... recently picked up a new 'Firefly 14' (14'-3" length) solo canoe manufactured in the UK by British boatbuilder 'Silverbirch Canoes' and distributed in the US by 'Gnarlz Outdoors', located here in PA... composite high density polyethylene (HDPE) - has pretty much replaced the extinct composite Royalex (ABS) plastic when it comes to hull construction... not gonna' get into the specifics of the boat - haven't paddled it yet but we're confident it paddles fine - and if it doesn't we'll adjust (wouldn't be the first time)...
... came as pictured above... not one to leave well enough alone, we wanted to soup it up a bit with some added flotation, foam knee pads and adjustable thigh straps ('cause we have an unused set lying about) for paddling nothing more severe than some local Class II+ water with (possibly) some casual intermittent Class III - what it was made for...
... the stock boat came with no hull or gunnel attachment system for lacing airbags - that's OK - we'll do it ourself... above the boat is laid out and marked for drilling holes for a hull lacing system...
... beginning near the rear of the deck plate, we opted to just follow the gunnel attachment screw pattern (roughly 5" c-c) with intermittent screws in between, resulting in a lacing pattern roughly 2-1/2" c-c...
... zero margin for error - a few production drill holes (5/32"⌀)...
... we used clear flexible tubing (0.170 ID - 1/4" OD) cut to 6" lengths for the attachment loops and black 4mm paracord for the lacing...
... some knotted angler fly line leader sure made it a heck of a lot easier to fish the paracord thru the tubing...
... lacing in progress...
... one side done...
... when we got to laying out the opposite side of the boat we found that the gunnel screw pattern was not symmetric along the bow-left side to bow-right... as such, our lacing would be off side-side by as much as 1/2" if we proceeded - hardly noticeable - however, we'd know it (and would forever bug the sh*t out of us)...
... we solved that problem by picking up two rolls of adhesive measuring tape (L-R/R-L) and laying out both sides...
...we're now good, side-side, near as 1/8" we'd bet...
... lacing completed...
... no painter loops on the stock boat either - we added those too - x = 2-1/2", y = 1/2", measured from stem of boat and bottom of deck, respectively...
... painters installed - don't know what size, we had some unused poly cord laying around - fit very snugly in the 1/4" drill holes... trying to bodily squeeze in the narrow stems of the boat and tying double overhand stop knots in the limited space was the toughest part of the project - we achieved painter lengths of 7" bow/stern, however (after multiple attempts each)...
... lacing/painters done...
... preliminary check of air bag fit and knee pad/thigh strap layout...
... we read that polyethylene plastic can be problematic with regard to adhesion and the correct epoxy - we consulted with several "experts" with regard to the right adhesive and installation of the foam pads and vinyl anchors and are comfortable we've found the right epoxy, which we plan to order within the coming days - we also plan to order color coordinate blue paracord and 1" flat nylon webbing for the bag tie in lacing and anchor straps...
... we expect that it will paddle as good as it looks...
... we'll post some images of the completed boat when done - if you see or hear nothing else, you'll know we f*k'ed somethin' up completely...
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