Canoe

As promised a while back, here is some more detail about the canoe I am building.

Sometime around September of 2008 my brother-in-law, Jeff, brought up the idea of building canoes.  Now, this was not quite as "out of the blue" as it initially seems, as I built a kayak in 2001/2002 and have occasionally brought up the idea of building another boat.  So it didn't take much prodding on his part to get me to agree that building canoes together would be a good idea.  After spending some time looking at different plans, we settled on the 15'7" Raven plan from Selway-Fisher.  It is a stitch and glue plywood design that seemed like a good balance between Jeff wanting something stable to paddle with his two young boys, and me wanting something somewhat sleek for solo paddling or canoeing with Grace.

There is not much exciting to report on for the first month or two, as at first Jeff and I just got together a few times to discuss the details of building a drink some beer.  Or maybe we got together to drink some beer and happened to talk about canoe building.  Anyway, we eventually came up with some good ideas, bought some wood, and started to lay out the plans onto wood.

By January of 2009 we were cutting out the plywood.  We cut one of each piece very carefully and sanded the shape to the exact shape, then duplicated them with a router.  This brilliant idea was from Jeff's dad and saved use countless hours of tedious cutting.  Thanks, Robert!  That is me hunched over the router, and Jeff is supporting the plywood.

Things progressed along nicely throughout the winter, and by mid February we had stained and fiberglassed the 8' pieces together to create the 16' long pieces needed for nearly 16' long canoes.  Jeff's pieces are the lighter color, and mine are the darker color.  He chose to stain both sides of his canoe in a yellow pine color, and I stained the inside of mine in walnut and left the outside natural.

Here the first pieces are stitched together!  This was late February.  The stitch and glue method of boat building first involves "stitching" the plywood together with copper wire, then gluing the plywood together, or in the case of our canoes, fiberglassing them together.

Here is a little closer picture of the stitches.  All the wire was removed after gluing the wood together.

By March 8, 2009 this is where progress stood.  This is Jeff's canoe completely wired, or "stitched," together.  Even with no bracing the plywood forms to the final canoe shape nicely.  From here we cut the ends even, as you can see that the middle pieces are a little too long and stick out.  Then we began the gluing process, which in our case was putting fiberglass on the inside.  In the background I see the top is down on the Miata...I seem to recall last winter being unseasonably cold.  Maybe we got a little break in the weather in early March?

Here we are in mid-April with my canoe.  It is wired together and ready for some fiberglass.  It is nice to be be working outside!

It's starting to really look like a canoe here, "glued" together with the fiberglass tape done on the inside, the wire removed, and the ends sanded smooth.  At this point both Jeff and I had grand expectations of getting both of our canoes in the water in the summer of 2009.

And then progress came to a screeching halt.  On May 5 I broke my right collar bone, which really cramped my style for a couple months.  Not really the way I wanted to spend part of the summer, but stuff happens.  After about two months I could use my right arm gingerly, but reasonably well again.  Jeff and I had gotten fiberglass on the outside of both of our canoes before The Collar Bone, so the basic structure was complete.  I built the seats with a partially healed collar bone and snapped this picture on July 13.  They are made from 2" seatbelt material woven onto maple frames.

Once my collar bone was healed, I had to make up some lost bike-riding time and the canoe got a rest.  After I found my center with some quality time on the bike, I was ready to get back to the canoe.  It progressed along nicely, but for some reason I did not get any pictures for a while.  By mid-November, the seats, gunwales, thwart, and bulkheads were installed, and the fore and aft decks were made but not yet installed.  There are still several steps before the canoe is done, but at this point it looks nearly finished.

One of my original desires was for a canoe that could be paddled either by two people or solo.  The solo part took some thinking on my part, but I have to say I am pretty pleased with my solution.  I mounted the thwart low, instead of at the gunwales, and made a removable seat that slips over it for solo use.  That way I can have a seat near the middle for solo, and still have two seats in the usual locations for two people to paddle.  It needs a little foam yet, but should do the job quite nicely.

For a little pizazz, I made the fore and aft decks strip-built.  The wood is simply poplar that has been stained different colors, but it really looks nice.

So as of writing this on 12/30/2009 the canoe is not yet done, but I can't complain.  This year has been busy between knee surgery, residency, the collar bone, board exams, and life in general.  It has been a satisfying project and I continue to feel motivated to work on it.  So keep checking in and I will see you on the water in 2010!