Primarily due to budget restrictions at the moment, I decided to build the deck framing out of southern yellow pine. After digging through every board at Lowes until I found one with relatively vertical grain (if its a good 45° diagonal or better, Ill take it), I walked out with enough wood to build the deck framing for about $7. Not bad.

Besides, Ive entrusted my chines and sheers to this strong, flexible, and affordable wood, so I have no problem at all using it for deck framing.

The first step was cutting the actual deck beam (the part that fits crosswise from sheer to sheer). The widest distance at the blocking for the deck frame measured 42 inches. So, I measured & marked the board, and cut it with my circular mitre saw set at 20° to match the curvature of the sheer. Then, I clamped the cut board to the back of the forward frame, and traced the curvature (crown) of its deck beam onto the pine.

I cut it, and fit it into place. The photos easily tell the rest...

Deck beam clamped into place against the blocking on the starboard side.

Once the deck beam is epoxied into position, I will add additional blocking on the forward side, like this.

Port side, with the deck beam and forward blocking clamped into place.

Thank you for taking the time to read my blog, by the way. I hope that you find it helpful.

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today, I sanded away all the high spots on the seams, and shaped the centerboard trunk slot using a router, and 7" disc grinder (aka wood eraser).  My arms are sore, but things are relatively fair.  I will need to order the fiberglass this week.   The plan is to use wide 6 oz cloth cut on a 45 degree bias, then apply 6 oz cloth over the whole hull.  This will be a long and tedious, messy task but will add value and years to the boat as well as much needed protection from rocky beaches.  I will put the keel on afterwards.

the PVC roller system is working very well to get this in and out.  

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You may or may not have heard about Fukushima, Japan where a few years ago a large earthquake and the giant wave that resulted from it badly damaged a number of nuclear reactors at an electric generating station adjacent to the Pacific Ocean.

When the reactors were first damaged, they released a bunch of radioactive material into the air.  Prevailing winds being what they are, they carried the radioactive material from east to west and deposited some of it westward of Japan.  Supposedly the material reached the west coast of the North American continent in about 3 days and as far as I can tell kept on moving in an easterly direction where it deposited more of this radioactive material.  Eventually, I suppose, the radioactive material all drops to the ground and into the water.  By now, not much of it is still blowing around.

 But aside from the initial material released into the air, there is an ongoing release of radioactive water being dumped into the ocean at Fukushima where currents disperse it and bring it to the west coast of North America. The radioactive water is radioactive because it is being used to cool various radioactive materials at the Fukushima generator site.  The radioactive water is being dumped into the ocean not as an act of maliciousness, but because so much of it is needed to keep the radioactive materials from melting that there is no place to store it - hence it is dumped into the ocean. Not cooling the radioactive materials would supposedly cause them to blow themselves into the atmosphere which would be worse than the slower dispersal caused by dumping the cooling water into the ocean.
Like all things technological, this was carefully thought out.
The radioactive material brought to us by the ocean currents takes longer than transport by air.  Supposedly 2014, that is, this year is when the first of it arrives on the shores of North America.  And thanks to ongoing dumping of radioactive cooling water at Fukushima the plume of radioactive water is getting refreshed with radiation on an ongoing basis.

Meanwhile, various life forms in the ocean ingest the radioactive material.  Fish do, mollusks do, seaweed does. Anything living in the ocean and swimming through the plume of radioactive water generated at Fukushima picks up radioactive materials.

What is not clear is how harmful the radiation is.

One opinion - from the movie Repo Man quoted here.

"J. Frank Parnell: Ever been to Utah? Ra-di-a-tion. Yes, indeed. You hear the most outrageous lies about it. Half-baked goggle-box do-gooders telling everybody its bad for you. Pernicious nonsense. Everybody could stand a hundred chest X-rays a year. They ought to have them, too. When they canceled the project it almost did me in. One day my mind was full to bursting. The next day - nothing. Swept away. But Ill show them. I had a lobotomy in the end.
Otto: Lobotomy? Isnt that for loonies?
Parnell: Not at all. Friend of mine had one. Designer of the neutron bomb. You ever hear of the neutron bomb? Destroys people - leaves buildings standing. Fits in a suitcase. Its so small, no one knows its there until - BLAMMO. Eyes melt, skin explodes, everybody dead. So immoral, working on the thing can drive you mad. Thats what happened to this friend of mine. So he had a lobotomy. Now hes well again."
Others are not so optimistic.
I am personally curious - so I bought a radiation detector and started measuring radiation on my own.  More on the results in another post.

