This week saw us go from a few patches of bare ground in the snow to a few patches of snow on the bare ground.  Of course, with this came the mud, our fifth season here in Maine.  Soon we can start thinking of spring, turkey hunting, open water fishing, and, eventually, sailing.

It was a busy week here in the barn, between paddle shaping, hull fairing and canvassing.  I’ll let the pictures tell about it.

Here are a pair of Algonquin style paddles, shaped from solid ash.  One is 60″ and one is 52″: I’m in the midst of shaping the shorter one, and the 60″ is finished with a few coats of linseed oil.

I use these two long boards with adhesive-backed paper to fair the hull.  The heavy rigid board is good for the fairly flat bottom, the flexible board works well in the turns.

Once the hull is smooth, it gets sealed with warmed linseed oil, inside and out.

After using a winch to stretch the canvas over the inverted hull (no picture, sorry) the canvas is secured in place with two by four “clothes pins” and the boat is set right side up.

The canvas is pulled tight at the sheer and fastened at each rib with monel staples.

One boat canvassed, preparing to fair the next.

The coming week will be fairing, canvassing and paddle shaping. Then it will be time to dope the hulls.