We’ve been back from Port Townsend for a week. Progress on the boat isn’t as dramatic as it is when we’re spending the day dedicated to sanding and epoxy. Instead, we have life issues needing attention, plus some tasks we need to accomplish before we can move to the next step.

Caning the Seats

Janell really wants to cane the seats. Rich thinks caning is a pain in the ass and suggests we instead get cane webbing and just press it into place. Janell is a master at fabrics and I have confidence in her hand-caning. With all due respect to Rich, we’re going to take the long way around.

However, getting cane is difficult. Janell knows what she wants, but had difficulty finding it. I hope we don’t have to harvest reeds and make our own by hand.

Storage and Protection

We don’t have a garage to store boats – something we have decided to add to our next residence. For now, I built a rack to keep it off the ground. It’s at waist level so we can sand and varnish where it sits. It isn’t as convenient as the boat shop in Port Townsend, but it’s accessible to us and our basement full of tools.

In the photo above, the canoe is in the foreground, covered in a gray tarp. It’s been fiberglassed but not varnished, so it is susceptible to disintegration from ultra-violet light. Janell crafted a fabric cover to protect it while it is outside.

I received two other fabric boat covers as a donation, but they aren’t waterproof. Rain seeps through the fabric and collects on the boat and drips underneath, creating pockets of water. I don’t understand why someone would make a canoe cover out of non-waterproof fabric—seems like a basic lack of understanding about how canoes and weather go together.

By the way, you can see an additional canoe in the background of the above picture. It’s wrapped in plastic so you can’t tell it is a 17 foot wood-and-canvas Seliga. My next project is to replace the canvas—but that will have to wait. One boat at a time.

Art

I’m taking a photography class and find the textures, curves, water drops and colors fascinating.

The Name of the Boat

The Naming of Cats is a difficult matter,

It isn’t just one of your holiday games;

You may think at first I’m as mad as a hatter

When I tell you, a cat must have THREE DIFFERENT NAMES.

T.S. Eliot

In 2016, a capricious British public named an autonomous underwater vehicle “Boaty McBoatface” because of a contest asking them to choose a name for a £200 million polar scientific research ship. “Boaty McBoatface” has become an internet meme used to describe why it isn’t a good idea to ask people for their opinion unless you are truly willing to go with the absurd.

Someone asked me if our canoe has a name. So far, it doesn’t and for the above reason, we’re not having a contest to pick a name. It seems sacrilegious to force a name on a boat before it tells us what its name actually is. Someone suggested we call it the “stripper.” A bad idea. So you understand my reticent to act.

When I worked at Widjiwagan as a camp counselor, they assigned us two canoes for the summer. One was a “lumi-banger” (derogatory name for an aluminum canoe) and the other was a wood & canvas Old Town. All Widji boats are named “W” followed by a number. Here’s a picture of “W.3” (Thanks Bruce!)

I paddled W.53 for several years. At the end of my tenure, the boat was due for a re-canvasing so I helped pull the canvas off and I kept the number. W.53 was heavy – the canvas and paint had degraded so it absorbed a lot of water – but it paddled like a dream. It never got a name other than “W.53.” But that was enough for the boat and everyone who knew it.

For now, Janell and I know our project as “The boat.” Next to it is “The Seliga.” I’ll let you know when we learn more.