JacquesCousteau

Garboards are on! The microwave method worked ok for bending the planks to the gentle curves here, but I don't think it would work very well for a tighter curve. Maybe unless the planks were thinner than these 1/16 inch strips. The microwave didn't seem to heat them very evenly, and the middle seemed to dry out a bit, making me worry about it possibly scorching if left in for too long (even though it was wrapped in a wet paper towel). But, the planks did get bent enough for this boat. Not much to say about attaching the garboard strakes. They took some creative clamping. One issue with this narrow-based build board is that, with all the protruding molds, it's a bit annoying to place rubber bands in the middle as they catch on everything. I'll be trimming the bow as I go, but leaving the stern untrimmed until the end so I have more areas to clamp. Oh, and also: I didn't add tape to most of the molds so the glue won't stick until after I had the starboard garboard on. I forgot about it until I had it glued at the stem, added tape to one mold, and realized that the glue would mostly dry if I tried to tape the rest first. I added tape afterward, but it doesn't stick well to the wood, and I'm not sure how much help it will be. Suggestions welcome.

Actually, fairing was very quick and I've started planking. The building board looked better once the rubber bands and clips were removed, but they were to be back on it soon enough. Between the pre-fairing sanding and having more or less completed the middle four molds, finishing fairing was a snap. After a bit of sanding, running a scrap 1/4 by 1/16 inch balsa strip along the molds revealed very little that still needed to be smoothed. Once I did that, I cut the garboard strakes from a sheet of 1/16 inch basswood. While I had bent the planks by boiling them on the dory, that wasn't going to be an option for this build as the planks are too long (and, in any case, all our big pots and pans were in use as we just made meatballs). Somewhere on the forum I had read about someone wrapping planks in a wet paper towel snd microwaving them, so I decent to give that a try. We'll see if it holds its shape when I take it off the mold tomorrow, but it took the curve easily enough. I'm also happy to see that my plan to use straight planks looks like it's going to work. I was worried that the rocker wasn't going to be quite right for the angle of the sides, or vice versa, and that I would have to figure out how to cut the planks to a more complex shape. That would be a good skill to learn... but it's not happening on this build. The straight plank runs well along the bottom at all points except at the very stern, where it's off by about 1/32 inch. I think I can just sand that flush with the bottom and get on with things, leaving the top as it is for continuing use of straight planks. It means that, when viewed from the side, the boat's sides will be 1/32 inch narrower than they would be if it was a perfect fit, but I can live with that. Changing gears a bit: Thinking about the cargo canoa's twist, would it be possible to correct it by adding a new mold or two, cut very precisely, to hold it into shape, and then to add the frames? My main concern with trying to use the frames to correct it is that they'll be relatively few in number and I was planning on using 1/16th inch basswood to make them, so I'm not sure if they'll be too flimsy to hold it in shape.

Brief update: I've started fairing! As mentioned earlier, the transom was a little off, so I detached it with alcohol, added a very thin shim to one side, and reattached it. Next, after making sure the heights of the molds were correct, which required adding another thin shim to the bottom of the #2 mold, I dry-fit the bottom assembly in place and lined up the molds to be even with the edges. Then I removed the bottle assembly to glue the molds to the board. As I couldn't remove them to place the glue correctly--a flaw in my build plan, though I later realized I could have just marked the location--I ended up just slopping glue around all the edges. I was concerned about this being a weak joint, so I added extra supports out of scrap 3/32 balsa. I further added small supports between the molds further up. While fairing the bottom, I realized that it was still a little more fragile than I wanted, so I added extra supports, made of a coffee stir stick, between the frames. I also attached the transom holder and some supports of its own. My strongback/building board is far from pretty, with a lot of ad-hoc parts, but as long as it does the job, I'll be thrilled. I did a bit of fairing on the sides after finishing the bottom, then went to affix the bottom assembly. I couldn't figure out how best to hold the bottom assembly to the right rocker, as the stem is too fragile to itself hold the bow down, so I ended up using a single drop of glue to attach the bottom to the foremost and aftmost frames. It should hold things in place but be easy enough to remove after planking--I should have enough space to even brush on some alcohol there. I held the bottom in place with rubber bands, themselves held in place with numerous clips. I also used scrap to ensure the stem is in the correct location. At this point, it was actually quite sturdy and I was able to fair the middle 4 frames. Despite my best efforts, I realized when I re-placed the bottom assembly that the #5 mold was slightly off by something between 1/64 and 1/32 inch. Maybe it moved during gluing? In any case, I added a thin shim to the short side, which will be cut to size after it fully dries. Looking forward to finishing fairing and getting started on planking! And also to figuring out how to fix the cargo canoa's twist, somehow...

Thanks, that's very kind of you to say! We'll see if it all breaks as soon as I start fairing... But first, I realized that the transom is slightly off from square, so I'll be removing it with alcohol and re-attaching it.

Very interesting build, it's cool that you've been able to pick up the hull again after all this time to substantially modify it! A couple quick questions: First, on the davits. I feel like they'd have a lot of pressure and weight on them in real life. If they're connected to the rail and not directly to the hull, would it make sense to at least add extra supports directly underneath them so all that weight isn't going straight to the rail? I tried to look at the plans but couldn't really make out what they show. Second, I may be totally wrong, but I feel like a vessel modified for carrying cannons, with the possibility of a fight, would probably build up the wales a bit higher to provide at least some protection for the crew. (With gunports, of course). It could actually be interesting to model a sort of jury-rigged extension of the wales while still keeping the rail you have. Or maybe some other material--I know they used bales of packed cotton during the civil war, although I don't know about earlier, and if I remember right hammocks were often packed along the rails for a similar purpose? Just a thought, but it might add visual interest to the rail area.

