Week Three


 And now for something a little different

 I've been on the road for the past two weekends, and haven't done a huge amount of work on the boat.  There's been progress by the rest of the build team, and we'll catch up on that later in the post.
I wanted to share a stop I made last weekend at the Washington Canoe Club, located on Water Street in Georgetown. 

Olympic glory - Frank Havens, 1952 Gold medal, 10,000 meters

If you want the full story please visit the WCC website, but the two boats on display are American Olympic History.  The lower boat is a "Peanut", a standard racing design paddle by one or two paddlers.  Frank won the Silver medal in the 1948 London Olympic Games in this boat.
The boat is white oak on thin ribs, clenched nails. 
Organizational chaos isn't a new concept
For 1952, Frank purchased a new "plywood" boat from Sweden, and as friends tell, the family at a lot of beans, rice and chicken that summer to pay for it.  It worked.  Frank won the Gold at the Helsinki Games, and spent his life as a member of the club.

The lower two pictures are a meeting room in the boathouse.  The frieze running around the perimeter of the room are caricatures of the founders painted by one of the founders.  It's survived in this wooden building for over 100 years now!

The founders (including the artist)


Deck Furniture

As mentioned last post, I'm also building "deck furniture" for the steering console, seat and battery box.  Keeping it simple, (sort of) in order to minimize the amount of actual cabinetry that has to be done.  I'm a decent framing carpenter, but fine cabinet work and joinery are beyond my skill level.  If I can get it smooth enough to sand fair, I can fix any small problems with thickened epoxy before it gets covered.  This is a great time filler while waiting on materials or to do jobs that take more than one person.

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