Radiation

You may or may not have heard about Fukushima, Japan where a few years ago a large earthquake and the giant wave that resulted from it badly damaged a number of nuclear reactors at an electric generating station adjacent to the Pacific Ocean.

When the reactors were first damaged, they released a bunch of radioactive material into the air.  Prevailing winds being what they are, they carried the radioactive material from east to west and deposited some of it westward of Japan.  Supposedly the material reached the west coast of the North American continent in about 3 days and as far as I can tell kept on moving in an easterly direction where it deposited more of this radioactive material.  Eventually, I suppose, the radioactive material all drops to the ground and into the water.  By now, not much of it is still blowing around.

 But aside from the initial material released into the air, there is an ongoing release of radioactive water being dumped into the ocean at Fukushima where currents disperse it and bring it to the west coast of North America. The radioactive water is radioactive because it is being used to cool various radioactive materials at the Fukushima generator site.  The radioactive water is being dumped into the ocean not as an act of maliciousness, but because so much of it is needed to keep the radioactive materials from melting that there is no place to store it - hence it is dumped into the ocean. Not cooling the radioactive materials would supposedly cause them to blow themselves into the atmosphere which would be worse than the slower dispersal caused by dumping the cooling water into the ocean.
Like all things technological, this was carefully thought out.
The radioactive material brought to us by the ocean currents takes longer than transport by air.  Supposedly 2014, that is, this year is when the first of it arrives on the shores of North America.  And thanks to ongoing dumping of radioactive cooling water at Fukushima the plume of radioactive water is getting refreshed with radiation on an ongoing basis.

Meanwhile, various life forms in the ocean ingest the radioactive material.  Fish do, mollusks do, seaweed does. Anything living in the ocean and swimming through the plume of radioactive water generated at Fukushima picks up radioactive materials.

What is not clear is how harmful the radiation is.

One opinion - from the movie Repo Man quoted here.

"J. Frank Parnell: Ever been to Utah? Ra-di-a-tion. Yes, indeed. You hear the most outrageous lies about it. Half-baked goggle-box do-gooders telling everybody its bad for you. Pernicious nonsense. Everybody could stand a hundred chest X-rays a year. They ought to have them, too. When they canceled the project it almost did me in. One day my mind was full to bursting. The next day - nothing. Swept away. But Ill show them. I had a lobotomy in the end.
Otto: Lobotomy? Isnt that for loonies?
Parnell: Not at all. Friend of mine had one. Designer of the neutron bomb. You ever hear of the neutron bomb? Destroys people - leaves buildings standing. Fits in a suitcase. Its so small, no one knows its there until - BLAMMO. Eyes melt, skin explodes, everybody dead. So immoral, working on the thing can drive you mad. Thats what happened to this friend of mine. So he had a lobotomy. Now hes well again."
Others are not so optimistic.
I am personally curious - so I bought a radiation detector and started measuring radiation on my own.  More on the results in another post.

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The Utility part 1 Getting started

The Glen-L Utility is a simple but classic 1950s utility / fishing boat. It is 11 LOA, with a 5 beam, wood foredeck, open cockpit, and simple thwart / bench seats. Specs say it can carry up to 3 average passengers. Most of the photos Ive seen of them show basic tiller outboard steering. I got my plans around early April of 2012 & got started immediately.

Having learned my lesson about asymmetry in the construction of the frames, I approached the Utilitys frames very differently. First, I drew out frames 1 and 2, as well as the keel  backing, full-size on a sheet of 1/4" marine-grade Douglas Fir plywood.

Frames & keel backing traced out on the plywood.

Then, I traced all the frame members from the plans directly onto some 3/4" mahogany, and cut them out with much more care and attention to detail than I did with the Squirt. 

I learned an interesting thing about mahogany. Apparently, it is rather light sensitive. Driving home from the lumber yard, a small portion of the board was sticking out my back window. After about 2 hours in the sun, that part had turned considerably darker, as seen on the keel in the photo below.

Keel and frame members laid out on the plywood.

In order to maintain the best possible shape and alignment of my frames, I then epoxied the frame members directly onto the plywood. I later used the scrap from the cut-out portions of the plywood to make my remaining frame gussets.

I fastened the gussets onto the frames using Glen-L Poxy Shield epoxy, (thickened with #2 silica filler), and 1-1/4" bronze screws. The frames & interior surfaces of the transom were encapsulated with 3 layers of Poxy Shield. After each layer dried, I scrubbed & washed off the amine blush using dish detergent, warm water & a Scotch Brite pad. I also sanded lightly between the layers with 220 grit sandpaper.

Gluing the forward frame members onto the plywood.

The frame notches in the plans are 1" deep (other than the keel notch, which is 1-1/4"). Most stock sold as 1" these days is actually 3/4". If I were doing this again, I would probably change the notches to 3/4" in order to use some less expensive & more available boards.

Another thing I did differently than with the Squirt was to take construction of my building form much more seriously. I made it from 2x8s and 2x6s, with well-reinforced cross braces made from 2x4s left over from the Squirt form. I took a lot of care to make sure the surfaces were level, clamping them into position before fastening with 3" wood screws. Trying to build something with level surfaces on a sloped floor was a little tricky. The key is to mark the positions of the legs on the floor once youve gotten the parts level. That is, unless youre going to bolt the form to the concrete floor. Thats the preferred method, but several builders dont do that. I didnt.

Frames, transom and keel on the building form.

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Wood and Canvas Canoe Restoration started

Finally got the shop organized enough to get the canoe moved in.  Some internet sleuthing reveals that it is a B.N. Morris canoe.  Helps to know what it is since that narrows down searches for particulars.
Did some measuring too.  Beam is 32 inches at the gunwales.  Length is 17 feet. 

There it is, the B.N. Morris without a skin, sitting on top of the Vibe in front of the shop.

The white cedar sheathing has some gaps that need to be filled.

There it is in the shop ready for the next step.

The ends of the canoe are decked over.  Doesnt look like much, but takes up the first 32 inches of either end of the boat.

And here, inside the hull, assorted parts that were stripped off the hull.  Among other things, here are outwales, gunwale caps, stem pieces and plastic bags filled with bronze nails.  Some sanding and varnish will make this stuff look like new.

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