I drove from North Vancouver to Alta Lake, Whistler,  B.C. The drive up was uneventful, there was no snow on the highway, only a little at the side of the road.

 

I turned left off of the Sea to Sky highway onto Hillcrest Drive, then right onto Alpine Crescent, left onto Alta Vista Road, and finally onto Lakeside Road.  The boat launch is at the foot of Carleton Way.  The trip up quick as the  traffic was light and there were no slippery sections on the highway.

 

The boat launch is at the foot of Carleton Way.

Time to unpack Gwragedd Annwn.  I take off her travel cover, load my gear into her, unstrap her from the trailer and get the bumpers, oarlocks and oars ready.  In she goes!

 

I pull her onto the beach and then go to look for parking.

There is no parking near the boat launch.  One side of every street is posted “No Parking”.  ( I suppose for the snow plows) I luck out and find a spot on the West side of Lakeside Road.  There is also parking at Lakeside Park, however, I do not see any dedicated boat trailer and tow vehicle parking.  At this time of the year, I guess there is not much demand.  I walk back to Gwragedd Annwn.

 

The round concrete structures are part of the sanitary sewer system.  They are some sort of pump house/ inspection access structure.

I thought that the funny reflection to the South was the wind on the water.

 

The water is quite flat with a 3 to 5 kph drift from the North.  I am rowing with my Pogies on.

There are a lot of pretty houses on the lake.

I row North, staying as close to the shore as possible…there are many docks reaching out from the shore.

The two flags to the left hang limp.  I begin to warm-up.  My feet, however stay cold.  I have to get better boots for cold-weather rowing.

There is a small pond off of the lake.  I do not know what it is called.  It is iced-over and I cannot row Gwragedd Annwn in.  I row into the ice and it is too thick for me to go very far.

I have passed three houses under construction and or being renovated.

There is a hiking trail beside the Lake called The Blueberry Trail.  There were a couple of ladies walking a dog when I rowed by.  They were very friendly.

 

I continue to row North.

I do not know what boating centre this is.

 

I row down until the current becomes strong.  Urban Oarsman Matt  has warned me that the river is too narrow for rowboats…He speaks from experience.

The North end of the lake is shallow and reedy.  I poke into some open water, but much of the lake is frozen in the shallows.  This is an observation tower at the North End.

Rainbow Park is at the North-West end of the lake.

I row South down the lake.

The train tracks run along the West side of the lake.  I did not see or hear any trains.

There are no boats out….waiting for the ice-boat regatta season?

Many of the houses on the West side of the tracks have floats in front of them…Many of the boat houses and the houses on shore have the same architectural style.

What I thought was wind-shadow when I launched turns out to be frozen water.  The ice extends to the shore.  I cannot row through it.

 

I turn North and row on the edge of the ice…There are many mysterious “holes” in the ice sheet.  I do not notice any water up-welling and and have no idea why they are there.  They must have a name, I just do not know what it is.  Maybe imarnirsaq and or ammaniq?

 

I continue to row around the ice.  I will not be able to row to the South End and into Nita Lake.

I do not know if the ice is always at the South End, or if the wind blows it up and down the lake.  There had been winds from the North earlier in the week…

I arrive back at the boat launch, beach Gwragedd Annwn and walk to the FJ.  Hard to get the blood back into my feet…I really have to do something about my cold feet.

 

I load Gwragedd Annwn onto her trailer, strap her on, stow my gear, secure her oars and oarlocks and put her traveling cover on.  Ready for the trip home.

 

Happy rowing to you, stay warm and have fun.

 

Mike

 

 

 

Weekend three of the Canoe Build:

A bit of a change, Paul came up on Saturday to work on the canoe.

I have a prior rowing trip with the Hollyburn Sailing Club, the “Winter Hot Wine Paddle”, from the Hollyburn Sailing Club to Sandy Cove in West Vancouver, B.C., so Paul continues on his own, shaping the stems to accept the bead and cove planking.

Note that Paul is sanding down the form as well to get the correct angle for the planking.

The job goes reasonably quickly.

After shaping the stem, When I get home, Paul and I then put the “bead” on the planking.  We make up a jig using a router, a “bead” routing bit, the shop-made extension table for the Shopsmith and two feather boards.  This will be a two-man job.  The strips are too long for one person to handle safely.

