Fixing the Boat 3

Sure is fun putting the final touches on the Ziz.  I feel like she's a real boat now that the first big dings are out of the way.  In fact I'm fond of the carnage stories of my first wooden boat trip through Grand Canyon.  I thought I should somehow record the Ziz's story.  I thought about writing trip notes into the left side hatch, maybe a little notebook that stays with the boat... But both those options probably would wash or wear away.  I decided on the recording method below:

1/2 Inch lettering with a layer of clear coat over it.  I'm hoping it will hold up for at least one season.  It will be easy to reapply and 3 sheets of stickers only costs .99 cents.

Same thing here.  The letters are tucked up under the gunwale, but they are there if you're lookin'.

The oar stops are epoxied and just need a quick sand to get them gliding in the oarlock.

Little details.. Drain holes in the wine shelf for when massive water pummels the deck or when the boat is in submarine mode after 205 mile rapid.

The foot rest was reset at a better angle.  I had it too steep so that I was only on the balls of my feet.  It also was sanded and got a few new coats of varnish.

The handrails were revarnished and bolted back on the boat.

The front cross hatch was screwed back into place. Its starting to look like a brand new boat again.

Fixing the Boat 2

The Zizumara is getting ready for the epic snowmelt that is gonna be racing down our mountains.  Most of the patching has been done, the oar locks are bolted into place and the gunwales are looking good. Here is  a little recap of the repair project.

This is a view of the bottom of the boat.  Note the hairline smiley face crack.  You might think, no big deal. Not a bad hit at all...

Argh! A little uglier view from the inside.  This is round one of picking out the shattered plywood.

Round 2 of picking out the useless wood.  Note all the grey Grand Canyon grit coating the wood.

Final round of shattered wood removal.  The orange glow is the light from the heater showing through the exterior glass.  It took weeks to dry out this zone. It was completely saturated and spongy.  A large portion of the thwart had to be removed as well. The wood was just turned into tiny bits and pieces between flawless glass.

Patch complete with new glass, fillets and glass tape.  You can see here how much of the thwart was replaced.  The rock hit which caused this damage was directly under the thwart.

The purple fairing goes down and is sanded to 320 same as the rest of the boat.

The anti-skid texture was epoxied to the bottom.

The zone where the new texture and old texture meet is gonna look a little obvious as some of the epoxy coated the old textured area and will make it look too smooth.  Ahh...close enough.  This zone is gonna get bashed again.

Primed and ready for the color coat.

Not perfect but done.  I think the bottom will look better once it gets a little worn like the rest.

One issue I had to fix on the Ziz was gunwale bolts.  They were pulling through the wood.  On this photo you can see a dark shadow just below the bolt head.

The other issue on the gunwale was water damage where the varnish rubbed off.

Here is an image of the indented wood with the bolt removed.

Here is the fix. I filled the indentation with wood flour and fiberglass fillet then when it was nearly set I created a square notch for the carriage bolt to fit.

With the gunwales varnished and all the bolt issues cared for it took only an hour to fasten the bolts and the oar lock.

The Ziz is ready for the water now!

The one place on the boat that had a problem which wasn't due to user error... kind of, was the front cross hatch area.  During the summer the wood expanded and popped the glass.  Somehow water must have been getting in and after tearing off the old glass I think I found the problem zone.  This area looked water damaged.

I cleaned it up, dried it out and put in some epoxy filler then glassed over the whole area again.  Laid down a layer of fairing compound and got to painting.

Primed.

Color coat.

Another fun project was working on a repair of a friends oar.  Its a beautiful 10 foot solid ash smoker oar.  The blade was nearly snapped in half when a gust of wind took it and our kitchen tarp airborne.  Luckily, most of the crew was in the kitchen because we had been blown out of our own tents.  We captured things just in time.  I straightened out the blade by wetting one side and placing weight on the other.  It took a few weeks but it worked!

All varnished up and ready to feel the Canyon again.

Fixing the Boat

The river season has ended and the rains are coming in on the west coast.  My first priority with the boat is to get it dried out.

The gunwales took a beating where the tie down straps rubbed.  It took off the varnish and water got into the wood.

The other issue was that the varnish itself was recalled by the manufacturer and has not held up well so I decided to sand it all off and start over.

I've chiseled out the crushed wood from the hit I took in 205 mile.  The damage went all the way through the 1/2" plywood but the outside glass is still intact.

Its possible to do a fillet patch but that will make this zone very inflexible.  It will be the easiest way to fix this though.

On the outside of the hull the only damage is this hairline crack.  After I fix the inside, I'll flip the boat over and lay down a glass patch.

The thwart was the most damaged zone.  The damage goes all the way though.  I think I'll have to cut out the bottom of the thwart and put in new plywood, glass and fillets.  The rock hit was directly under the thwart.

This damage has me scratching my head a little bit.  The ply is damaged underneath the glass but not very badly.  Its temping to make sure its dry and then seal it up with epoxy.

The gunwale took a big hit too but looks only lightly damaged.  I still may scarf in a new section of gunwale here though.

 Well, at least the Zizu didn't have to be abandoned like Bert's.

Zizumara Runs the Colorado

Sept 28 - Oct 15 2010
Constant 8,000 CFS ...we thought.

Fueling up at Late for the Train in Flag.  Then we hit the road toward Fredonia to pack up for the trip.

Before the Ziz was dipped in the Colorado she was christened with Martin's favorite.. Sheep Dip. -I think it may have stripped a little of the paint off!

At the ferry the weather was perfect.  In the evening we were treated to incredible music from the fine men of Can-X.

We started the trip with clear water and high temps. Gorgeous!

The Ziz is a dream boat.

Though its so loaded at this point my footwell has 5" of water in it.  The hatches are full to the top and I feel like it wants to take off on its own.

Luckily I am carrying produce so it should get lighter.

 At Saddle we really started getting into the groove.

 Everybody had sweet lines through our first big drops.

The Ziz is loving the Canyon's currents.

 Dory sleeping is nice.

Around Lava Chuar the sky starts looking a bit ominous.

 Above Unkar we are treated to a light show.

Then it comes... Wind and rain, flash floods, camp goes airborne, the river goes red and the rapids get mean.

Overnight the river rises 3ft... possibly 3,000 more cfs.  Just in time to run Hermit and the inner gorge.  Yippee?

Things get a bit wild and I forgot to take pictures from here on out.  Hoping the clients will fill in the gap!

Crystal Rapid officially breaks in the Ziz... literally.

We went into the left wall and hit the 2nd fang.  The sound was horrible but luckily we hit directly where a thwart meets the hull.  The gunwale was scratched and about 1 inch below the gunwale and the hull has a hairline crack.  Everybody stayed in the boat too.

A piece of duct tape took care of the fix. Whew!  Got lucky.

They say its good luck to have a clean boat.

Uh-oh.

Still in one piece below Lava Falls... I can breathe now.

...Until 205 leaves its mark.  Had a huge hit at the bottom of the steepest drop I've ever run.  There was plywood floating in the footwell... I was sure we were sinking.

Somehow we didn't flip.  I hope someone has a photo of me trying to row an underwater boat.  The Ziz was going back to her dolphin roots.

She's a sturdy boat! Just a big compression buckle. Not even a hole.  Patched with epoxy putty during lunchtime and back on the water towards our last night's camp.

The trip was incredible.

Wild weather, an awesome crew and the Ziz was a dream come true.

Can't wait to do it again.

The Ziz is back above Lava!