While I figure out what to do about the Cargo Canoa, I've been making progress on the Canoa de Rancho. I was concerned about getting a strong connection between the stem and the bottom, and about keeping the stem straight, so I added a couple small support pieces. This way the stem fits into a groove. They will be covered by decking later. I glued on the stem using a square to make sure it was vertical and straight. The transom also went on. Note that the triangular support piece will be removed later, so I didn't bother to perfectly center it. With the widest mold placed (not glued) in position, and the stem and transom in place, the hull form is more apparent. Next, the strongback or building board (not sure exactly what the right term is, the lengthwise piece that will hold the molds, transom, and stem in place). I still have the building board from the dory build, which is usefully thick and won't bend lengthwise, but it's slightly too short for the canoa. So, I added a small piece of scrap at the bow end to hold the stem in place. The building board is also slightly warped across its width on one side, so I placed the canoa strongback on the flat side. I ended up cutting the board in half lengthwise, as having it off-center would impede using rubber bands to hold the planks in place. I also marked a center line and the locations for the molds. The aftmost mold, which was the first I made, turned out slightly too narrow, but it works if it's moved back by 1/8th of an inch. The molds are only temporary, so it's fine if they're not perfectly evenly spaced, as long as they are squared to the center line and will work for planking. After the twisting issue on the cargo canoa, I'm trying to make sure that everything stays where it should on this one. To hold the transom in place, I used two pieces of 3/32 inch scrap balsa wood around a 1/16th inch bit of basswood to make a slot. It's been marked so it can be centered, but hasn't been attached yet. I also cut a slot in the strongback where the stem will be held. The molds were made only to the size of the hull cross-section, so I attached extra pieces to their tops to hold them on the building board to the correct height for the rocker. I was concerned about getting them vertical and about breakage during fairing, so I added some supports first that will help hold them in place. The supports are made so the molds can be moved side-to-side. In theory I could measure everything perfectly and just center them on the board, but I think it might be useful to have a little wiggle room, so I can match them up perfectly with the bottom before gluing them in to the strongback. I added supports on both sides so the molds will be held in place firmly and will have a greater surface area glued. I then added the pieces that will hold the molds up to the correct height. Once I made sure they were themselves square, I glued them to the molds, using the carpenter's square to make sure they were on right. Once the glue dried, I placed them on the building board to get a sense of how it's coming together. While test-fitting the bottom, I noticed that the 3 and 4 molds were slightly high, so I sanded them down slightly. The 5 mold was also low--whether I cut it to the wrong length or sanded too much while squaring it, it was 1/32 inch too short. So I added a small shim below. Once the glue cures, I'll sand it square. Finally, I marked the location of the half-frames frames on the bottom. I decided to space them completely evenly, half an inch apart (so eight half-frame pairs, which seems to follow photographic evidence), although it's not totally clear to me that they actually did that. The photos in the earlier post about hull construction are not super clear, but the half-frame pairs may have been placed somewhat closer together (but not touching) with wider spaces in between the pairs. BUT, at least on larger canoas, the frames seem to have been more or less evenly spaced on each side. So if I later decide on closer spacing within each pair, I'll still have markings for a consistent distance between each pair, if that makes sense. As soon as I get the molds set, I'll make sure the molds are properly aligned and glue them in place, then add some supports between them higher off the building board to better keep them in place for the next step: fairing. I'm glad to see it all coming together!

Congratulations, looks great!

Work continues on the strongback, and I'll post about it soon. But first, I wanted to ask for advice. The cargo canoa is twisted along its length, not just at the stern, as I noticed earlier, but also at the bow. Undoubtedly this is because of how I planked it quickly, carelessly, and with minimal molds to guide the planking, and so I'm working slowly on the strongback to prevent this issue on the canoa de rancho. My question is, does anyone have any suggestions about correcting the twisting on the cargo canoa? Even just a partial reduction in the twist would be an improvement. I can twist it into a better shape by hand, but of course it springs back immediately. I still have to add the frames, decking, and crossbeams. Is it possible that those can be used to reduce the twisting? And, if so, how? Thanks in advance for any help you can offer!

I got some work done on both models. Hopefully going through both builds at once isn't too confusing, but I'm not sure how much sense it would make to split them up. One quick bit of research first, though. Earlier, I said that the smaller model (the slapdash one I made to figure out some hull form stuff but decided to keep working on) would work for a 28 foot canoa at 1:48 scale. I've rethought that, because the proportions just looked off to me for that sort of vessel. It looked too wall-sided and wide. Instead, a number of photos (many of them in posts above, but also the photo below) show small, high-sided canoas, around 20 feet long or so, carrying passengers or cargo. Source: https://mediateca.inah.gob.mx/islandora_74/islandora/object/fotografia%3A194360 These vessels are much boxier than the lower, narrower fishing canoas (many of which are around the same length), and I think the proportions look closer to the small model. At 1:32 scale, the smaller model comes in around 19 feet long, which is close enough for me. I've decided to instead build it as one of these small cabotage vessels. So, both models are now at the same scale. To keep things straight for now, let's call the smaller one the Cargo Canoa, and the larger one the Canoa de Rancho. Cargo Canoa I sanded the sides of the Cargo Canoa and straightened up the bow. Already it looks a lot better than earlier, although the starboard side is a bit rougher. The interior was sanded as well. As you can see, I also removed the molds, although I ended up temporarily putting the center one back in as the sides tended to move in a bit. I mentioned earlier that I had stupidly glued them to the bottom, and removing them left some damage. But I'm not worried about it, as the view will be blocked by internal decking. The stem had ended up a bit off-center, as it was a late addition. I used an x-acto knife to trim it a bit so that it looks more vertical. I should note that, in real canoas, the stem appears to have been very narrow, this one is still a bit bulky. But I can't really cut it out know, so I'm going to have to live with it. On the Canoa de Rancho, the bow will be covered by a deck/platform, but for these smaller vessels this seems to have been smaller so more will be visible. Oh well, nobody will know but me (and everyone who reads this). I scribed the bottom as well to simulate the planking. I decided to add the center crossbeam now. The others will have to be added later so I can add the decking, but the center beam will help strengthen the hull. Finally, I added a false stem (very thin), and the rudder post/support that many canoas had on the transom. I'm still hoping to use the Cargo Canoa to test things and figure stuff out for the Canoa de Rancho. Hopefully, despite its problems, it still turns out to be a decent model. Canoa de Rancho Things are moving slower on the Canoa de Rancho. I started making the molds and the transom, beginning with the latter. I traced a half-form, cut it out, and used that to make the transom, but I found it more complicated than I expected. The thin paper, necessary for tracing from one sheet to another, is flimsy and it's difficult to use it to outline the form, and it was tricky to get the angle of the sides right. So for the molds, I decided to build them from 1/4 inch wide strips of basswood (which also saves a bit of wood, compared to making each a single piece). This was also tricky at the start, but I found that taping the sides in place on the plans first and then gluing the horizontal pieces worked better. I've checked and they more or less fit where they should, and fairing them should fix up anything. As can be seen, I also added the bottom support to the transom, with a small piece which will be removed later to make sure the angle is correct. (It can also be seen that the top side of the bottom is a mess from my multiple attempts to get a plank width I liked. It will be painted and decked over, though.) Finally, I cut the stem, making it overly long so it can better provide a clamping location. It will be cut down later. Next up, I'll be making a strongback to hold the molds and bottom in place for planking.

