Unlike the rest of the parts I have been making these pieces are made specifically to fit the Sunnyside Cruiser. They could of course be adapted to fit any canoe and an alternative would be to make a bracket that fits onto a seat or thwart instead of fitting to the deck.
This first piece is the mast foot which I am making from Iroko. I began by marking out a hole for the mast to go into that will be tapered to fit.
I cut the hole from each side with my morticer but if you don't have one you could always cut it out with a jigsaw or even a coping saw it will just take longer.
The hole was then tapered with a chisel to fit the mast and coated with epoxy to toughen it and make it last longer.
In order to fit the shallow v hull in the bottom of the canoe the underside of the foot has to be cut to fit. Here I have marked it out.
Then I cut the angle on the bandsaw.
The angle also has to be tapered towards the bow so I planed this to fit by hand.
Then I marked out the corners which I cut and smoothed before routing the edge to a radius
The bracket which will go above it is prepared and cut out with an angle that fits the one on the deck coaming.
The hole for the mast is drilled a mm or so bigger to allow it to be lined with leather later and is also routed around the edge to a radius.
Both these pieces will later be glued into the hull with epoxy but that's it for now.
Cheers
Alick