Whalen, our road warrior extraordinaire, takes seriously his job driving us to and from the river.There's always a new adventure along the way. A pool party on old 66.
Another pool party on not quite as old 89.
A datura at Lee's Ferry made me stop dorking with my telephone and use it as a camera.
On a research project one evening--a different view of Doris Camp.
But mostly I forget to take my camera out on the river. That's okay, I guess. Plenty of other folks are taking plenty of pictures. Meanwhile, as the Canyon heats up I get to play a bit in the shop. Here's an ER patient--this poor aluminum dory hit the wall in Crystal and scraped off her gunwales.
All better.
And finally back to the main project. Janek and I spent a few days milling and steam-bending wee strips of white oak and laminating up ribs for the new Dion Swampscott Dory.
We went ahead and laminated them inside the boat, which makes them fit nicely but is a severe clamping challenge. We employed many heavy things, many clamps, and many more inside-out clamps acting as spreaders.
Janek had to count them. We ran out at 105 clamps.
This is what they look like after the epoxy kicks.
A bit of grinding, routing, sanding and oiling. And they're in. Four big full ribs, and five pairs of smaller half-ribs.
Meanwhile we have rebuilt the planer, rebuilt and trouble-shot the new old 18" band saw, re-bladed the table saw, and put all new abrasives on the stationary mega-sander. We mean business. Tonight the freshly steam-bent walnut gunwales are getting glued up.
Tomorrow ought to be really fun: determining the final sheer and bolting on the sexy gunwales. Like framing a lovely painting. Pow.
