I Discover I have Paul Bunyon fingers

I am just about the most delinquent blogger in the existence of the internet.  I am making progress on my board, no doubt about that.  However, I am finally posting these week+ old pictures.  In fact, I set a date to debut my board.  I had to give myself a deadline, so I made it May 20.  If you would like to attend the paddle board revealing party, post a comment and I will reply with details.  I will be at the boat house and you will see such classics as Baby Red.

In this post I am stitching the bottom of the board.  The last photo I left you with was of the side walls and the bulkheads.  That was basically the frame (I referred to it as a beached whale skeleton before) to of the paddle board.  Stitching the bottom to the frame proved to be a test of whether I had done the last step correctly.............and with much frustration, I had not.  (This is part of the reason I waited to blog this...I had to swallow my pride before I could finally admit my mistakes.)  

I couldn't understand why my board was lopsided.  Thankfully, my good friend Laura measured out the sidewalls to find one was upside down.  Ok, now that I've divulged that, let's move on.  Seriously.  Let's move on.  I'd rather not get into details.

With the frame upside down, I laid the bottom panel on top and began to stitch it to the side boards.  Again, I used copper wire in 4 inch increments to tie it up.  Pliers are essential for twisting unless you have Paul Bunyon fingers.  I had to do some adjusting by loosening some wires and re-tightening.

Just stitching along the side panels

Referring to this earlier photo below, you can see the bottom panel is a funky shape and half of it is split down the middle.  That is so the board can have a boat-hull shape on the bottom front like the photo below.

You can kind of see the funky shape of the bottom panel here

The bottom front of the board is going to have a shape similar to this hull

This is the bow, or front, of the board (board is upside down)

 

To get the nose of the bottom panel, which flares out (diagram blow), to fit with the bow of the frame (above), I had to bend the nose pieces upright and stitch it in.  This is where they recommend having a friend help you.  I did it alone which means I may, after all, have those Paul Bunyon fingers I was talking about.

And here's what we get:

This is the shape the bow takes as the bottom panel is stitched to the sides (board is right-side up).  And yes, that's a painting of Beyonce in the background).

I set up two saw horses and cradles (boards cut to fit the paddle board in place) and flipped the paddle board upside down. I'm ready to post the next step!

You can see the cradles clamped in with the green spring clamps.

Looks like we're getting somewhere.