I was honestly surprised, the machete worked pretty well for whittling. The sharpest part of the blade was close to the handle, otherwise it would have been unmanageable, but it was pretty easy to handle. That said, a small knife would have been a lot more precise and I probably would have been able to better shape things. My in-laws offered one, but I didn't want to ruin their kitchen knife! The scissors, on the other hand, barely worked even for removing the spongy material at the center. I only used them because trying to use the tip of the machete didn't work at all.

Thanks! We'll see how things turn out. Although I haven't worked on the hull this week, as I'm visiting my in-laws, I did take advantage of their yard and mango trees to see if I could find sticks that could be whittled down to make a mast and yard (as mentioned above, a lot of them look a bit rough-hewn in the photos). After a lot of work and a couple blisters, I have succeeded in turning a large stick into... several smaller sticks. Progress! First I found a likely-looking twig for a yard, slightly curved as yards often were. Lacking many tools, I used some old scissors to scrape off the bark. Then I realized that it wasn't hard wood all the way through--it had a spongy center. Clearly, it wouldn't work for my purposes. So, I looked again. I noticed that all the sticks seemed to also have this spongy center. I know next to nothing about trees, but I read online that they generally use mango trees for wood only after the tree already stopped giving fruit, because before then a lot of the tree's energy is going into fruit production instead of making strong wood. My in-laws' trees still produce fruit, so the wood is not ideal, although the sticks that have fallen are dead wood so I think they're already pretty dry. I decided to still go ahead and try. Worst case scenario, I'll just need to make new masts and yards from other material. By splitting a thick stick, I would be able to scoop out the spongy center and cut the remaining wood into thinner masts and yards. Lacking many woodworking tools, I used an old machete and a flat-head screwdriver to split a straight, thick branch into several chunks. Then I began scraping off the bark and whittling down jagged edges, which the machete worked surprisingly well for despite its ungainly size. I still used the scissors to scrape out the center, though, as the machete was too big to really use for this. It took a while, but I ended up with a decent quantity of oblong pieces of wood that I think I'll be able to better shape back home with more precise tools. It should be more than enough for masts and yards for the large and small canoa models, and maybe a few other small parts as well (tiller, belaying pins, etc). Maybe it will turn out to still need significant drying and will split or warp on me, or maybe it will be somehow harder than I imagine to do the final shaping. But I'm looking forward to at least trying to make a few pieces with wood I shaped myself!

Planking looks like it's coming along nicely. Interesting hull shape with the widest point not quite amidships, is the bow or the stern the narrower end?

Thanks Roger, I'll have to check out the Museum if I'm ever around Lake Champlain, and that's interesting to hear about the Mississippi galleys! You're right that these vessels would have been designed by locals in response to local conditions. They seem to have been very successful in their context, no matter what issues with weatherliness we may see looking back from the present. What I was trying to get at is the question of how they originated, because they're very unique to Lake Chapala. Mexican inland vessels elsewhere seem to have invariably been dugouts (traditional) or flat bottomed, rectangular barges (originating in the colonial era). Information about labor drafts (part of tribute requirements for indigenous towns under the colonial system) from Chapala could used to see if any were sent to a Pacific port, where they may have picked up skills in plank-construction shipbuilding, and some undoubtedly made their way to Mexico City and would have seen plank-built vessels in the canals. But, that's all pretty speculative. As far as the rig goes, they all seem to have bern pretty similar, sometimes they just positioned the yard more horizontally and sometimes at more of an angle. Even in the few photos where it looks like more of a square sail, close attention shows that the sail isn't cut square at all. As for hull form, it's hard to tell if variations correspond to any differences in use or rig, I have to wonder if they're simply different build styles between different towns and shipwrights. You're definitely right about sailing into unknown waters! The Acapulco Naval Museum very kindly responded to my email, but said that no plans exist that they know of. I might try emailing a local museum, but I really think photos are going to be the best source available for now.

