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Osprey Build

Salvaged the brass stems from one of my old canoes and installed them today, so all the building is done. Washed the hull down in preparation for varnishing tomorrow, supposed to reach 15 degrees C. Might be on the water sometime next week.


 
mem,

It's looking pretty darn good. Did you make your target weight of 40 lbs? I missed my mark by 20%, I hope you're closer to your goal than I was.
I'm anxious to see how it looks on the water.
 
Something about putting stem bands on a finished , or almost finished boat. All that work capped off with the finishing touches, but be careful, make them straight, don't snap a screw off, easy job for all the work you have done, but they say so much.
Nice Job, I like the way the finish looks on the hull now, dull, but I bet that varnish will really set it off.
 
Beautiful day today, so I decided to finish the last little bits and launch.





Ready to go except for the carrying yoke.



Drilled a couple of holes and cut up an “old“ Old Town yoke to fit, hooked it on with a couple of wing nuts.



Carries nice, took it from my backyard to the lake.



Everything is still dead, but green is coming on quickly, mowed my lawn yesterday!



It’s not like the Raven. The Raven is super solid, you can do a dance in it. The Osprey is a little more responsive.







Yup, and that’s my bent shaft paddle too, that Yellowcanoe converted me too, love it, couldn’t do without it now. Canoe season has begun now. I have a ten day trip leaving on June 16 with 18 high schoolers, Irene is going with me. It will be her first extended canoe trip, I hope the bugs cooperate.

My canoes are always the subject of wood butchery, there’s lots of things on this one I rushed through, but overall, I’m happy with it and will be trying it out for extended tripping in July.
 
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mem,
Looks like you're happy in the photos...when you say it's responsive, do you mean to paddle strokes? Or maybe weight shifts?
The difference between my DY Special and the Kite are dramatic, in a good way. I expected your Osprey and the Kite would be nearly the same in the water.
I wonder if our weight differences or our points of reference are the major factors in our (apparently) differing assessments.

Oh, a side issue. A buddy of mine is just starting his Osprey build. He found a major flaw in the form drawings...all forward forms had a different baseline than the aft forms. Everything was exactly 1 inch different at the baseline (strongback level), while the waterlines aligned exactly. Did you see the same thing?
 
Hmmm....I'm not visualizing that...any chance of a pic or a drawing? My forms are....probably around 15 years old. I took it out for a good paddle the other night...it seems smaller than the first time I built it, but then again, I'm bigger and used to the Raven. I must admit to still preferring the Raven. The Osprey tracks better, but it just seems real small. I'm going to try it on a five day solo in July. If I'm still ambivalent, I think i will rebuild the Raven in a lightweight layup.
 
mem,

Buddy just texted me...turns out that ALL of his forms are wrong!! I printed new, full sized patterns for him today at lunchtime (we work together) and the set of patterns he initially used were not quite full size. Too bad for him, he needs to buy more plywood now.

Now, back to your ambivalence...I looked up the specs for a Raven and compared it to the Osprey. I see why we have such different reference points! The Raven is quite a bit larger than the Osprey, and has much more rocker. From the rate at which you built the Osprey, I suppose you could spit out another Raven in a few evenings. ;)
Enjoy your 5 day solo, my next trip is far away, too much work for me to do on the rental properties in the next month or so. Too bad, I'll entirely miss this years black fly season!!
 
Buddy just texted me...turns out that ALL of his forms are wrong!! I printed new, full sized patterns for him today at lunchtime (we work together) and the set of patterns he initially used were not quite full size. Too bad for him, he needs to buy more plywood now.

I'll bet he's really bummed about that, especially in comparison with what it could have cost him down the road a ways.
 
Wow, did he print out the plans himself from the disk? The full size plans I have gotten from Greenvalley have always been topnotch!
 
I'll bet he's really bummed about that, especially in comparison with what it could have cost him down the road a ways.

I don't think he's thought it through that far yet...he's still bummed about recutting the forms, maybe not yet realizing the disaster it would have been if he carried the build all the way through.

Wow, did he print out the plans himself from the disk? The full size plans I have gotten from Greenvalley have always been topnotch!

Uhmmm....mea culpa. I printed the forms for him from the pdf versions. But he should have checked the prints for scale accuracy before cutting and committing.
The drawings are an E size drawing format, 34 x 44 inches, as per ANSI standard. Apparently, I didn't properly scale the print output. He didn't have any CAD drawings, just the pdf versions.
In a week or so, this will have been just a hiccup. But at the moment....
 
A gee, that's too bad. I guess he's not interested in the Kite? He could have just used your forms. Is it his first build? I'm still thinking about building the lighter Raven again, it's a sickness I guess. I just got so used to that big canoe, and when I'm doing chain saw work on ports, it carries everything without any grimaces.
 
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