Progress report
July 21 to July 27
My son Douglas and I rasped, filed and sanded the handles of
small canoe paddles so they would fit in the aluminum hubs.
Douglas cut the hub spokes with a tubing cutter to 8 inches from center. I tried to be of
help to my wife Arlene in her sewing of our homemade sun and rain shade. We attached
adhesive backed Velcro strips to the forward portion of the shade. After curing the
adhesive overnight we attached the shade to the frame, and soon afterward the adhesive
detached from the fabric. Arlene then sewed the Velcro to the fabric. (That worked fine
except she ran out of thread with only a yard to go.)
My longtime friend, Dave drove in from Las Vegas, New Mexico
on Friday to spend the weekend helping with the craft. He has driven to Santa Fe many
times to help with the construction, and has been very generous with his time.
We worked on completing a spare set of paddlewheels. Friday night we disassembled the
craft. Saturday we took the craft to Cochiti Lake for a fully rigged test. We met Terry
and Tom of the New Mexico branch of the ALS Association at the lake, and they helped us
with the 90 minute rigging process.
We launched into light winds at 11:00 a.m. and all the
equipment performed very well. At times we stopped pedaling and sailed on a reach
at 90 degrees to the wind. The paddlewheels spun freely as the wind carried us across
the lake. On our journey I expect to raise the paddlewheels (when sailing) to cut down on
their resistance. Many friends showed up at the lake and some took turns riding and
pedaling the craft. That night we disassemble the craft for the last time in New Mexico.
Sunday I stained our spare paddlewheels and the rest of the redwood frame got another coat.
See fully rigged craft on July 26 (200K)
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