Thanks, that is interesting. The American gunboats on Lake Champlain in the War of Independence, like the Philadelphia, were basically upscaled bateaux, right? I have to wonder if the Spanish used similar vessels in their own colonies, and if something like that may have been the origin of the canoa de rancho, which later developed other features like the notably flat transom (which maybe was more useful for fishing?). It's definitely unusual for a sail to be controlled only by sheets, and I checked a lot of photos to make sure I wasn't misinterpreting, but the photos are pretty clear--except all the really blurry ones, that is. It's also odd to me that they seem to almost invariably have something that superficially looks like a lug or lateen sail, but they usually use it like a square sail. I don't know why they wouldn't just use a square sail, which seems like it would be easier to handle at least. Perhaps a legacy from lateen-rigged vessels in the colonial era, but simplified over time.

Thanks! Interestingly a lot of photos of these do show separate backstays and halyards. That's good to know, it sounds like this part of the build at least will be good practice for the Catalonian fishing boat I eventually want to build. Thanks! Yeah the more I look at it the more I think some lines were just tied off around the crossbeams.

Looks cool so far, looking forward to watching it come together! I think local fishing boats are great build subjects. I have to ask, why is the bowsprit curved?

Very cool list! Good to see the Imperieuse on there, the combination of a Spanish hull and British fittings and arrangements sounds like an interesting combination. You mentioned that the list didn't include smaller kits. Any plans for more fishing vessels? The Nisha is on my wish list, although it will have to wait until after a move...

Sail, Mast, and Rigging Finally, the explanation of the sail, mast, and rigging that I keep saying I’ll post. Both the canoa de rancho and the smaller fishing canoa shared a basic design for the sail and rigging. Although the sail looks like a square sail in some photos, it’s closer to a variation on a dipping lug, as far as I can tell. The sail is always asymmetrical, never fully square, and even in photos where it looks close to a square sail and seems to be being used as one, careful attention shows that the yard almost always isn’t centered but is longer on one side than the other. Source: https://mediateca.inah.gob.mx/islandora_74/islandora/object/fotografia%3A140962 The mast is stepped amidship. I’m not sure what the mast step itself looked like, as I haven’t found any photos of that, but it was almost always braced against the aft side of the amidship crossbeam and held in place with a firm lashing, as is most clearly shown in the photo of a canoa hauling a truck in my second post, above. Other photos are less clear, but in many taken from the side it’s clear that the mast would have to be aft of the crossbeam. Interestingly, this were where the models in the Guadalajara and Ocotlán museums, and the drawings in José María Angulo Sepulveda’s La navegación de antaño, appear to be off. They instead show the mast as being ahead of the crossbeam. My only other evidence for this way of stepping it is a blurry, indistinct photo that may show the mast stepped ahead of a crossbeam, but also might simply show an ordinary thwart aft of the mast. It's worth noting that some masts and yards have a rough-hewn look to them--note the yards (held vertically) below. I’m considering whittling (and sanding) them out of sticks, if I can find any that will work. Source: https://mediateca.inah.gob.mx/islandora_74/islandora/object/fotografia%3A431254 As for the rigging, the following photo is one of the most useful that I’ve found for details (a high-res version is viewable at the link, albeit with extensive watermarking). Source: https://www.mexicoenfotos.com/antiguas/jalisco/chapala/un-velero-panorama-MX14561525002424 As can be seen, the standing rigging is extremely limited, consisting of two backstays tied off, port and starboard, at a pair of belaying pins that pass through the outer edge of the cap rail near the stern on each side of the helmsman’s platform. At times, canoas seem to have gotten by with just one of these backstays. The lack of other standing rigging is made clear in this photo (the rope near the mast is the halyard). Source: http://ri.uacj.mx/vufind/Record/94942 Only the photo below seems to show forestays, perhaps suggesting an unusual rigging plan or perhaps suggesting a late development. In any case, my model will not have forestays as the vast majority of vessels don’t seem to have had them. Source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/nullboy/6386212027/in/album-72157628104176801/ Some photos show that there are a series of loops—perhaps metal rings?—at the points where the sail is lashed to the yard. I’m not really sure what to make of this. They might just be knots? I don’t think that they’re points to attach the halyard, which would allow the yard to be shifted around, as the halyard seems to be just tied directly to the yard. Feel free to share your thoughts! I have very little sailing experience or model building experience, so there’s a lot I don’t know. Source: https://www.mexicoenfotos.com/antiguas/jalisco/chapala/un-velero-panorama-MX14561525002424 The running rigging is also quite simple, consisting in its entirety of two sheets and a halyard. No braces, no lifts. First, the halyard. The diagram in Angulo Sepulveda’s La navegación de antaño shows the halyard running through a single block that’s tied around the top of the mast. However, many photos clearly show the halyard running through a hole at the top of the mast. This is very clearly shown in the detail in the photo below (which also shows that the stays were tied around the mast itself at a sort of notch). It’s unclear to me if the hole in the mast actually contains a pulley wheel, or if the halyard simply slides across the wood itself. Source: The DeGolyer Library, Southern Methodist University: https://digitalcollections.smu.edu/digital/collection/mex/id/2308/rec/26 I have not been able to figure out where the halyard was tied off. All I can really say is that it doesn’t seem to have been a consistent location, and it was usually somewhere near the mast itself (but does not seem to have been a cleat on the mast). On some photos it seems to be tied off around the supports for the rancho, although I don’t know how load-bearing these would actually be and it might just be a tie-down location near the rancho. I suppose they could have just tied it off around the crossbeam. Any suggestions would be very much appreciated! The halyard is visible in the photo below as a light-colored rope alongside the mast; here it seems like it might be tied around the crossbeam. Source: https://www.ceajalisco.gob.mx/contenido/chapala/ Whereas here (detail from the third photo in this post), it seems like it might be tied off somewhere different. I also don’t really know what to make of the curves in the rope, so if anyone has any idea, I’d love to hear their thoughts. Source: https://www.mexicoenfotos.com/antiguas/jalisco/chapala/un-velero-panorama-MX14561525002424 After the sail is raised, it is entirely controlled by the sheets. In order to hold the asymmetrical yard/sail in place, the sheet on the luff (short, usually forward end of the sail—I’m adopting terms used for lugsails although this doesn’t seem to be quite a typical lug) was usually tied down tightly at the desired location, while the sheet for the leech (longer edge of the sail) was run somewhere further back. The angle depended on where the wind was coming from. This can be seen clearly in many of the previous photos, or the images below. Source: https://mediateca.inah.gob.mx/islandora_74/islandora/object/fotografia%3A139792 Source: http://chapala.mex.tl/frameset.php?url=/99531_Capitulo-X-Turismo-y-promotores.html I haven’t found any photos of a canoa tacking. As far as I can tell, to change tack, you’d have to reverse the sail/yard, either by using the sheets to pivot it around while it’s raised (which seems difficult in wind) or by lowering it to the deck and flipping it there. I don’t think these were used as standing lugs, as no photos show the sail used at an angle where the wind presses it into the mast. Tacking must have been a pain in the neck, and I have to wonder why they wouldn’t just use an ordinary square sail, even if it wasn’t as weatherly. Between the lack of a keel/centerboard and the complexity of tacking, I suspect that canoas did relatively little sailing to windward. Being able to read the weather and understand wind patterns becomes even more important in effective navigation. I’m a bit uncertain as to where the sheets were tied off, although unlike the halyard, I have more evidence. The canoa de rancho models in the Guadalajara and Ocotlán museums show a series of rings on the cap rails that would serve as tie-down points. However, most photos don’t seem to show such rings, or only have a couple located forward, as in the photo below (near the foot of the guy in the bow). Source: https://www.mexicoenfotos.com/antiguas/jalisco/chapala/cargamento-de-entre-MX14652247742300/5 The photo also seems to show a hole in the cap rail aft of the ring, where I suppose the sheet could be tied off. Another photo, below (the middle vessel), seems to show a number of such holes… although they might actually be dowels inserted to hold the cap rails against the cross beams. If you have any thoughts, let me know! Source: https://www.museocjv.com/chapalapostaless.html Another photo, details of which below, seems to show small loops of rope tied through holes in the cap rail, one towards the bow and one amidships. The bow loop (right) may be actually connected to the sail, but the amidships one (left) doesn’t look like it is (actually, the amidship loop might just be a stain on the hull or the photo, hard for me to tell). Source: https://www.mexicoenfotos.com/antiguas/jalisco/chapala/vista-de-chapala-MX16520378910172/1 Finally, some photos show the sheets simply held by the crew! This would be exhausting, I imagine, and I’ll have the sheets on my model tied off so it’s neater. Source: https://www.mexicoenfotos.com/antiguas/jalisco/ocotlan/canoa-a-la-deriva-MX14406139835638/1 I’ll have to decide exactly how I’m going to tie off the running rigging later. At the moment, I’m thinking of a mix of options for tie-down locations, as I want to model more than I use—maybe a pair of rings forward, a couple holes in the cap rail, and a loop of rope run through one of the holes? But I also have to see if my limited metalworking skills are enough to make an appropriately-colored ring (though in any case I’ll need to make an anchor). It’ll stretch my abilities, but I think it’s worth a shot! I might just tie off the halyard around a crossbeam, although I worry it will look a bit messy. If anybody has any ideas about where to tie off the halyard and sheets, I’d love to hear them! Any advice would be really useful.