To make the fence, I “routed” the bead bit into the fence at the correct height to put the “bead” on the centre of the strip.  The top feather-board holds the strip down. the side feather-board hold the strip to the fence.  The shop-vac hose sucks up most of the sawdust.

Now it is just a matter of Paul feeding the strips in and I pulling the strips through.  We have 62 strips to do.

The strips have been sorted as to colour…and numbered…We keep them in order so both sides of the canoe will look similar.

 

Next Step:  Putting a cove edge onto the strips.  We will have to adjust the jig, replacing the “bead” bit with the “cove” one, adjusting the bit height, and the feather boards.  Getting closer to planking with every step.

 

Good rowing (maybe good paddling) to you,

 

(Pogies for when the rowing is cold!)

Mike

 

 

Weekend two of the Canoe Build:

 

This Sunday we ripped some strips for the stem and stern  laminations.

We used the shopsmith, and a fingerboard to rip some philippine mahogany I had into 3/16″ strips.  We cut five strips for each stem piece.

We then used Tightbond II glue to glue the strips together.  Here is Paul slathering the strips with the glue.

After the strips were buttered with glue, we clamped them to the forms.

Note that we have used Tuck Tape to keep the glue from sticking to the forms.

We then wiped up all of the glue overflow.  Because it is early December and the shop is relatively cold, I set up a heat lamp to shine on each stem piece.

When we bought the wood for the canoe, we got a number of ¼” by ¾” bead and cove strips, a number of ¼” by 1¾” strips and a 1¾” by 7½” cedar board, all about 16′ long.  There were enough  ¼” by ¾” bead and cove strips to do one-half of a canoe.  Paul and I decided to use the ¼” by 1¾” strips as there were enough to do an entire canoe.  We graded the strips as to colour. In the photo, the gunwale strips are to the right, keel strips to the left.

We then ripped each strip in half, putting one in the Port side pile and the other into the Starboard pile…this way the canoe should have the same (or very similar) colour pattern on each side.

We measured and we should have enough strips after we bead and cove them.  As we get closer to the keel, the length of strip necessary will diminish.  We may be able to get “two” strips out of “one” near the keel.

If not, we can always use some of the original ¼” by ¾” bead and cove strips.

 

Three photos of the stem & stern laminations, the ¼” by ¾” strips in two (Port & Starboard) bundles.

Next steps?  Beveling the stem and stern pieces and routing a bead and cove into the strips.  Maybe we will get some strips put on.

Good rowing (maybe good paddling) to you,

 

Mike

A situation faced by many an Oarsman…

What do you do when your Son (or Daughter) tells you that they are a paddler?

…Why you build a canoe in your new garage/workshop with them of course!

 

PAUL’S CANOE BUILD

 

My son Paul wanted to build a cedar-strip canoe.

 

I found some cedar strips and a strongback for sale on Craig’s List.  A fellow had build a canoe and had about 50 ¾” bead & cove strips, about 50 1¾” square edge strips, a 1¾” by 8″ by 16′ long clear red cedar plank, and a strongback left over from his project. (we never did see the finished canoe)  With my new Garage/Workshop finished and Gwragedd Annwn refurbushed and out of the way, this will be the first new build.

Paul has chosen The Bear Mountain “Hiawatha” design by Ted Moores from his book “Canoecraft”.  To quote “Canoecraft”: “This Bear Mountain design has a look that is as traditional as its name, its sheer-line and bow profile harking back to the native forebears of modern canoes.  Its underbody, however, has been shaped to conform to the most up-to-date concepts in paddling efficiency.  The hull is a shallow arch with a moderately flat keel-line that flows into a shallow vee to become a fine deep vee at the bow for directional stability, speed and maneuverability.   The vee is carried as far back as possible so that it acts like a keel for tacking.  As a general purpose or light tripping canoe, it was designed in the tradition of contemporary American cruiser, achieving its optimum waterline shape when paddled level, not heeled over”..