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I already have two posts on how Unangan paddlers held their paddles.  To read them, type paddle orientation into the blogger search box on the upper left side of your screen.
Most recently, I have been having conversations with Rob Macks of Laughing Loon Kayaks and he graciously gave me access to some pictures he took of Unangan paddles when he last visited the Smithsonian Institution. Unfortunately I cant post them without the permission of the Smithsonian so I will resort to photos I have posted before.
I havent seen any Unangan paddles in person, nor handled them.  Rob has. What he pointed out to me is that the Unangan paddles have looms that are roughly triangular with one of the corners of the triangle lining up with the ridge that runs down the center of one side of the paddle.  The looms are also quite deep, commonly about 1-3/4 inches.  The base of the looms triangle lines up with the flat side of the blades.  What Rob pointed out is that trying to hold the loom with the ridge of the blades facing backwards is uncomfortable because trying to paddle that way has the ridge digging into your palms.
To test the idea of the uncomfortable loom, I carved a loom section out of a piece of two by four with a dimension of 1-3/4 inch deep and 1-1/4 inch wide and roughly triangular with rounded edges so it became more egg-like than triangular in cross section. 
Well, the loom seems a little more comfortable held as shown in the photo below, but not all that uncomfortable the other way around either.  What might be more of an issue, and I have noticed this with one paddle that I made is that a loom with a 1-3/4 inch by 1-1/4 inch cross section is that a loom with these proportions limits how far you can rotate it in your hands to get the right blade angle for efficient paddling.
I will be making a paddle with a loom that is an accurate replica of the Smithsonian type paddles to test this hypothesis.  The idea is that the triangular loom shape will orient the paddle in a favorable way when held flat side back and an unfavorable way when held ridge side back.  

So here is a photo of an Unangan paddler with his paddle.  He looks like a real paddler and so I would expect that when posing for a picture, he would hold the paddle the way he would hold it for paddling, that is, flat side facing backward. Note that the paddler is holding his paddle where the loom transitions into the blade.

This appears to be where you would be holding that paddle while paddling. If you click on the picture above, you will see that that is where the front paddler is holding his paddle.
None of this is conclusive of course, but I suspect that a lot of the dispute about how Unangan paddlers held their paddles has to do with opinions based on Unangan style paddles that arent very close replicas of the originals.  How you hold a paddle has a lot to do with what is comfortable for you and that has a lot to do with how the paddle was carved and also with how the blades were carved.  Some fairly subtle variations in construction of both loom and blade can easily bias use of the paddle either ridge or flat side towards the back. And as I noticed with my own Unangan style paddles is that I can use them either flat or ridged side back and both ways work although flat side back typically generates more thrust.
Another thing I noticed while looking at Rob Macks photos of paddles is that on some of them the ridge on the blade was not sharp but rather about a half inch wide and flat.  This type of paddle looked like the basis for the one with the groove down the spine.
One of the paddles in the Smithsonian was also quite long, 8 6" according to Rob.  It falls into the category of extra long paddles that Jeffrey Dickrell, historian of Unangan kayaks has reported seeing in some historical photos.
So there you have it.  All in all, I suspect that Unangan paddles varied a bit from place to place and from paddler to paddler.  I also suspect that once Russians pressed Unangan paddlers into hunting sea otters for them, paddle and kayak styles became more homogenized than they were before the arrival of the Russians.

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Inka Petersen launched her two hatch baidarka yesterday.  One hatch was for her, the other for her dog, Rosie.  The boat was a bit of a challenge to design since its volume was fairly small - total length 15 feet by 22 inches wide.  With low free board, proper trim becomes more important.  So we launched the boat.  I will let the pictures tell the story.

The boat empty. Trim good.

The boat minus Rosie.  Needs ballast.

The boat with Rosie in the dog seat. Trim pretty good.

Actually, part of what contributed to the trim inequity was that none of the seams had been sealed yet and the boat was taking on water fast and heading for the stern.  Still, we all were happy, christened the boat with some Anchor Steam, a local SF brew.  I was hoping for some Alaskan Amber but the supermarket wasnt handling it. Plus I got a swim in. 

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Four days until the G9 Boatbuilders Gathering.

Okay, I admit it. I didnt even touch the boat today. 

Too much else to do.

So, Ill post a couple of photos I took at G8...

...and a few from G7:

An old Chris-Craft cruiser

And, heres the view looking off the back of a beautifully-built Glen-L Zip.

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Back to working on the EA kayak after more than a months hiatus.
Today I tried notching and bending a stick for ribs, but there was so little wood connecting the segments that I gave up and decided to just do the ribs in three parts.  At the same time, I started refinishing an old wood and canvas canoe so I didnt finish the ribs but got far enough to work out how it will be.
Pictures follow.

View from the bow.  Set sides of the ribs are sitting in their mortises, ready to be trimmed to proper length.  On the ground, just to the left of the EA is a stitch and glue surf ski that somebody dropped there.  Dont know who.  I will have to call some of my friends to find out who it was.  Soon as I get caught up on building, I will go and try out that surf ski.

The first completed rib.  I just nailed the center section to the sides with bronze ring nails.  Seems to work.  The joint will be backed up with some stringers. Note the battens clamped to the sides of the rib sides to mark them for where they will be trimmed.

Side view of the stringer the top of which marks the elevation at which the rib sides will be trimmed.  Ribs are roughly 5/8 by 1/2 inches.

The view from inside in the direction of the stern.  Those ropes look so nautical.

Another shot down the center of the kayak. The first completed rib is visible.  Tomorrow, I trim the rest and cut and nail the remaining center sections in place.

And the ribs near the bow.  With any luck, this frame will be completed soon.

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