Nice job, the transom looks great!

Like I mentioned at the end of my previous post, I've started work on the hull! Just a little, but it's something, and I thought I'd make a short post while I'm traveling. First, though, some bad news. It looks like the Model Shipways Muscongus Bay Lobster Smack that I ordered on ebay isn't going to arrive. Thankfully I should be able get a refund, but I'll have to try again to order it when I'm back in the US, as I really think it would be a very useful model for learning planking and rigging skills. (It looks great, too, and isn't too large.) This means the canoa de rancho will be receiving my undivided attention (besides work, errands, life, etc). Back to the canoa de rancho: I traced the half profile of the bottom from the top-down plan onto 1/16th inch thick basswood, flipped it over to trace the full bottom, and carefully cut it out. I should note that the paper was very thin and trying to directly trace it didn't work very well because it was too flimsy, so I ended up marking it with little hash marks starting on the paper and extending onto the wood--this way the paper profile didn't bend in. I made sure to cut it a little overssize to sand it down to the line, and repeatedly checked fit against the plans. I also used a square to mark the lines that the molds will follow. Then, following the method in the dory build of moistening the bottom side and setting the ends on scrap supports, I bent the rocker into the bottom. After doing this, I realized I had made a mistake in my haste. The real bottom was made of planks. What was I doing with a one-piece bottom? On one hand, there will be decking inside the hull, and the hull will be painted, so the only way the bottom will be visible is really if someone picks it up. On the other hand, I'll know that it's wrong, which will bug me a bit. I considered making a brand new bottom, as I had already put rocker on it, but decided to try to cut what I had into planking strips. I traced the bottom onto basswood so I could make a new one of I really screwed up, then marked the plank locations. In hindsight, I should have drawn these on paper ahead of time, because my first attempt looked much too wide. After some trial and error--thank goodness the bottom will be covered!--I settled on what would be 8 inch wide planks as looking about right. Cutting the botton into planks was trickier than I expected. I think that, because the rocker was pushing up a bit on my ruler, my straightedge seemed much more slippery than usual. A couple cuts slipped a little near the ends. If it were anywhere other than on the bottom of the hull, I would redo it, but as it won't really be visible, I decided I could live with it. It's funny what we can consider acceptable and not: having a well-shaped one piece bottom was unacceptable to me because it was inaccurate, but I had no compunction with accepting a multi-piece bottom with a couple wavy planks, because it isn't really visible anyway. I first glued the left three, middle three, and right three planks together, let them set a bit, then glued those three larger pieces together. I was worried that the rocker would make things difficult, but they came together well. I didn't really have any clamps that could push the pieces together sideways, so I settled for using scrap wood clamped across the width and using my fingers to push the planks together, leaving the clamp pressure to hold things in position. After leaving it to cure a bit more, I decided to re-do the rocker, as it had lost a lot of it in all the cutting and gluing. I made sure to add extra smaller spaces under the ends of the planks at the sides that don't run the full length, so that they wouldn't be tempted to pop down and not follow the rocker. I am hoping that, as the glue technically still had time to cure when I set it, the glue fully cures in the curved shape and helps the bottom keep its rocker. I'm also leaving it clamped for the week while I travel, which should also help a bit. Next up in the build, stem and transom, the molds/bulkheads, preparing a strongback, and planning out the frame locations. But while I'm traveling and unable to build, I will try to post my long-promised explanation of the rigging.