 

Here is the design from Canoecraft:

The way Ted Moore has done his table of offsets it to have two sets of points.  “Chart A” shows the points on parallel lines drawn 2” apart up from the baseline.  “Chart B” shows the points on parallel lines drawn 2” apart from the centreline of each form.  A station is also a form or a mold.  So on “Chart A”, for Station 0 (or the middle form) at 2” from centreline, there is a point 1⅜-“.  This is really just graphing, the only difference being that the axis are the baseline and the centreline and one of the two coordinates for each point is on the 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, or 16 inch line from the baseline.  In “Chart B” one of the coordinates is a multiple of two inches away from the centre line. is exactly two or a multiple of two inches away from the centre line.

The way to make this work is to draw a grid of 2” squares onto the wood you are using to make your forms.  I got a deal on some MDF cut-offs from a sign company across the street from Martin Marine.

Here is what the points look like plotted out on paper.  The red are from “Chart A”, the green from “Chart B”  This is for one-half of Station number 0 or the middle form.

You can make out the shape of the middle form, for the middle of the canoe.

 

The next step is to draw out all of the offsets onto all of the forms.  You end up with 15 forms/moulds, 7 pairs (Station numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, the Bow/stern sections and form/mould 0).

 

One trick you can do is to cut out the forms/moulds in pairs by temporarily screwing the pairs of forms/moulds together.  Then you only have to drill one set of holes for the finishing nails and drawing out the cutting lines.  Cutting out the forms/moulds out in pairs also helps make the two more identical.  If you get really picky, you can reverse one of the forms in the pair during sanding to ensure that both sides are the same.

 

Remember you will need a centre line on EACH side of EACH mould for aligning them onto the strongback later.

Then using a jig (a block of wood with the alignment hole drilled with a drill press) to insure that your pilot holes are drilled square, pre-drill holes at all of the points.  One trick is to cut out the Bow/stern moulds together, as well as two #1s, two # 2s etc.

Tap in finishing nails into all of the holes:

We used piano wire held next to the nails to draw a line for the outside of the forms.

Paul then used a jigsaw to cut out the forms.  He cut the lines proud and then used the Shopsmith 12” sanding disk to sand the forms down to the mold line.  Note that he is doing the forms/moulds in pairs.  Two of the temporary screws are visible at the top of the picture.

Paul then used a hole saw in the drill press to cut out holes for clamping the bow and stern piece laminations.  Ted Moore recommends 2” diameter holes about 4” apart, centre to centre, 1” from the edge.

The next step is to mount the Bow/stern forms/moulds to form/mould #6.  We used clamps to temporally hold everything together while we made sure that everything was in alignment.  We decided that our inside stem/stern pieces would be ¾” wide so the bow section is at where Station #6 form/mould is ¾” across, at the top in the picture.  We used screws to hold everything together.

 

You have to have a straight line down the centre of your strongback to centre the forms/moulds to.  It is also good to have one straight, square edge to measure from.

 

We squared up and leveled our strongback.  We started with Station mould #0, placing it in the middle of the strongback.  As our strongback was level, we used a plumb bob, held to the centre line on the form, to insure that our station mould was aligned to the vertical.

 

We clamped everything together and then used a hammer to tap the mould into square.

 

When we were satisfied that everything was square, we pre-drilled every hole and then screwed it together.  We then placed the bow and stern mould onto the strongback, insuring that the bow and stern were 15’ apart.  We then put in the rest of the forms/moulds.

You do a lot of looking along the forms, checking to see if the canoe looks fair, that all of the tops of the forms/moulds line up, that one does not look to be up or down compared to the others.

 

Well that is where we are as of December 4^th.

Paul says that he will be up to work on the canoe every Sunday until it is finished.  Next steps?  Laminating the inside stem pieces, preparing the cedar strips.  If we do not have enough, we will cut some from the cedar plank we have.  Paul will also sort the strips trying to get a pleasing planking pattern happening.  He is hoping to finish the hull bright.

Good rowing (maybe good paddling) to you,

 

Mike, the Urban Oarsman.

 

The Urban Oarsman Makes Wood & Leather Bailers for Gwragedd Annwn.

