Barracuda Build

[Alan Gage]

OK, let's do the foot brace. This is going to be long and picture intensive.

The standard adjustable foot brace is usually aluminum angle riveted to the hull with lots of holes drilled in it and a thumbscrew holds the foot brace in place. To change position it's a simple matter of unscrewing the thumbscrew and moving the foot brace to another hole. The problem is that this is pretty much impossible to do on the water so if you slide your seat to adjust trim or for water conditions your foot brace is now at the incorrect distance. Many newer racing canoes have a foot brace integrated with the seat. The foot brace slides in tracks mounted to the side of the hull with rods running from the foot brace to the seat. So when the seat moves the foot brace moves at the same time, sliding in the track.

So how do I recreate something like this while keeping it relatively simple and use the parts I have available? I mulled it over for a couple days and came up with what I thought was a workable idea but I really doubted I'd be able to pull it off. I was sure at each step that the whole plan would fall apart but it just kept working.

First thing I needed was a t-slot. But I don't have a t-slot cutter for my router and neither does anyone else in town. And of course you know I don't want to order one and wait for it to get shipped here. Thought about using pre-made t-slots used for woodworking benches but the one small one I have wasn't long enough to do both sides and was surprisingly heavy. Finally I had an idea.

Start with a cedar railing spindle:


20140731_001 by Alan Gage, on Flickr

Cut an angle. Test fit. Cut a little more angle. Test fit. Repeat.


20140731_002 by Alan Gage, on Flickr

Hey, that's pretty close! A belt sander can do the final shaping from there. Just shave off where it hits the hull until the gaps are gone.


20140731_004 by Alan Gage, on Flickr

So step one is complete. I can actually cut a board that will fit tightly agains't the hull. Now for the slot.

Rip those same boards in half:


20140731_005 by Alan Gage, on Flickr

Cut a dado on the matching faces of each piece:


20140731_006 by Alan Gage, on Flickr

And then glue them back together. Now you have a board with a rectangular hole running the length of it. I gave the dados a light coating of epoxy to seal them before gluing the boards back together.


20140731_008 by Alan Gage, on Flickr

If this looks hard it's not. Just some quick and dirty measuring and a fair amount of, "that looks like about enough."

Now for the fun part. Set the saw blade so it will just reach the rectangular hole you made and make a rip right along the glue line. I did two passes to get it the width of 1 1/2 blades:


20140731_009 by Alan Gage, on Flickr

Tada! Instant t-slot. Well....maybe not instant....but it's a t-slot anyway.

Phase 2 complete. Now I need to figure out how to get the foot brace to slide in this slot.

Cut a couple inches down the center with a hacksaw:


20140731_010 by Alan Gage, on Flickr

Smash flat with hammer:


20140731_011 by Alan Gage, on Flickr

Now you see where I'm going, don't you?


20140731_012 by Alan Gage, on Flickr

Uh oh, it's too thick to slide smoothly through the slot


20140731_013 by Alan Gage, on Flickr

So lets cut one of those legs off and then cut a small slit down the remaining one.


20140731_014 by Alan Gage, on Flickr


20140731_015 by Alan Gage, on Flickr

After filing down the tabs it fit. Looks doable so it's on to the next step, epoxying the guides to the hull. This is where I stopped and gave it another day of pondering. I really didn't want to glue anything to the hull only to have it not work and it be unremovable. But I decided that even if my grand scheme didn't work I could always attach a standard foot brace to the top of the guides where there is a wide flat section. So the next evening I bit the bullet and glued them in place. There was no good way to hold them there while the epoxy setup so I just wedged in a couple pieces of scrap. That seemed to work:


20140801_012 by Alan Gage, on Flickr

At this point I still don't know if the foot brace will slide smoothly through when done or how I'm going to attach it to the seat. I'm just hoping I can come up with something workable when I get to each new step.

So that gets us to this morning. Started by rough shaping the ends of the foot brace:


20140802_002 by Alan Gage, on Flickr

The ears needed to be shorter, the flat section needed to be flatter, and I needed to angle the edge so that it matched the angle of the hull. With the end squared off it would bind. All this was done with the fancy tools I showed in a previous post on making the thwarts as well as these specialty items:


20140802_005 by Alan Gage, on Flickr

The upside down belt sander on the floor was great for rough shaping the ears. The file smoothed everything out.

