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Building a Mayfly with my Dad - Seats?


vertfromage

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Hi everyone, I've been building a mayfly with my Dad over the christmas holidays... Tomorrow is the last day he has for me, so whatever we don't finish will have to be to be done at my home in the spring when I can work outside in the yard.  We have the frame build and tied, the gunnels glued, and we pre-oiled most of it other than the gunnels.  Tomorrow we're going to put in a thwart and the breasthooks... we glued together a bunch of neat pieces of glue tonight and have a guide to cut it out tomorrow.  We're also screwing the floorboards on tomorrow. I was hoping to put the seats in to act as 2 more twarts... but time is tight. 
 
QUESTION - Do the seats have to have their own stringers or can I hang them on a stringer that is already present.  Or could I add other twarts and hang the seats from the gunrails?

QUESTION - If I don't get the seats installed will the canoe still be structurally sound to transport on my van?

ALSO... How do normal people build these... we used like 75 clamps to glue the gunnels... my father has to be the only person who has that many clamps. 

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7 hours ago, vertfromage said:

QUESTION - Do the seats have to have their own stringers or can I hang them on a stringer that is already present.  Or could I add other twarts and hang the seats from the gunrails?

 

Seats "traditionally" are mounted under the gunwales and hang on bolts with spacers from the gunwales.  They offer minimal structural reinforcements. I have notched the frames and put a strip of wood to let the seats rest on. There are lots of options as long as they are secure.

 

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QUESTION - If I don't get the seats installed will the canoe still be structurally sound to transport on my van?

 

Yes. Assuming the gunwales, breast hooks and at least a center thwart are in place if should be no problem.  It will flex some but it is supposed too.

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ALSO... How do normal people build these... we used like 75 clamps to glue the gunnels... my father has to be the only person who has that many clamps. 

 

Normal people don't have 75 clamps????  I thought everyone had that many. ?

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Here are some pictures. We finished most everything except for painting the skin and adding the rub strips.  The canoe is now in our basement on saw horses, and my husband is going to assist me with the last couple steps.  Great father-daughter project for handy people, we did it in a week and a half, evenings mostly.  For people who aren't already hobby woodworkers... I imagine it would take much,  much longer. 

 

 

The dragon head was an add on of my father's, it might help counterbalance when I'm in the back and my little girls are riding with me.  I did most of the carving, except he cut out the teeth with a jig saw before I carved them with a rotary tool. 
canoe.thumb.jpg.b158ec807ec38a0a9e69b41c57151c18.jpg

 

716433381_meandDad.thumb.jpg.af3fa3d98afa557bf6076ada179d21e0.jpg

IMG_2300.thumb.jpeg.01950438f876af179961f802d9c8f2d6.jpeg

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The wood for the breasthooks was walnut, cherry and I think maple in the center. It's not sanded or finished yet.  I need to add some tung oil to the gunrails. 

IMG_2359.thumb.jpeg.2c36185acd10b0caf1022856e1660848.jpeg

 

We ended up doing the seats the way in the plan, I still need to fill them in with some sort of weaved seat. 

IMG_2365.thumb.jpeg.ad7735101b24724800008950637a7c78.jpeg

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