I have made bailers before, out of plastic four litre/one gallon jugs.  The plastic jugs only last so long before sunlight degrades the plastic and they break.  All the bailers that I had have made met this untimely, vampiric death…I have decided to make some Wood & Leather bailers more suited to a wooden boat.  I did like the way the jug bailers worked, as the forward lip of the bailer conformed to the bottom of the boat and they felt balanced when bailing.

A Philip C. Bolger fan, I decided to use the mid-section of his sailing ship, “Rose” as the pattern for the bailer base.  I decided that the bailer should be about the same size as the plastic ones.

I had an old piece of cedar door sill hanging around the shop so I used it.  I cut out the base and the handle.

I then cut a notch in the base and attached the handle.

Cutting the notch

Rough fitting done…time to sand and shape.

I used the top wheel on my 1″ belt sander to shape and sand the handle.

I cut a slot into the handle to put a wedge in to help keep the handle in the base.

When the glue was dry, I sanded and shaped the handle and base to fit my right hand (I am right handed and bail with my right hand).  I took off all the sharp edges.

 

I next marked out the leather scoop/lip on a leftover oar-leathering piece.

I determined the width by measuring the distance from the gunnels of the base using a tape measure.  I wanted to insure that the scoop/lip would go come up a little on the base, imitating the plastic bailers shape.  I used sharp scissors to make the cut.

With all the pieces assembled, I final sanded the base/handle to fit my hand and did a final dry fit.

I marked and pre-drilled the holes in the leather.

The holes are drilled, time to put the leather on.

All the nails are in, time to seal the leather.

I use “Snowguard” on my oar leathers so I decided to use it here too.

The leather turns much darker after you put the leather seal on.  I put the bailer in the oven on 200° to melt the sealer into the leather and wood.

Because it is hard to source leather, I made another bailer using an Ikea cutting matt instead of leather using the same techniques I used to make the leather one.  The cutting mats are easy to find.  I did pre-drill the holes in the cutting mat.

Finished product:

I took the bailers and the plastic jug one down to the sailing club and bailed out all of the boats.  The plastic jug bailer performed as expected.  Good balance, lip conforms to boat’s bottom and no spillage.

The scoop on the Ikea cutting mat bailer is too long…the water in the scoop tends to slop over the handle while scooping, wetting the hand of the person bailing.  The scoop/lip did conform to the boat’s bottom, but the leverage of the long scoop made the bailer feel unbalanced.  The plastic cutting board cracked along the nail line.  I guess the Ikea cutting board is not the right material for the job.

The Wood & Leather bailer worked well.  I found that it was easier to bail when I put my thumb over the base of the bailer.

The Wood & Leather bailer did not scoop as much water as the plastic jug one, but in all other respects it performed just as well.  Good balance, the leather lip did conform to the boats bottom and very little spillage.  I am going to use the Wood & Leather bailer and see how long it lasts.

 

It does look much better than the plastic jug one.

Dry rowing,

 

Mike

 

June 23rd, 2014.  According to my Pitt River and/et Pitt Lake Chart, #3062, mid-June has the highest water levels of the year.  I am going to check it out.

 

Leaving home with Gwragedd Annwn in tow.  

 

Across the narrows, just entering Widgeon Creek.  The water is high.  It is calm with  high clouds.  The “No Power Driven Vessels” sign is in the distance to the right.  Most of my gear is visible in this shot, my axe, GPS, gear bag, water bottle, sun glasses, buckets, bailers, and a red fishing float.  More about the red float later.

 

 Passing the sign.  All of the pilings at the entrance are covered by water.  

The big stump.  I can row anywhere in the estuary, the water is deep enough that I do not have to follow Widgeon Creek’s main channel.

 

Passing by the stump.  I have brought a red float to mark the pipe that I ran into on my Widgeon Creek High Water Row.  

 

I called this pipe the “Cats Claw” because of the way it scraped Gwragedd Annwn’s hull.  It is an old sign post?

 

A picture of the pipe after I ran into it back on the Widgeon Creek High Water Row.  The water level was about 18″ lower then than now.  

 

A picture of the pipe I took during the Siwash Rock Circumnavigation Row.  The pipe is located where Widgeon Creek and Widgeon Slough connect.  

 

The pipe circled.  I managed to miss it that time.

 

I take the float, put it on the end of the pipe and hammer it home with the axe.  The hazard is now marked and if someone should run into it, hopefully the float will prevent damage.  