And here's the final profile:


20140802_019 by Alan Gage, on Flickr


20140802_020 by Alan Gage, on Flickr

So how does it work now? Well it slides but it tends to bind quite a bit. When doing it by hand I have a hard time keeping the bar straight across so it binds. I don't know if it will be better or worse once it's connected to the seat:


20140802_003 by Alan Gage, on Flickr


20140802_004 by Alan Gage, on Flickr

So now I need to connect it to the seat. I bought a few different pieces of aluminum hoping something would work. I had some thin rod but that was pretty delicate and I couldn't think of a good way to connect it or make it adjustable. I had some aluminum channel but that was kind of heavy. Figured I'd start with aluminum angle and see how that worked. I drilled one hole 1" from each end and bolted it place for the first trial:


20140802_006 by Alan Gage, on Flickr

And that turned out to be the only trial necessary. It couldn't have worked any better. I was shocked. I really thought that I'd spend all day working on this and in the end have to scrap the whole thing. It wasn't even noon yet! I was pretty excited and did a lot of yelling and dancing around.

Another link to the same video posted in the above reply if you want to see it in action (sorry, no dancing or yelling): https://www.flickr.com/photos/7935459@N05/14624008430/

I then drilled holes every 3/4 inch to give me 5" of adjustment in the front and rear:


20140802_011 by Alan Gage, on Flickr


20140802_010 by Alan Gage, on Flickr

I decided on 3/4" spacing for the holes because a piece of 3/4" wood made it really easy to layout each centerline to drill. I would have preferred to have all the adjustment on the seat end but once to go past 5" it's sticking out behind the seat frame and hits the bulkhead when the seat is slid back all the way. So if someone short uses the boat they can get the rest of the adjustment on the foot brace end.


20140802_012 by Alan Gage, on Flickr

So that's it. Now the real test will be to see how it actually performs on the water and how it stands up to usage over time. The aluminum angle would easily bend if stepped on but it's close enough the hull that shouldn't be an issue unless I stumble when entering the boat or something. The thin flat section on the foot brace will be weak too but, again, hopefully it won't see stress in that direction. It won't during normal use. And hopefully if either of those are stressed they'll bend before they break something else.

Alan

 

[Alan Gage]

My reward for getting the foot brace done so early was to carry the canoe outside, put on a respirator, and spend 3 hours sanding the outside of the hull smooth:


20140802_008 by Alan Gage, on Flickr

I found a tip online to put a bunch of sharpie marks on the hull before sanding. When the mark disappears you've gone far enough. An easy way to see the low spots when sanding. I don't think it was really necessary. I was dry sanding and any low spots were apparent since they were still glossy. I can see where it would come in handy for wet sanding though since everything looks glossy when wet.

I started with 80 grit that but that took off material a little quicker than I was comfortable with so I switched to 100. Then did a round of 120 and one more of 150. I'm going to call that good.


20140802_009 by Alan Gage, on Flickr

It feels great now and I like the look of it without the plasticky looking gloss from the epoxy. There are quite a few areas where I sanded down to the point where I'm just touching the cloth, I can just make out the pattern of the weave but can't feel anything. Unless someone says otherwise I'm going to leave it as is, figuring that since it's impregnated with resin there will be no water intrusion. It disappears with water so it should do the same with varnish.

Then it was back in the shop to install the thwarts:


20140802_013 by Alan Gage, on Flickr

And that's pretty much a wrap! Final weight (without varnish) is 28lbs. 15oz. Making it under 30 will be tight. How much does varnish usually add? I might put some cedar strip decks on it. I cut one out and put it in place and it looks nice. But that can always come later.

Tomorrow we paddle!!

Alan

 

[memaquay]

I'm pretty excited to see it on the water! Nice work!

 

[Guest]

I found a tip online to put a bunch of sharpie marks on the hull before sanding. When the mark disappears you've gone far enough. An easy way to see the low spots when sanding. I don't think it was really necessary. I was dry sanding and any low spots were apparent since they were still glossy. I can see where it would come in handy for wet sanding though since everything looks glossy when wet.