Thanks, that's very kind of you to say! I really enjoy the historical research aspect of the build, and I'm glad to hear that people find it interesting. There's still a lot more research that could be done, of course, but in my experience that's pretty much always the case and you have to start writing somewhere or else you'll never start. I'd definitely be interested in figuring out more about the history of how these boats developed, especially because they seem very unique to Lake Chapala. Lake Pátzcuaro, another major (though smaller) lake in the central-west highlands about a hundred miles away, doesn't seem to have anything similar. (INAH's Mediateca site has two photos of Chapala-style canoas that it labels as being at Pátzcuaro, but absent other evidence, and given that I've seen some errors in the Mediateca's labeling, I think it's just a mistaken label). Instead Pátzcuaro's fishing industry seems to have traditionally used dugouts, often with so-called "butterfly-wing" nets, as in the following image fron 1962 (source: https://mediateca.inah.gob.mx/islandora_74/islandora/object/fotografia%3A481560) Interesting, but quite different from Lake Chapala's canoas! I'd have to do more research to figure out possible routes for the transmission of boatbuilding techniques, as it's clear that the plank-building method is European in origin but adapted to local conditions. I think the matter is also a bit confused in many early accounts. Eduardo Gibbon claims that the inhabitants were indigenous, connecting their fierce defense of Mezcala Island during the independence war with their ancestors' own resistance against the Spanish. In contrast, I read somewhere that the early American anthropologist Fredrick Starr believed, on the basis of festival dances/performances, that the lakeshore population was entirely Spanish in origin. More recent scholarship, such as works mentioned above on the Mezcala Island campaign, highlight that many of the insurgents and towns around the lake were identified as Indian, but this was a legal category that doesn't say much about place of origin. The population undoubtedly had a mix of ancestries and cultural traditions. I'd have to do more research to figure out where Spanish colonizers in the region came from. Also, I'd have to check how widespread African slavery was in that region, at least early in the colonial period, as that could be another source of influence. Not to mention North African/Arabic maritime design traditions, which shaped Spanish designs to some extent and knowledge of and skills from which may have also been brought across the Atlantic early on. Really, I need to just do more research on local boat-building in the colonial era--what little I've seen has focused more on 18th century shipbuilding that followed European designs. And of course, this is all made more difficult by the uncertainty around when they started building canoas de rancho. At the moment, my main evidence that they existed in the colonial era is a rather tenuous supposition that the larger, cannon-armed insurgent vessels in the Mezcala campaign must have been something larger and more stable than a dugout canoe. But the clearest evidence I have for their existence dates to the 1880s and onward. In any case, I'm not an expert in historical Spanish vessels, but off the top of my head I don't know of any vessels in Spain that look quite the same. You're right that the Valencian vessels sound different. I think Galicia also has some flat-bottomed fishing boats, like the gamela, but they also are quite distinct. Not to mention that any Spanish ancestor would probably be quite old itself, and may well have developed into something quite different by the 1800s-present. The rigging, which I still need to post about, seems very different to me from typical European practice, suggesting some pretty serious changes along the line that may well apply to the hull form as well. Given that they were called canoas, like the trajinera and its ancestors, I wonder of they started out as very similar vessels. Flat-bottomed with vertical sides. Sails would have been a useful addition on the lake, unlike on the canals around Mexico City. When they added sails, maybe the boats gained a sharp bow to improve sailing qualities and a more vertical transom for the rudder? At the moment that's my best guess, but it's only a guess. In my admittedly limited research, I haven't seen anything detailing the lake's boats in the colonial era, just various mentions that the locals fished extensively from canoas. The wide transom would definitely be useful for net-handling, especially as the rudder and sails wouldn't be in use during fishing (they would row or pole instead), based on photos I've seen of fishing. That's a great idea on the thatching! I'll definitely check out train model resources on that. I'll also need to check the photos I have to see what I can find. I'm traveling, so no work on the canoa this week. But I'll try to do a couple posts, one on the rigging and sail, and a brief one on the work I did before traveling (building the bottom).

Bienvenidos, looking forward to seeing more of your build! Also I'd love to hear if you have any suggestions for getting modeling wood in CDMX, so far I've found 1/16th inch thick basswood at Lumen but otherwise just balsa wood and I have no idea where to look.

Thanks Paul! The resources posted there are great, and I spent a while looking over the FAO plans. I had considered modeling one, an Antiguan fishing sloop (if I remember correctly), but ultimately decided I wanted to go with a Mexican boat, although the FAO plans didn't have much for Mexico. I might eventually go for the Antiguan sloop though.