 

I drift away with the current, leaving the now-marked hazard astern.  

 

Well that is done.  I am now going to explore one of the right forks past the cabin.

 

The depth guage shows over 6½ feet of water.  This is record high for me.

 

A Three pointer on the shore.  This is the first time I have seen a deer here.

 

I work my way up the right arm leading to the North-East.  The “Gate” looks to be fully submerged.  

 

Close-up Google Earth Picture of the “Gate”.

 

This is what the “Gate” looks like with lower water.  I took this picture during the Widgeon Creek High Water Row.  Then there was enough water to slip by to the right of the rocks.  Today there is 18″ to 24″ more water.  I row right over the rocks and continue up the channel.

 

The channel runs to the North-East to the edge of the hill.  It then continues to the North, running along the rockface.  There are a few logs to work around.

 

An Indian pond lily, Nuphar polysepala.  There were quite a few along this shore.  

 

The rockface along the far East side shore.

 

The channel turns to the West, and I cannot push on much further. It is too overgrown.

 

Working my way back along the East shore.  

 

Some open water along the East side.  

 

The water mark showes about a 12″ drop.  I wonder when the water level was at its highest?  I row back out to the Right Fork of Widgeon Creek.  I am going to row up the creek, following the current to its source.

 

Root Stump in the middle of the creek.  

 

Google Earth picture of where the root stump is.

 

There is much water weed in the bends of the creek here.  The water is very clear too.  

 

Another dead tree to work around?  Trees across the creek have stopped me before.

 

There is enough room for me to get past.

 

It has started to rain.  There is a small side channel to Port.

 

The side channel does not go very far.  I row up the main channel to Starboard.

 

The main channel does not row very far.  This is as far up as I get.  The current is too strong to row against, the water is too shallow to row in but the water is too deep for me to line Gwraged Annwn further upstream.  I need to get higher topped sailing boots!

 

I work my way downstream, rowing backwards.

 

I am trying to stay in the deeper water in the bends, but away from the banks and the tree branches.

 

I let the current carry me downstream.

 

I manage to avoid the stumps & snags on this trip downstream.  The rain is easing up.

 

The depth guage piling downstream of the cabin.

 

The water level has dropped.  

 

About 8″ during the row.

 

The post, now marked with a orange/red float, is more out of the water too.

 

Much easier to avoid!

 

I row out of Widgeon Creek and across Grant Narrows.  I load up Gwragedd Annwn for the ride home.  It was a good row.

Widgeon Creek is a good place to row.

 

Mike

The tide chart for the row:

2015-10-05   (Monday)
Time	Height
PDT	(m)	(ft)
06:13am	1.4	4.6
1:39pm	4.3	14.1
7:50pm	2.9	9.5

The rowing plan is to ride the rising tide into False Creek and then out back to Hollyburn Sailing Club.  I want to be on the water early so I can row around in False Creek & visit Granville Island.

 

 

 On the beach, ready to go by 8:00am.  The seas are calm and it is an easy launch.

 

 

 A container deep sea freighter  heads out to sea through the morning fishing fleet.

 

 

 Today I am part of the fishing fleet.  I am trolling a buzz bomb, green and silver.  The rod tip indicates good action with the lure.

 

 

  No more freighters coming out.

 

 

 The False Creek Pirates are heading into Burrard Inlet.

 

 

 Their real name is Pirate Adventures.  I saw them quite a bit in False Creek during the Vancouver Wooden Boat Festival.

 

 

 I row past Siwash Rock.  The channel between the rock and the Seawall is awash.  I do not row around the remnant of a volcanic dike and “baked” sediments.  I am staying in deeper water because I am trolling and do not want my lure to catch on the bottom.

 

 

 There are eleven freighters out in English Bay.

 

 

 No freighters in the West Vancouver anchorages.

 

 

 Some fall colour in Stanley Park already.

 

 

 These two freighters seem to merge into one super long one.

