Issue 176, April 2013 Volume 36 No. 2 - Wooden Canoe Heritage ...

Above, left: Bill Clements and Tom Bickford contemplating the installationof some new ribs. Bill, Tom, Paul Kelly, and Steve Lapeyworked one Saturday on bending and installing some of the replacementribs. It was a frustrating operation and toward the end of theday, the team ran out of steam. Paul returned the next day; he andSteve finished up the troublesome job.Above, right. A smiling Paul Kelly after the last replacement rib wassuccessfully installed.Right. A good group of helpers made this day’s work go quickly:(l-r)Lyle Lemon, Benson Gray, Paul Kelly, and Marshall McKee rubbingthe filler into the number 8 canvas that we stretched and stapled onearlier in the day.Right. The rails clamped in place andthe screw holes were drilled thanks toa great crew of workers—(l-r) TomBickford, Mat Cox, John Fitzgerald,John Fiske, Gary Amirault, PaulShirley, Henry Cox, and Bill Clements.First, they drove a steel screwin each hole and then the steel screwswere removed and replaced with thenew brass, square-drive screws thatare the same as Chestnut used whenthe canoe was built. The reason fordriving in the steel screws first is toavoid twisting the heads off of thesoft brass screws as they go into thefairly hard wood.Issue 176 April 2013 35