Skin-On-Frame Canoe - Part IV

I was sitting outside on my balcony this last week and I heard a peculiar cracking sound coming from the canoe frame.  Didn't see anything out of the ordinary at first glance, and then I noticed a little later one of my stems had split.

Turns out that I didn't follow instructions ... I'm sure there is a joke in here somewhere.  There are a couple of spacers I was supposed to put in between the bottom of the last rib, on either end, and the keelson.  When I got to this point I noticed my ribs were almost touching the keelson so I lashed them directly to the keelson anyways.  The keelson was being pulled down too far which put too much tension and stress on the stem and snapped it.  I also used red cedar wood for the stems, rather soft, and the instructions called for plywood.

Rather than replace the stem, I thougth I would attempt to fix it in place, but first I need to put those important spacers in place.  Then I found the stem still lined up fairly well where the split was so I gued it together.  The next day I drilled some holes from the top and bottom of the stem through the split and glued in some dowels.  Afterwards, for some extra strength I drilled some holes on either side of the split and lashed it together.

Now that the frame is solid again I can continue on with lashing my floorboards into place.  I am using fairly long floorboards down the middle so that it will cover more of the bottom which will give me a place to step down onto when I am doing a shore entry or exit from the canoe.  Otherwise I would have to step on the ribs and keelson as I'm sure I won't have a dock everywhere I go out.  I have drawn some lines on the floorboards where I am going to cut them down to.

Next I cut out a couple breasthooks for either end.  Drilled them down each side with matching drill holes on the gunwale so that I can lash it all together.

Voila!  The frame is all assembled and ready for varathane and then the skin.