 

 

 The Pacific Hickory anchored.  Her engines are 2 x 20 cyl., EMD 645E7, Her thrusters: Tunnel thruster 250 hp Propellers: Twin screw, kort nozzle, Fixed pitch Gear Box: 2 falk reverse reduction Gearboxes 4,719:1 For 191 rpm @ propeller BHP 7200.  Her speed is 12.5 knots Bollard Pull: 100t.  She carries 610 t of fuel.

 

 

 She has only one anchor, to Starboard.  She was built at Saint John Shipbuilding Ltd., Saint John, NB, Canada She flies the  Commonwealth of Dominica flag. Commissioned in 1973 with acomplete refit 2007. Her length overallis 46.78 m (153.47′), Beam,  11.81 m (38.74′), Draft is 6.7 m (22′). 

 

 

 Ocean Cement barge anchored.

 

 

 Pretty flat out by the freighters.

 

 

 Close-up shot of the barge.

 

 

 The buzz bomb begins to attract some gulls who are diving on the lure.

 

 

 I am close to the Vancouver Maritime Museum Heritage Harbour.  I reel the line in.

 

 

 Remains of a sailboat on the Heritage Harbour breakwater.  The boats came ashore during the windstorm (from the west) we had on September 20th 2015.  

 

 

 More boat bits under water.

  On the breakwater.

 

  I row over boat debris.

 

 A chunk of keel on the breakwater.

 

 

 

 

 This is Oarlock & Sail’s newest build, Ragna, she is a Paul Gartside ‘Riff’ design.  They launched the Gartside Riff on May 23, 2015, from here at the Vancouver Maritime Museum Heritage Harbour dock. 

 

 

 

  Oarlock & Sail’s boats Raga, Sam Mac, Vogler and D’Arcy.

 

 

 I do not know this boat.

 

 

 

 The North Star of Herschel Island has been moored here for quite a while.

 

 

 

 Sadly, this wooden vessel has a fiberglass dinghy.

 

 

 

 Masts and rigging.

 

 

 

 Her foremast.

 

 

 

  English Bay beach with Grouse Mountain behind.

 

 

  Northern Spray,.  I always wonder if her clinker planks are the same on both sides of her hull.  

 

 

 

 Rowing into False Creek.

 

 

 

 A barge is at the Kits boat launch.

 

 

 A little tug is tied up to the new dock.  No name, just a registration number.  Kinda cute how this commercial vessel is tied up under the “No Commercial Vessels Permitted sign”.  

 

 

 

 No name on the stern.  

 

 

 

 The old dock has been removed and they are building a new one.  

 

 

 Past the Burrard Street Bridge.

 

 

 

 I turn the corner and pass Fisherman’s Wharf floats A, B, C, D, & E.

 

 

 

 Flags show a slight Westerly.

 

 

 

 End of the cove.  

 

 

 I row out past the mega-yachts.

 

 

 Under the Granville Street Bridge.

 

 

 I row around the corner into Alder Bay.  No anchoring allowed.  One lap and I row back out again.  The wind is starting to pick up from the West and I figure that I should start home now.

 

 

 Good-bye Burrard Street Bridge.

 

 

 Sailboat wrecked at Sunset Beach Park.

 

 

  I  row around the wreck.  The water is pretty shallow.

 

 

 

I cannot tell is the hull is floating at all.  It may still be aground.

 

 

 

 

 The boat is probably high and dry at low tide.

 

 

 I continue along towards the Inukshuk.  

 

 

 Another beached sailboat.  Looks like a San Juan 21.  Poor old Donegal Mist.

 

 

  I notice something off the bow of this sailboat.

 

It is a grey whale.  In reading the news reports, they say that it does look to be the same individual that was in the area in August. 

 

 

  I take some more pictures.  They identify grey whales by the uniqueness of the barnacle growths on them.

 

 

 

 The whale seems to be feeding in front of English Bay Beach.

 

 

Grey whales are often seen close to sandy shorelines because they dine on small marine invertebrates that they filter from sediment or sand on the ocean floor.  The Grey whale is  coming close to shore and scooping up mouthfuls of sediment and filtering that for his prey.

  The crowd is Whale Watching.  I row along the beach, in 5 to 10 feet of water to avoid the Grey Whale.

I do not want to disterb the Whale…or get run into by it.