Hull Design So, a change of plans is in order. I'll discuss the rigging, which is fascinatingly bare-bones, in the future. Instead, I'd like to talk about my attempts to plan out the hull shape and build. Once again it's a long post--there's a lot of prep work that goes into a scratch build!--but at least this one actually involves building things and drafting. In the process of drafting plans, I've made a lot of mistakes on this, and surely will make more, but maybe including them in the log will help others avoid similar errors. Among the errors: I now have a model hull! But not the one I set out to make. Hmmmm. I'll explain the errant model and its odd paint splotch below. Clearly I have no idea what I'm doing.... but I'm learning, and that's part of the fun! As mentioned earlier, I'm planning on modeling a small canoa de rancho that could be used for fishing and cargo hauling. The following vessel is in the right size range (as are some of those I posted earlier). Source: https://mediateca.inah.gob.mx/islandora_74/islandora/object/fotografia%3A139788 I have no real experience with using drawing programs, so I decided to plan things out by hand. I began drafting plans for what would be a 32-ft (overall length) canoa de rancho, using grid paper, pencil, ruler, and French curves. As Roger noted, you really need a spline or a batten for this, but at the time I didn't know that, which led to some issues. Drawing the plans really gave me a sense of how much larger this would be than the dory--the extra 2 inches of overall length really translates into a much larger vessel. I immediately ran into the problem that I wasn't really sure what length-to-beam ratio would be best, as there appears to be some variation in the photos. My first attempt of a top-down drawing was much too beamy. Moreover, I realized that it was going to be tricky to figure out just from a top-down outline of the cap rails what size the bottom would actually be, because the rails are not evenly high--as noted earlier, the bow can be angled up substantially higher, so the distance from bottom to rail changes across the hull. (Pretty obvious in hindsight, but this was my first attempt to draft plans so I made a lot of errors like this.) So I decided to start with a side view, as I can base it on existing side view photos and from there I can pretty easily extend lines and points upward to accurately plot them in the top-down view. After which the top-down view can be used to work out the cross-sections. This seemed to work much better. That said, I had some trouble accurately drawing the rocker with the french curve (I should have just used a batten), but this wasn't going to have much impact on the top-down view so I wasn't worried about it. BUT, when it came to drawing the top-down view, I encountered a problem. As mentioned earlier, canoas seem to have had a pretty consistent angle to their sides. In other words, all cross-sections would have the same angle to the sides. This is easy enough to plot out on the top-down plans: just use the grid lines and a ruler to measure a consistent distance out from the outline of the bottom perpendicular to the center line. The only thing to remember with this is that the fore half becomes progressively higher as it reaches the bow owing to the angled extra planks placed there. But it's easy enough to deal with that: the method above of measuring out a consistent distance from the bottom shows the line of the uppermost full plank, then if you know the proportions of heights between the full side planking and the maximum (at prow) height of the additional fore planking, you can mark where the tip of the full planking at the bow and extend proportionally forwards to get the actual full length, then draw an appropriate curve back from there to the point where the fore upper planking begins. That will give you a top-down view of the top of the sides, from which you can use simple right triangles to find the height of cross-sections of the bow. The problem is that, with the moderate angle for the sides that I chose--which is accurate for most canoas and necessary if it's to be planked with straight boards--the line for the top of the upper full strakes did not naturally extend nearly as far forward as I had drawn it in the side view. I could simply draw it farther forward, but this would mean the bow cross-sections would take on a progressively different angle for the sides, making things difficult to plan out. Stuck, I decided to once again make a small model as a sort of proof-of-concept to work out how the bow would work. I could also use it to test out a hull shape for the bottom, something that I was also indecisive about. Unlike the paper model, I would make it from wood, using 1/16th inch basswood for the bottom, transom, and bulkheads/molds, and coffee stir sticks for the sides so that I didn't have to spend time cutting perfectly parallel planks from basswood. I didn't plan it out, as I just wanted something simple and quick. I cut out a one-piece bottom and made a transom, a bulkhead for the widest point, and a fore bulkhead (twice the height of the others as I wasn't sure how high the fore upper planking would reach). I gave the bottom some rocker with the method used for the dory (soak one side, prop up both ends, place a weight in the middle, and let dry), used angled supports to attach the transom at an appropriate angle, and used further supports to make the central and fore bulkheads vertical despite the rocker. I also decided to use this to try the method of building around bulkheads and possibly adding the framing afterward, although I only thought to do this after having already glued the bulkheads to the bottom (as I originally just wanted something quick to test out the hull shape). Then I began with planking. The curves weren't too sharp, and I wanted to get this together quickly as a proof of concept, so I didn't bother with soaking. After the garboard plank, I realized that I needed a stem, too, in order to make sure the bow actually pointed out forward and modeled what I was trying to test out, so I retrofitted a simple one. I built it very quickly and without much care. The bow was a bit of a mess, one of the coffee stir sticks had been used for mixing paint and was discolored, two stir sticks were of a slightly different size and wood than the others, the fore upper planks were just single pieces of scrap 3/64th inch wood instead of multiple planks, there were a number of gaps between planks, and the bow got pretty stained from super glue. Without worrying about how it looked, I put it together in a single afternoon (except for one upper fore plank) and took few photos--after all, the point wasn't the model itself, but rather to use it to figure out how to build the actual model. I'll discuss the lessons learned below, but first wanted to mention: because I built this so quickly and with so little care, I was very pleasantly surprised that I think it turned out to be a pretty credible little model! At 1:48 scale it comes out to a 24 foot-long bottom and about 28 feet long overall--maybe not quite large enough for the rancho that makes for a true canoa de rancho, but something at the larger end of the fishing canoas. The hull form is similar to some of the small, boxy canoas that can be seen in photos hauled up on beaches, above, or maybe the following: Photo from DeGolyer Library, Southern Methodist University: https://digitalcollections.smu.edu/digital/collection/mex/id/2305/rec/4 The image is very high-res on the site, quite interesting! There are a few issues as a