I'll just run a saw down the joint, cut the epoxy and straighten it out after the floor is glassed and the rocker set.
Interesting that I used to try to hide my mistakes, now I can recognize them more quickly and will fix them so I'm not continually compensating for them later.

And you're going to make mistakes building boats. It's OK!

 

[MT4Runner]

Cedarstrip bulkheads with scraps from the canoe project.

The side hatch bulkheads will need to be all or mostly plywood since they'll get the force from the footbrace...but the main athwartships bulkheads will only support the vertical loads of the decks and keep water out. Plywood or cedar, I'll glass both faces anyway. This will save about 6 lbs and use up some extra material at the same time. I'm not "drilling holes in my toothbrush" to save ounces, but if I can save pounds, it's worth it to make a boat that is easily loaded in the back of a pickup.

 

[Marty Schlein]

Hello MTN4 What is the length of the sheer line panel on this build? and did you use the traditional bow and stern angle of a Briggs, and I noticed you had scarfed a piece to your floor panel does it end up longer than an 8’ sheet, looking pretty fine overall you might check your seat to oarlock height before you change any thing as that is a critical thing to consider. Thanks

 

[MT4Runner]

Hey Marty! Sheer is 11'-10": a full plywood length plus a half plywood length minus a 2" scarf joint. The floor needed the scarf to match the side length.

Yep, traditional Briggs bow and transom, as well as side flare angles. I love the way Great Falls feels in the water, but she's too big for smaller rivers and lower flows. She also takes 2-3 people to load/unload and is really bigger than necessary for one person on day trips and overnights. So I want a similar-feeling but smaller boat.

Seat (flat deck) to top of gunnel will be about 3", same as my other two dories. Will then have an oarlock stanchion that raises the lock about 1" above the gunnels--similar to this detail on the big boat.

 

[MT4Runner]

(yesterday's pics were Day 4 Sat 11/2 and Day 5 Sun 11/3)

Day 6: floor glass. Cut the glass to fit
This is 51" wide glass. The floor is 36" wide. I first cut the glass about 43" wide so it will lap up 3" on each side. That left an 8" wide strip. That was cut in half to make the tape that went over the fillets. it's pretty hard to cut plain weave cloth into tape, but is REALLY easy to cut biax parallel to the stitching into tape, and biaxial is already...biaxial...so it forms really well into corners. I use all my biax scraps to make tape to glass in my bulkheads, too.

Folded it over and kept it in alignment to then apply thicker fillets

Fillets are a mixture of flour, epoxy, and chopped fiberglass. Add the chopped glass first so the epoxy saturates it, then add flour to thicken. Previous fillets were "peanut butter" consistency, these are more like "thick milkshake" consistency so there's some loose epoxy to bond to the glass fillets.

Cut biax tape to cover the fillets, wet it all out.
Wet out the glass with epoxy and a squeegee. The initial coat takes roughly the same weight by volume of epoxy as the glass to be wet out.

In this case, 20oz/sq yard glass x 3 yards = 60 oz. of glass. I used about 60oz of epoxy (and 8oz more for the fillets)


A cube heater—on stilts do it doesn’t stick in the epoxy—provided overnight heat to cure the goo.

 

[jquinn]

@MT4Runner love this post and thanks for sharing! I check this thread every morning....no pressure! Building my first set of oars this winter and thinking about something like this as next winter's project. thanks again for posting.

 

[MT4Runner]

Thanks @jquinn! I'm not feeling any pressure. When I get into a boat project, passion sort of takes over and I work on it consistently just because it's fun and rewarding.
No pressure felt internally either, but would love to see it done by April or so for spring runoff. It's realistic!

Got a minor update, but didn't get any pics: glassed one side of the bulkheads last night, the other side this morning. Will trim the glass and trim the bulkheads to fit, then glue them in tonight.

I love shaping oars possibly more than building boats, but I LOVE rowing dories on moving water. I'm finding so much joy in both mellow Class I stuff as I am III/IV....but this thing very well might see the Lochsa.

 

[MT4Runner]

Day 7: bulkheads glassed

The glassed cedar bulkheads. Yeah, the butt joints are ugly, but the deck/bulkheads will be painted. Glue 'em together with a narrow bead of cheap white Elmer's glue. Epoxy will wick into the rest of the joint and really bond things when it gets glassed.

 

[MT4Runner]

Update time!
From late on Day 6, floor glass wet out and flow coated. Had a bit of a dry spot right of the heater where the tow didn't get completely saturated. Hit it with the heat gun, but the epoxy had already started to kick. I gave my previous US Composites more heat to saturate the glass. I can see I'll need to give the RAKA more patience, it will saturate on its own, accelerating it might be too fast for a good soak.

Day 7: Bulkheads glassed (above)

Day 8: bulkheads installed

Checking the fit. Center one dropped in. Front one took a lot of trimming.
Trim a tiny bit at a time!

This is one of my better ideas of late: HDPE strips clamped to the sides to align the bulkheads as the epoxy cured. Epoxy doesn’t stick to HDPE.

Did a quick scuff sand on the sides and bottom where the epoxy needed to bond. Brushed on unthickened epoxy, it flows better and will bond into the little scuffs. Then thickened epoxy (a little flour, a little kitty hair...runny milkshake consistency) on the edges of hte bulkhead. Worked great to drop the epoxied bulkheads into the slots rather than trying to align clamps with epoxy goo sliding all over.

That’s a temp spreader above the forward bulkhead so there’s no pressure on the bulkhead or joints until the epoxy cures

Tonight I will do a thicker epoxy fillet with more chopped glass in the mix and then a ~3" wide biax tape fillet.