 

 

 The Audubon Society Field Guide to North American fishes, Whales & Dolphins says: “Gray Whales (Eschrichtius robustus), grub along the bottom for gammarid amphipods, the staple of their diet, and leave a cloud behind them as they move”.  

 

 

 

 The Field Guide also states:  “Their spout is not distinctive”.

 

 

 This is the Whale heading towards me.  

 

 

 Diving down for a snack.

 

  Up again.

 

 

  A lot of this activity happened in front of the Boathouse.

 

Four shots of the Whale surfacing and then diving:

Picture one.  Picture two. Picture three. Picture four.

 

 

 Probably my best “spout” picture.

The rest of the row is uneventful, and I am back on the beach at Hollyburn Sailing Club by 3:00pm.  

GPS track of the row.  Six hours on the thwart.

An unexpected treat, rowing by the Grey Whale.

Good rowing,

Mike

 

 The 2015 Blood Moon Eclipse Row is organized by the Hollyburn Sailing Club.  This event replaces the cancelled due to weather Fall Equinox Row.

The tides for the row are:  Low Low at 11:27am, 1.4m/4.6′; High high at 5:49pm, 4.6m/15.1′; high low at 12:05am, 1.8m/5.9′.

The tide will be high and outgoing for the row.

 

 Getting Gwragedd Annwn ready to launch.  The wind has been blowing from the South-West all day and there is quite a chop running.  The wind is dying down.  I hope that the chop will too.

 

 A successful launch.  I am rowing over to the fishing pier float to pick up my wife, Pat.  She is coming out for the Blood Moon Eclipse row.

 

 It is still choppy at the club ramp.  The other boats assemble.

 

 Urban Oarsman Matt’s cosine wherry.  This is the boat that Matt rowed in the first Widgeon Creek Row.

 

 More kayaks assemble on the ramp.

 

 Close-up of Matt’s Cosine Wherry.  Matt has rowed the Columbia River heading north from near U.S. border (canal flats).  He did the trip with row boat years ago and got as far as far as Golden.

 

 5:41pm and the sunset starts.

 

 The water is still quite choppy.

 

 I am rowing in the forward station and my wife, Pat is sitting in the stern seat.

 

 We are milling around in front of the Club, waiting for the other boats.

 

 Pat gets an artsy shot of me rowing into the sunset.

 

 The kayakers are launching.

 

 Matt picks up  his crew for the row.

 

 Norah is rowing her Mirror Dinghy tonight.

 

 She heads out past the Ambleside Fishing Pier.

 

 Norah & Mirror, sunset silhouette.

 

 5:57pm, the sun is right on the horizon.

 

 Close-up, Vancouver Island in the background, Bowen Island & Lighthouse park to the right.

 

 We row & paddle past the Ambleside Fishing Pier towards the setting sun.

 

 Either side of the sun, Vancouver Island to the left and in the far distance to the right, Then Sechelt, Bowen Island and Lighthouse Park.

 

 The water is still quite choppy and it is hard to get photographs focused.

 

 Norah and the kayakers continue to head West.

 

 The apartments along Bellevue Avenue, West Vancouver.

 

 The Sun is half-way down on the horizon.

 

 6:00pm, The sun is going below the horizon.  

 

 Barely any sun left.  

 

  I was hoping to see the green flash as the sun sets.  Alas, I have never seen it.  But it does exist.  

 

 Blurry picture of Matt rowing his Cosine Wherry.  The water is still unsettled.  

 

 Good seats for the sunset.  Now it is time to watch for the “Blood Moon”.

 

 Nothing to see yet.  Half of the lights on the Lions Gate Bridge are out.  

 

 

 A party-boat cruises into Howe Sound.   

 

 The darkness deepens to the west.  There is still quite a chop running.  Outgoing tide?  

 

  Twilight reflection.

 

 Still no sign of the “Blood Moon”.

 

 It is after 7:00pm and the “Blood Moon” is in this photograph.  I is so faint that it cannot be seen in the haze.  The moon rose at 6:58pm and the eclipse is at its fullest at 7:47pm.

Unfortunately, Gwragedd Annwn is moving too much to take a photo.  None of the photographs I took after this one turned out.