model, besides those mentioned above. The wood is too thick for scale, the stem is too thick and would have to be trimmed or removed and replaced with internal braces on the sides, and the bulkheads would have to be cut out (thankfully they're only glued on the bottom), as would the angled support at the transom. The rocker somehow ended up inconsistent across the beam at the stern, which is a little twisted. Also, given that the hull shape was created with french curves rather than a batten, the curves turned out a bit off and I think the side looks like it juts out a little sharply amidships instead of taking a smooth curve. It's also on the beamy side of things. Despite these issues, I think it turned out decently and with a bit of sanding, painting, and adding the frames, cap rail (which is wide enough to help with the curve issue), stern thwart, rudder, mast and rigging, etc., it could actually be a decent 1:48 model of a rather roughly-built and well-worn working vessel. My main plan is still to make a 1:32-scale canoa de rancho, but I might work on this smaller model alongside it. I'm not sure if it should get its own build log though--it would repeat a lot of what's in the larger model's log--or if it's ok to just keep dealing with it here as a sub project that occasionally pops up. Somehow I think retitling the post to include two separate models of separate vessels of the same type at different scales would go against standard title format... In any case, I learned a lot from the proof of concept that will be useful for the 1:32 Canoa de Rancho. Most importantly, on the bow: ultimately, the angle of the sides did end up changing a little between the prow and the fore bulkhead, but this was pretty minimal and I thought I didn't need to do much here when it comes to building the larger model, I could just let the wood take the form it will between the foremost bulkhead and the prow as long as the bulkhead isn't right up at the prow. I did decide to go with a slightly less extreme prow rake than on my original design, which will also be a bit more typical--only a few photographs of canoas de rancho show the sharply inclined prow my original plans depicted. A few other points I learned: I had felt that the bottom looked unbalanced as the widest point was too far forward. That ended up working ok as the sides extended forward and the widest point ended up being just about in the middle of the boat, but the sides did naturally curve out a little bit aft of the middle bulkhead. Clearly in the future I needed to do better at planning the hull curves. I realized that I would need a better method of holding the bulkheads in place without gluing them to the bottom--I think I can just attach them to each other with enough supports that they will stay in place with minimal or no gluing to the hull. I also realized that I would need more bulkheads for the larger model. There was a large open space between the transom and the center bulkhead, and although the curve there was extremely gentle, it ended up being a bit tricky to hold things in place without bulkhead. I would need to be better about clamping to press the planks together, as there were some gaps. Finally I'd need to be careful to make sure there's no hull twisting, as a little did occur at the stern on the small model. So, armed with these discoveries, and a newfound appreciation for the importance of planning with a spline, I returned to the plans. I decided to start over rather than attempt to rescue the existing plans, this time using a spline for the curves from the start. Once again I started with a side view, but this time I began by marking out the bottom and its rocker with the spline. Then, after deciding on the height of the sides, I marked the prow and transom lines and added the line of the uppermost strake of planking. Next I added the raised bow. Having noticed that most canoas had an overhang at the bow continuing on from the cap rails, I planned the hull itself to be a little short, then extended the overhang to the correct planned length. Then, I extended the lines for the tip of the bottom, uppermost strake, and bow upwards to plot out the top-down view. I decided I liked the look of a narrower hull, which appears in some photos of canoas de rancho. To get the hull lines, I marked a line for the maximum width of the bottom and at the top of the uppermost strake, and bent the spline from the correct points at the prow and transom to touch the width lines. I also added some details (not necessarily accurate to what I'll build) to the side view to get a sense of what it would look like when complete. A note on using the spline (a strip of thin balsa): I didn't have any surface to push pins into, so instead I used heavy objects to hold it in place while I drew. This worked ok, although some objects slid too easily. I eventually found that plastic cups of water slid less than those made of glass. (I spent the whole time worried about spills, though.) Before drawing the bulkheads/molds (if I understand correctly, the former stay in the boat and the latter are to be removed?), I did some fine tuning. I narrowed the transom a bit as I liked how it looked better that way, and because I found that I had misjudged the size of the transom in a photo I was using as a model due to shadows. Much nicer lines aft! I also realized that the spline's curve was naturally pushing the widest point of the hull too far back. After careful study of photos, I determined that the mast can be stepped (and the first crossbeam placed) a little forward of the widest point, but only a little. So I moved the mast back a little bit (which required changing the rancho a little) and adjusted the spline so the widest point ended up just behind the mast, because the curve became too extreme and unnatural if it was actually amidships. I will have to be careful during planking to make sure the planks don't flex out too far aft. I also adjusted the depth a bit before going back to what I had, which looked better. As can be seen, the new hull plan (right) looked much better and more natural than the old hull plan (left), and I am happy I learned how to use the spline. Finally, it was time for the bulkheads/molds. Once I decided where they would be, it was easy enough in theory to figure out their dimensions. The vertical height is measured on the side view, and the top and bottom widths from the top view. Then it's just a matter of making sure it's even. But, I made a lot of errors, some due to simple carelessness (measuring the wrong bulkhead), and some due to mathematical mistakes in dividing weird fractions (simple math but I've never claimed to be good with numbers). I also realized that, while I was taking into account the width of the bottom and the cap rail, I hadn't done so with the width of the sides. I kept the bottom as it was, but subtracted 1/16th inch from each bulkhead at the top. This also made the sides slightly more vertical, which was good--they were a bit more angled out than I had wanted. I should note that I'll be tracing the outlines to another sheet to cut out templates. I also will only cut out half of each bulkhead and will simply flip it around a center line to make sure they're symmetrical, as I'll also do for the bottom. (Hence why I only bothered drawing one half of the bottom.) So, here's where things now stand. It took a lot of work, and a lot of erasing, but I have plans! Also a very clunky little separate model. Next will be the exciting work of cutting pieces from a basswood sheet.

Cool model, looking forward to seeing it come together!