I do something very similar when hand sanding wood, especially things that I want to sand blemish-free and polish baby butt smooth.

I sand with each sequential grade of sandpaper until I think I’m “done”, then take the piece out in the sun, find the overlooked scrapes and still-rough spots, pencil mark them and sand again with the same grade of sandpaper until those pencil checks in the grooves and gouges have disappeared. Then move up a step in sandpaper and repeat.

Sanding and polishing concave surfaces is of course the most challenging

 

[ppine]

Alan,
You are doing a nice job, and a great job of showing photos. On a wooden boat I am surprised that you would use aluminum thwarts. The finished product looks very Wenonahesque.

 

[Alan Gage]

Alan,
You are doing a nice job, and a great job of showing photos. On a wooden boat I am surprised that you would use aluminum thwarts. The finished product looks very Wenonahesque.

Two parts of my brain are in constant battle. The side that is all about function and the side that appreciates pretty things.

The functional side says the only reason I'm building this boat in the first place is because it's a design that intrigues me and because there's no other way to attain it (not available commercially and it seems very few people have built it so unavailable used). Canoes aren't works of art. They're made to be paddled so the more functional the better. Get it done and get it on the water.

The other half of my brain is the one that appreciates the beauty of a wood canoe and separates the strips by color before starting and tries to come up with a pleasing pattern. It's the side that strives to get the finish as nice as possible, wants to take lot of extra time, and tries to convince me to use more wood and less aluminum.

In the end it's a compromise. If I build the thwarts and seat components from wood how much more weight does that add? How will I attach those wooden thwarts to the canoe with the style of inwales that I used? Am I willing to spend that much extra time on something that's merely aesthetic and in the end probably less functional? Sometimes yes and sometimes no. This time it was no.

If in the future I ever want to replace any of the aluminum components with wood no bridges have been burned. In less than 5 minutes every piece of aluminum can be off the boat with only 8 small rivet holes to fill.

And I am getting better. On my first stripper I didn't even use wood gunwales:


20120717_002 by Alan Gage, on Flickr


20120717_004 by Alan Gage, on Flickr

Alan

 

[Hanz]

I really like it. Best of luck with it.

I like your clever solutions. The aluminum and wood is almost steampunk. I'm with you - I prefer a low gloss finish.

 

[Alan Gage]

It was a beautiful morning so I took the canoe out for it's first test paddle.

First impression was that it's quite stable. It's narrower than most solos (28") with a fairly rounded bottom so I wasn't sure what it would have for stability. Turned out to be no problem. Primary is a little low but it has great secondary. I'd still be comfortable with less stability but I'm fairly used to "tippy" boats.

Second impression was that it doesn't track as well as I'd hoped. Only a few strokes per side at lower speeds. Better at higher speeds. It is quite maneuverable though.

Not as fast as I'd hoped for either. I was pretty disappointed about this at first but then I remembered what it was like when I first started racing and got some racing canoes and kayaks. I remember being disappointed with the speed of my first really fast kayak too (WSBS Thunderbolt). But you learn with a little experience that the speed is there with fast boats but it doesn't come free. As your strength and technique improve the boat will reward you with more speed, whereas a slower tripping style boat will max out much earlier and more applied effort doesn't equate to much extra speed. Right now I'm not in very good fitness/racing shape so there is plenty of improvement to be made.

5.5 mph was doable to maintain and I could sprint it up to 6.4 mph. I did notice, when I looked behind me, that at this speed there is very little wake, which tells me there is more speed there if I can coax it out. Nor did it feel like it was stuck in a trough at high speeds. So it does appear to be a very efficient hull.

The low shear and tumblehome make it a pleasure to paddle. Easy to reach over the gunwales.

After playing around a little I went back to shore to find out how the dog would fit. I was a bit worried about this before I started building but once I saw the strips on the forms I realized there was plenty of room up front. It's actually a pretty wide boat at the gunwales in the bow and stern. Although it has a very low shear I'd think it would do a pretty good job shedding waves. We had a nice leisurely paddle J-stroking around the lake. I was surprised the the boat was nearly as fast with the dog on board as without.

It's an odd boat and I don't quite know where it will fit in with my fleet yet. If the sides were a bit higher and it had a little more capacity it would make a really nice tripping boat. Very fast with some maneuverability. As it is now I'd be worried about being caught in big waves with a load.