We row back to Hollyburn Sailing Club for a pot luck supper.  The “Blood Moon” does rise above the haze.  It is faint, but visible.  As Urban Oarsman Matt says:  “It’s an eclipse!  What do you expect to see?”  When the moon is well above the haze it is quite spectacular.  The the eclipse ends at 9:30pm, leaving the full moon to tower above us.  

    The “Blood Moon” Eclipse Row.  Well worth it.

Good Rowing,

Mike

Gwragedd Annwn’s mast is 17’10¾” long, tapering from 2⅜” at the base to 2½” at the partners,  to 2″ at the top of the mast.  It weighs 19.4 lbs.

I have finished sanding the mast and put two coats of thinned semi-gloss spar Varnish on to seal the mast.  I do not like gloss Varnish, always finding it too glaring in the summer sun. The top of the mast is held in the jig by a screw.  This allows the mast to be rotated during Varnishing.  Time to add the coats!

You should have seen the look on the face of the sales clerk when I asked him to put the varnish into the shaker.  He thought I was asking him to perform an unnatural act.  In 45+ years of varnishing wood, I have never brushed on bubbles “from the can”.  I have only had a bubble problem if the wood was warming up and off-gassing.  By the time I got home and opened the can, there were no bubbles and the varnish was thoroughly mixed.

 

 

 Where the router slipped, filled in with epoxy and sanding dust.

I varnish against the rules.  We had a spat of warm, sunny weather here and I put on the next coat of varnish as soon as the prior coat was dry to the touch.  As many as six coats in a day.  No sanding between coats.  I did this for a week.  I kept putting coats on until I had used up 90% of the one liter can, probably more than 40 coats.  I discovered this technique when I varnished the red cedar railing on my house deck.  The finish on the deck railing, with minor touch-ups, lasted 23 years.  I did another major varnishing this year, coating and re-coating until I used up the can of varnish.  Should be good for another 23 years.

 

 

 The clothes-pin splice needed a little filler, epoxy and sanding dust.

The only problem that I have found with this technique is that the varnish takes a very long time to dry “Hard”.  This is not a problem where you are not going to use the spar, oar, etc., for a bit.  For example, when I did Gwragedd Annwn’s oars, I knew that they would sit with her, under her cover for two weeks before I would be using them.  Gwragedd Annwn, sitting outside in the sunshine at Hollyburn Sailing Club for that time with the oars under her cover, thoroughly dried them out.

 

 

 The base of the mast, held by a screw.  I used a screwdriver in this screw to rotate the mast when Varnishing the base of mast.

The problem with using a rotating jig for Varnishing is that you end up with screw holes in the ends of the mast.

 

 

 This knot was small enough to leave in.

 

 

 The clothes-pin splice jig worked very well.  I think that this is a good scarph.

 

 

 Top of the clothes-pin splice and the gouge made by the router slipping.

 

 

 Sanding the varnish for the final coats.

 

 

 It does not matter how careful you are, I always seem to get some runs and sags.

 

 

 I used 220 and them 320 grit sanding paper.

A quick wipe with a turpentine rag to take the dust off and then more Varnish.

 

 

 The rotation jig, with the screw backed out of the top of the mast.

 

 

The rotation jig at the base of the mast, mast removed.

Ready to fill in the rotation jig screw holes.

 

 

 The screw hole in the top of the mast.

 

 

 The screw hole in the base (bottom) of the mast.

I printed two Urban Oarsman logs and used the varnish to glue them to the mast.  Again, it takes forever for the varnish to dry under the paper and stick the decals to the mast.

 Urban Oarsman logo Varnished onto the Forward side of the mast.

 

 

 Old Man Bretner, Boatbuilder logo Varnished onto the Aft side of the mast.

 

 

 Fitting the bamboo skewer for the top hole.

 

 

 Glueing the skewer in.

 

 

 Generous with the glue.

 

 

 Excess wiped off of the base.

 

 

 Excess wiped off the top of the mast.

You can see in the above photo where the coats of Varnish have sagged.  I will fix these when I Varnish over the bamboo skewers.

 

 

 I used a hammer and a punch to insure that the skewer was all the way in.

 

 

Top and bottom.

The next step will be to varnish the mast ends over the bamboo plugs when the glue has dried.

Happy rowing,

Mike