Greetings



I was watching the youtube videos on the construction of the nimrod.  In

the first video it shows a close up of the material cut list.  I noticed

something odd.  The stringers are all 12' long pieces of stock, despite

the canoe being listed as 12' long.



So how is the overall length of a boat measured?  Is it the straight

line distance from bow to stern down the center?  Or does it follow the

curve of the boat?  Obviously, if taking into account the beam width, a

12' stringer or gunwale length will be shorter on the end to end

measurement due to the outward bend in the piece.



So if some knows the answer to this question, I will be able to get a

better idea of how much stock I will need to construct my 16' Arrow.

Since 16' is the longest readily available length of construction

material, I would want to avoid doing an excessive number of scarf

joints to get the right length of materials that my boat will require.



Thanks



Brian

Hi Brian.



An interesting observation. I went and checked my Nimrod plans and yes, the

length of the canoe is actually 11'5". The BOM is correct using 12' pieces, and

it results in a 11'5" boat, despite being named a 12. I never noticed this

because I stretched mine to 13' to get more capacity, similar to what you are

wanting to do. Yes, it is measured straight down the center of boat, stem to

stern.



Don't be afraid of scarfing. One of my boats is 18.5' and I had to scarf every

lengthwise piece. Make a little jig to hold both pieces beside each other. Sand

at a shallow angle with a belt sander (or saw, but you'll need this pretty

smooth to glue it). You will always get a 180 degree joint.



Gord

Don't be afraid of scarfing. One of my boats is 18.5' and I had to scarf every lengthwise piece. Make a little jig to hold both pieces beside each other. Sand at a shallow angle with a belt sander (or saw, but you'll need this pretty smooth to glue it). You will always get a 180 degree joint.

 

I used to be afraid of scarfing. What I did to fix that was to build a simple jig out of scrap wood so that I could clamp a stringer in the jig and run the circular saw against one side of the jig. Not knowing what was best, I made it for a 7:1 scarf. The result was a perfect scarf angle every time. No sanding required - just enough to break the glaze left by the saw - and the joint would always fit exactly. Then to test if it worked, I clamped and glued half a dozen scarfs up to make a single long stringer about 20 feet long.

 

 ( Be sure to lock the scarfs prior to gluing with a couple of finish nails or the joint will slide)

 

Figured I'd use  the long stringer as a batten for drawing long smooth curves. Flexing it to draw curves would give a chance to see how it stood up to stress and whether the glue joints took the same bend as the were the same. To my surprise, it performed as though it was one piece of wood. It's still fine and been over 20 years now....and there are far better glues today. This one is stored across the rafters of my workshop.