It's a pretty fast boat but firmer tracking would be nice for sit and switch racing/fitness paddling.

I could almost see using this as my every day paddling boat, which is not what I expected when I started building it. Right now that boat is my Bell Magic. This is nearly as stable, faster, and more maneuverable.

I'm looking forward to getting to know the boat better. I'll take out the Magic at the same time for direct comparisons. I'm also going to be getting my old Wenonah J-180 back soon so it will be be interesting to see how the Barracuda stacks up in terms of speed.


20140803_002 by Alan Gage, on Flickr


20140803_005 by Alan Gage, on Flickr


20140803_007 by Alan Gage, on Flickr

Link to video of the first paddle: https://www.flickr.com/photos/7935459@N05/14637283208/

This afternoon I sanded down the inside and put the first coat of varnish on the exterior. Hope to get on another coat before bed, one before work in the morning, and another tomorrow evening. Then flip and repeat on the inside.

Alan

 

[memaquay]

Looks great! I've never been a racer, but a sustainable speed of 5.5 mph sounds pretty good to me. What kind of speed do racers usually cruise at? Looking at your canoe in the water, I can actually see the rocker where the stems are floating free of the water. I must have screwed mine up when I built it, there was no rocker at all. I remember I was using telephone pole cedar, and that stuff is really brittle, some of it had cracked after the glassing the outside hull. The gunwales on mine looked close together too, I don't think a dog would have fit.

In any case, beautiful looking canoe and I'm sure it will grow on you. I think J. Winters said people were usually not ambivalent about this canoe, it ws either love or hate.

 

[stripperguy]

Alan,

Whew!! You sure made short work of that build. Looks great too!
Give it some seat time, it will either grow on you or not.
I love the sliding foot rest arrangement, very clever.

 

[Hanz]

Fantastic! Looks great - I hope it grows on you.

As long as the dog is happy

 

[Alan Gage]

Yeah, I can't believe how quickly it got built. I was just hoping to get it done and still have some good paddling left before the lakes got hard but it ended up taking exactly one month from the day I started cutting strips. And that was with a 2 week out of town vacation in the middle.

Even when I was racing I was never very fast compared to fast paddlers. I'd think I was until I was in a race with them. I paddled similar boats but they'd just leave me in the dust. I'd say the top canoe racers are averaging 6.5mph or over for an 8-12 mile race. So basically my sprint can barely keep up with their "cruise." But that doesn't just go for this boat, that went for my racing boats too.

I rambled a bit much in my previous response but I'm not really disappointed in the speed. I was at the outset of the paddle but then I remembered that even in a fast boat speed takes a lot of power and that I didn't seem to be pushing the boat to its limit. So there should be room for improvement.

I wouldn't be disappointed in the tracking either if I didn't intend this to be a go fast go straight boat. Maybe I built it with more stern rocker than designed but I checked before taking it off the forms and, if I remember right, it was correct.

I'm seriously considering putting a rudder on it. I might do some long distance (50+ mile) races and being able to take 20+ strokes/side with no paddle corrections is nice. It would also make it more enjoyable for workout paddles. I wouldn't need much of a rudder, just enough to keep it paddling straight. And I could always take it off for more normal paddling.

Looking forward to paddling it some more this weekend after the varnish has dried (4th coat just went on the outside. Will start on the inside tomorrow). It really was a neat boat to paddle. The combination of speed, maneuverability, stability, narrow width, and very low shear made it easy to paddle and it was a fun boat to cruise around the lake in. There's a good chance this will turn into my regular daily paddling boat. It's just got me scratching my head because that's not what I expected. I can't help but think that if it had little higher shear and little more volume it would make a killer tripping boat.

Oh, and Memaquay: As for the dog fitting the picture makes her look huge because of the low shear but she's on the smallish side at about 28 pounds. And I guess when I say high volume in the bow I'm grading on a curve. To me my Bell Magic is normal and my Kite is a tank. It's probably as wide as my Magic in the bow (and the extra foot of length gives more room as well). I thought it might be considerably narrower. This looks like you could actually carry some decent sized packs.

