Shrinking the cloth can be really easy or very time consuming. The easy method if you have the room is to soak the cloth right down and then put it in the sun to dry. Must be a warm day. I am not too sure about this method as I have read that it truely doesn't tighten the cloth properly and it can relax again eventually.

We got back to work today. We done some smaller tasks in the meanwhile but today we were ready to make a pattern for the side panels. 

Marine plywood costs almost $200 for a 12 foot sheet so we bought a $10/sheet panel of Luann plywood, like they use on a door to make sure we got the cutting right. 

The pictures show the pattern in place. Tomorrow we will staple a piece at the joint to keep it together then get a sheet of marine plywood on Monday or Tuesday. 

We also have this kind of Rosewood Dragon Boat gifts . Dragon for china have many different meanings , With thousands of years of history. Welcome to our webpage to see more ( www.zlynn.com ). Let's enjoy it .

Here I am very appreciate to give some Chinses traditional wooden boat models to you. I think the Most of the model with Chinese characteristics is The Black-Awning Boat , Until today, still have some Chinese people's life in such a boat .

        Today I want to introduce you the new style wooden boat from China.

        In China, There are so many rivers . So there are many Chinese folk feature boats , I sure many of the vistors of the wooden boat blog haven't saw these before . So Then I will introduce some Chinese traditional wooden boats to you. Hope you'll like and enjoy it . Also Welcome to China to see it !

I have varathaned my entire frame, in and out with several coats. Now I get to put the skin on it. I got some outdoor double sided carpet tape and put a strip down the length of the keelson and each gunwale. Can't really see them in this photo but I also stapled a strip of thick nylon ribbon to each stem near the top. This will be used to cover my seams and act as a bumper protecting the cloth.

I found a great web site tonight with lots of good stories and a focus on building and design. Dory-Man.blogspot.com. It's always nice when good stories have great photos to match and Dory-Man has both.

I suggest a good long visit.

What are the pros and cons of using AC exterior plywood for boat building?

Well after a couple of months of inactivity, I have gotten back to work!  Last week I finished the gunwales and trim.  The attached photos will better explain. Photo# 089 shows that I used five .5" strips of pine for the gunwales in addition to the .25" marine plywood.  On the outside, I used another .25" peice of pine trim along with a piece of .75" molding (rub rail).  The rubrail was installed in peices since the trim only came in 10' and 8' lengths.

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.