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Boat Forum / Building / April 2007Quick, nice canoe buildable by amateur?
Hi all, I am hoping to build a canoe and was looking into input about what kind of design would be good for me. Allow me to describe my requirements in detail. First, the canoe should be most at home with two fit 20-somethings, their lunches, and a dinner; however, if possible, it won't be too strained by a weekend trip or a short solo outing. It will primarily float the Bow River in Calgary, and I doubt it will ever see anything worse than class II water. I hope to build this canoe in my modest backyard with limited tools and inexpensive material. It needs to be a fast builder so I can make the best use of the short summer here. It should be as beautiful as possible within these constraints, the limits of my expertise, and my patience. The most complicated boat I have built was made of cardboard and duct tape. My most significant woodworking project was lofting a bed. Considering these issues and what I have read so far, a "stitch-and- glue" design seems most appropriate, however I am open to other suggestions. I assume I will end up ordering plans, but of course if any free plans are suitable they would be more desirable from the standpoint of total cost and evaluation. I'm not designing it myself because I need to learn something about the techniques involved, a tested design will build quicker, and I am somewhat concerned about appearance. Thank you in advance for your advice and helpful pointers, Kevin Plywood is the fastest, easiest material for amateur boatbuilding because it comes pre-sanded and goes together in large pieces. The more pices to a boat, the more work it is to build, generally. The simplist shape is a long, low dory, ie two sides and a bottom. The sides are angled out to give some curvature to the bottom, and more or less curvature can be had by shaping the bottom edges of the side pieces. A popluar form of this boat which can be built to carry two as you suggest, and for which free plans can be found by searching the Internet, is a "pirogue", a Louisiana swamp boat created by French Canadians, or Cajuns, expelled from Nova Scotia by the British government in 1755. Plywood canoe plans tend to be more complex, each side made up of 2 or more pieces, and reverse curves at the bows. They tend to need several evenly-spaced temporary shapes (molds) set up to bend the pieces around to get the right shape. They also usually call for trim pieces along the gunwales and at the ends. Doable by beginners but time consuming. A long, low punt is another alternative but they are usually poled or rowed instead of paddled. Good luck. I believe you are looking at a cedar strip canoe. It sounds like you want something better than the the old fibreglass/aluminum tubs that your buddy's parents have at the lake and never use because it handles like a barge. You should be able to get 18' planks of cedar from BC relatively cheaply. From there, your main expense will be the fibreglass, which costs the same for a cedar strip as it does for a plywood design. 2 time killers can be avoided too. The first one is building the strongback and forms. If you can, borrow them from somebody (I have the strongback and forms for a Freedom 17' here in Saskatoon). The second is the actual stripping. Use staples. It takes a 50 hour - 4 week job using the staple-less method and turns it into a 20 hour - 1 longweekend job. Also, the ripping of the boards and the bead&coveing does waste a good afternoon, but will go pretty fast with a buddy, a good table saw and a router In the end, you will have a very strong, very stable canoe that also looks great. Mike Saskatoon SK > Hi all, > I am hoping to build a canoe and was looking into input about what [quoted text clipped - 25 lines] > Thank you in advance for your advice and helpful pointers, > Kevin |
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