Alan

 

[Momentum]

Alan, I'm really impressed with your build. I love the lines of the Barracuda. It looks like it's going fast just sitting there. It would be really neat to rig it up for tripping.
I just wish I had the same amount of time you have to devote to my build. I keep telling my family..."One day".

 

[Alan Gage]

Thanks. I think it has a great profile from the side but I was really surprised how wide it was at the shear, not the profile I expected from a head on view. Not that it's a bad thing, just not what I expected.

While maybe not this radical this is more like what I thought it would be. Very sharp ends with a wedge shape back to the seat:


20090907_003 copy_web by Alan Gage, on Flickr

Here's the Barracuda:


20140802_015 by Alan Gage, on Flickr

You can see how quickly is flares out at the shear. It's more of a tubby profile from this angle. This of course isn't the profile that the water sees, but it does look like it was made to shed water in waves and carry some gear.

I went out and measured tonight. At the footbrace my Bell Magic is 20" wide. Halfway (by eyeball) between the footbrace and bow it's 16" wide. Just behind the seat it's 21.5" wide. Those same measurements for the Barracuda are 21.5, 17.5, and 22. No wonder my dog fits so well, she's got more room than the Magic!

I'm really looking forward to paddling it again this weekend and I can't wait to get it out in some waves to see how it does. Might have to load it up with gear one of these days too to see how it handles.

Alan

 

[Alan Gage]

quitPut the last coat of varnish on the inside yesterday morning. So the plan for tonight was to wet sand the hull to make it all purty and smooth. But then I took it for a paddle instead. Decided to do some speed trials compared with my Bell Magic.

The contenders:


20140807_005 by Alan Gage, on Flickr


20140807_006 by Alan Gage, on Flickr


20140807_007 by Alan Gage, on Flickr


20140807_011 by Alan Gage, on Flickr


20140807_012 by Alan Gage, on Flickr

Pardon the mess in the Magic. It was in the shed and the barn swallows found a perch directly above it.

So I went to a small lake and brought along the GPS and heart rate monitor to see how much effort it took to maintain, 4.5, 5, and 5.5 mph. Also how fast was a full out sprint. The dog came along to verify the accuracy of the results. Total weight in the Barracuda must have been around 200 pounds. 165 pound me, 28 pound Sadie, and a couple rocks in the stern for extra ballast to adjust for her weight. The Magic, without a sliding seat, had the same rocks plus 1 gallon of water, so about 210 pounds.

First I had to paddle across the lake to get to a shoreline that was protected from the wind. Their was a stiffish breeze that was just enough to make a few small whitecaps. I took the Barracuda out first because I knew the wind would drop soon and I wanted to see how it did in the wind and waves (which, like I said, weren't that big). It did as good as I'd expected it to when building it but not as good as I'd hoped when I saw how much flare there was in the shear. We were quartering into the waves and a few were able to break slightly over the gunwales. Just a little splash and not much water got in but I think it would be a pretty wet ride in bigger stuff. Other than that it handled the wind and waves fine.

Once we got over to the shoreline with no wind I started paddling up and down it, about 1/2 mile each way. I'd go up at 5mph, down at 5.5 mph, up at 5 mph and back down at 5.5 mph and then sprint at the the end. Then paddle across the lake at around 4.5 mph and get the other boat to do it all over again. The Barracuda went first, then the Magic, and then the Barracuda again in case I was a bit rusty at the beginning. I figure doing it this way and monitoring heart rate would be the most accurate way I have of comparing the two boats.

And the results are........nearly identical! Heart rate was within a couple BPM at all 3 speeds. 4.5mph was about 115 bpm, 5mph was around 124 bpm, and 5.5 mph was right at 143 bpm. I was able to sprint the Barracuda to 6.2 mph and the Magic to 6.1mph.

At the very end I kicked the dog out as well as the extra ballast and took each boat out for a quick spin empty to see how they did. It seemed to make no difference to the Barracuda (same observation I had on the maiden voyage) and even though there was a very slight tailwind when I sprinted I still couldn't get it over 6.2 mph. The Magic paddled slightly easier when empty and when sprinting with that same slight tailwind it ticked 6.4 for a moment and then settled to 6.3 until I got tired (not long) and backed off.

