I just received these photos from the new owner of the Bailey-Rangeley on the water for a shakedown sail.  Still some minor issues to be resolved that are due, mostly, to this being a completely new boat for him.  That will all get resolved and we'll both learn from it.

And away she goes.

And some more.

The new rowboat is finished!  Time for some wrap-up photos.

And I started getting the stem band on.

Nice oarlocks deserve nice oarlock pads.

More parts for the rowboat: two leeboards, a rudder, and two mast collars that I made of fiberglass to simulate the brass ones on the Bailey.

It took some searching, but I found these stainless steel clamp nuts for the leeboard hardware.

The leeboard thwart took some doing, but its done now, too.  Half of the work was research, and finding the hardware!  Some of I couldn't find so I had to make, that would be the angle brackets at the ends.  On a sailing canoe these used to be available in brass, and I suppose that I could have made some in brass given more time.  I made these  from many layers of fiberglass, then painted them black.

This is how the leeboard thwart sits on the boat and how the leeboard itself is fastened.

After a lot of shaping, sanding, and varnishing, the 4 oars and the spars are done.

Time for making some oars!

Spruce is nice but hard to get here, and if I can get it, its very expensive.  I chose to use Douglas Fir as its almost as light, might be stronger, available in good quality, and its affordable.

Big glue ups of wood!  You can see the rudder and leeboards sitting on top.

Once the oars are cut to shape, the first step of the spoon is cut.  There is still a lot of wood to take off, but with other tools than the bandsaw, which is what I've been using so far.

Finished the paint on the rowboat, got the deck together except for a few screws, making up the oar blanks, and made an 8 stave bird's mouth joint 12' hollow mast. Made patterns for the leeboards, rudder, and oar blades, etc. etc.  Just a little more varnish on some of the interior trim and I can get that all installed.

There are router bits now available to make these joints, but a table saw works just fine, too.  Due to the way that my little tablesaw is positioned with my work bench the blade won't tilt the full 45 degrees that it should, so I used this little carriage.  The wood itself is tilted at 45 degrees and is positioned exactly where it needs to be all the time.

 

The cuts look like this.

And this is how they go together.

The photo of the end of the spar looks a little loose as this is just the test fit before glue up.  This is the base of the mast, that hole will have an octagonal piece glued into it up to the partner.

And the mast all glued up.

Now the new boat is starting to look like what it will be when complete.  The second coat of white is on the hull and on Monday I will get the last coat on.  That will make one coat of primer and three coats of finish.  I am using Epiphanes #24, in case anyone is curious.

The last bits of hardware are starting to arrive now.  I just received the pintels and gudgeons, as well as the long stem band pieces.  I still need to receive the oarlocks and the sail.  I am sourcing out the leeboard hardware, and tomorrow I will have to order the last bits of wood to ensure that I have enough for the spars, leeboards, rudders, and oars.

I am also putting in another mast position forward of the one already in.

I took the opportunity of having to flip the boat over to get a shot of the interior with the finish coats of varnish.

I finally got the inside of the rowboat varnished four coats!  This is always and excruciating process as there are so many opportunities for things to go not so well.  No pictures of the interior, you'll have to wait.

Today I turned the boat back over and prepped...

 and primed the outside.

I have to get used to seeing the hull with colour on it.  One more coat of primer, a bunch of sanding, and then I can get the finish coats on.

THEN I can get the last coats of varnish on the trim and get all the pieces back together.

Got all of the parts made, fitted, and sanded.  Some days it felt like it would never end!  Got the first coat of varnish on today.  Tomorrow I get to sand everything again and put on another coat of varnish.  And again on Monday.  And again on Tuesday.

 

Had to decide on what to use for floorboards. I should have planned out the floor placements based upon the length of available stock. Alas, what I had planned to use was just on the short side. Long enough, but just. Luckily, I had some other stock that was longer, and nicer, too.

It took awhile to plan out how to lay out the floorboards for best fit, etc. It took quite awhile, too, to cut and mill it. Imagine holding a 2" x 3", 15 foot long piece of Fir and feeding it into the bandsaw cutting off very precise 1/2" thick slices. I had no room for error and the long end sticking out from the saw is awkward and heavy!

I had to adjust the floors, too, to get everything to lay our just right. While I was at it, I adjusted my floor patterns so next time this will all go easier. I took notes of the floorboard dimensions for the same reason.

The floors are sawn out of Mahogany and are epoxied in place. With the changing shapes of the boats interior, it is a real challenge to get a good fit everywhere and fitting took a lot of time.

Here you can also see the seat risers being epoxied in place. They are screwed to blocks which are bonded to the hull, this way the riser can be removed to facilitate future maintenance work. The spreaders are to apply clamping pressure, the short vertical sticks are to maintain proper positioning.

In order to not get epoxy smeared everywhere on the interior I placed packing tape around the glue area. Once the squeeze out is cleaned up, the tape is removed. I thought of this technique after the floors were epoxied in, I should have thought of it before!

The stern seat is supported on these blocks. Bars will rest on these and run athwartships.

And a small molding is put on along the edge of the sheerstrake. I used the small cut off from the rabbet of the outside gunnel. I will be using a canoe style outer gunnel which will cap the exposed edge of the plywood planking. The inside gunnel is installed with the screws visible, and the outer gunnel will be screwed to the inside gunnel spaced between these screws, effectively doubling up the number of fasteners for the inner gunnel.