Crossing the lake they handled the light wind nearly identically (quite well for both). I thought with the low shear of the Barracuda that it would be less affected than the Magic but perhaps the greater rocker allowed it to be blown more easily or the wide shear caught some extra wind. But still, it did fine.

I could get 3-5 strokes/side on the Barracuda when loaded. One or two more with the Magic. Unloaded I lost a stroke or two on each and the Magic unloaded seems to have about the same maneuverability as the loaded Barracuda.

If I didn't already have a boat like the Magic I'd be tickled pink with the Barracuda but I was looking for something that wouldn't have so much overlap. While the Barracuda is a very nice boat to paddle, and I'm sure I'll get good use from it, there really isn't anything it does so far that the Magic can't do. And there are things the Magic can do that the Barracuda probably can't (like handle bit water).

I've owned the Magic for 5 years or so and it never seems to let me down. Really an amazing hull, the perfect all around boat for me.

Alan

 

[stripperguy]

Alan,

So then what happens to that beautiful Barracuda? Relegated to sit in the barn under the swallows?
The Magic, with its modern layup, weighs about the same as your stripped Barracuda? If so, I'd pick the one that's easy on the eyes...

 

[Mihun09]

The lack of the outwale lip will allow water into the boat that might otherwise drop back. I know the lip isn't much, but it does help to redirect water away from the boat. Just a thought...

 

[ppine]

Alan,
You have high expectations, which were mostly met. To the rest of us, the Barracuda is a screamer. To be able to maintain 5 mph or more is really hauling. Your test results are really interesting. Keep up the good work. One month for a build is amazing. Bell canoes are well designed. If you hadn't been paddling the Magic for 5 years, I am guessing you would be happier with the new boat.

As a river guy I like rocker in boats. Rocker is a huge advantage on lakes when the wind kicks up, but not so great under calm conditions. You have proven the point that every paddling enthusiast needs several boats, at least.

 

[Alan Gage]

Unsure what will become of it. Time will tell as I spend more time in the seat this summer. It will probably get paddled regularly but not as often as I'd hoped, nor for the purpose I'd hoped. The extra maneuverability will make it nice for our local river and the speed will be good for upstream/downstream runs. It will make a nice general purpose boat for local paddling but not tripping. Basically it could fill the place of the Magic for everything but tripping or rough water.

But I don't really like having two boats that fill the same need. If I had to choose one it would be the Magic hands down because it's more versatile and I have a real soft spot for it. I'll still be keeping my eyes out for a higher speed hull that's doggable. The Savage River Blackwater makes me drool every time I look at it but I can't justify buying new boats and doubt they'd supply the offsets to build a stripper. Finding a used one for a good (cheap) price anywhere, especially here in the upper midwest where they're rare as hen's teeth, will be nearly impossible. I think there is one in Minneapolis I could test paddle though to see how I like it. I haven't seen anything available in woodstrip, other than the Barracuda, that looked like it might fit the bill.

I'll be interested to see, as I start doing more fitness paddling and get it better shape, if a speed gap begins to appear between the two boats.

Alan

 

[Alan Gage]

Out early this morning before any wind picked up for another paddle with the Barracuda and Magic. This time 2 miles all out with each boat back to back. The dog was along for both. I messed with trim before each run and stopped paddling for a few seconds during each run to make small adjustments on the fly.

Barracuda went first:

1.97 miles
22 min. 14 sec.
5.3 mph avg speed
160 bpm avg. heart rate

Then the Magic:

1.97 miles
22 min 22 sec
5.3 mph avg. speed
161 bpm avg. heart rate

5.5 seemed so easy in each boat the other night. I was surprised at the difference in speed running them all out for 2 miles as opposed to maintaining 5.5 for just 1/2 mile or so. Both will get faster as I get back in shape but I'm still disappointed in the speed of the Barracuda. At nearly a foot longer and an inch narrower (both at water line) I expected more from it. And if past results continued the Magic would have been slightly faster without the dog and the Barracuda the same either way.

Driving to Sioux Falls this afternoon to pick up my old C1 racing boats. They're outdated designs from the 80's but will still be faster than any tripping boat. It will be interesting to see what I can get out of them for speed. I can't remember how fast they are but I do remember how tippy they are, especially with rear quartering waves.

Alan