A Lovely Canoe

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Tengu

Full Member
Jan 10, 2006
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Wiltshire
Saw it on sale in a local chandlers

£2500 down from £5100

planked wood, made by Will Stirling of Plymouth. 16ft.

If anyone wants further details I will get them, its a very nice boat.
 

Billy-o

Native
Apr 19, 2018
1,981
975
Canada
How pretty is that? Don't see white ones so often. Every colour but. It's dignified, like the elegant ghost of all canoes. Seems weirdly affordable too. I hope it finds a good home.

White doesn't show scratches quite so badly, but I suppose the best way to avoid scratching would be to never take it out of the water :lol:
 
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Tengu

Full Member
Jan 10, 2006
12,776
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Its a really smart piece of work. The forum post is February but she is still there (or was yesterday)

I tooka further look on the site. They sell boat plans. No sign of the canoe but I rather suspect if you asked, you could buy the plans.
 

Billy-o

Native
Apr 19, 2018
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Canada
Cedar strip boats always give you looks and bragging rights.

Your are lucky to have seen them. I have spent ton of time on Ontario lakes and BC Gulf Islands. Only ever seen them with glass skins. Heard of all-wood canoes, seen pictures of them and even owned an all-wood kayak at one point. Never actually seen a wood canoe in the flesh ... less so a birch one come to think of it. For unicorns only, I reckon. :)
 

Robson Valley

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Nov 24, 2014
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McBride, BC
I see maybe 2 or 3 cedar strip canoes each summer. Often on car top roof racks and out-of-province plates.
Real traffic stoppers.

THE MOST SPECTACULAR is the 16' from the Hudson's Bay Company ( built in the UK?).
Of course it's painted white with the yellow, red, green and indigo color bands.
Recall they go for $5,000, if you can spare a dime.

Extinct now, the big Chestnut freighters were paint & canvas over wood strip.
I worked out of one for several Uni summers. 21' at the waterline, 24' overall and 5' wide.
 

Tengu

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Jan 10, 2006
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A good bit of work. Im sad no one is buying. But she is pricey, even at half price.

Canvas seems a good idea. I see no point in birch bark. All that effort and they only last a year. Pretty silly to my mind.

Give me a coracle.
 

Billy-o

Native
Apr 19, 2018
1,981
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Canada
I think those birch bark things are supposed to last forever and a day. The bark itself seems more or less indestructible on the forest floor left to its own devices.
 

Robson Valley

Full Member
Nov 24, 2014
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There is every possible point in birch bark. This is the gold standard.
It isn't some sort of novelty as you may have been led to believe.
Not your species, not your multipurpose tree.
The concept is paleo, goes back thousands of years.

Modern birch bark canoes are stunners. Maybe $6 kilobucks if you can get on a list.

Ageless? No, I'm afraid not. I get to spend time on the Churchill River.
I lived there. There's even Chestnut freighters rotting in the bush.
The birch is in the far east. Look to builders in Quebec. They live.
 

Tengu

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Jan 10, 2006
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But how long do they last?

No birch bark canoes in the old world, and yes its useful stuff.

Coracles of some kind or another are found all over
 

Robson Valley

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Nov 24, 2014
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Birch bark canoes must not last very long at all. 10 years with excellent storage?
I've never seen even pictures of the wreckage of one. I can't even conjure up an image of
trying to patch one if it got holed by a rock in some rapids.

Chestnut freighter canoes were very well varnished, coming from the factory.
I expect that keeping them clean and dry meant a lot for life span.
Even patching the painted canvas was a chore to keep the outer wood surface dry.
Maybe 15? years with care? Really far too big for strictly pleasure use.

Grumman made aluminum canoes and Peterborough and others introduced fiberglas.
Far from traditional but their durability was unquestioned in the face of zero maintenance.
 

Robson Valley

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Nov 24, 2014
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McBride, BC
As Tengu points out, coracles are found all over.
Don't forget that the paper birch of North America is far different from the papery-looking birch in the UK.

I have some vague recollection of someone showing me drawings of bison-hide coracles
made on the mid-western great plains. Willow frames.
Not much for birch in the Grassland Biome which is sustained by fire, as well.
 

Billy-o

Native
Apr 19, 2018
1,981
975
Canada
You get paper birch in Ontario too, RV. Never really noticed it in BC, but I suspect it is there too. Someone (?) once said that successive tougher winters will make for thicker, more robust and flexible bark. That might be made up, though :lol:
 

Robson Valley

Full Member
Nov 24, 2014
9,959
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McBride, BC
Eastern North America is the "birch building community" using paper birch as a multipurpose plant/tree.
All sorts of things to be make from the wood and bark. It is not the same species that is found in the UK.
Crafting with UK birch looks to be such a disappointment as it appears so inflexible when compared with ours.

We've got patchy groves of paper birch (with 6 other species) in the Aspen Parkland Biome and up this way
into the Boreal Forest/Taiga Biome. I live in the Interior Cedar Hemlock zone. I can show you some groves of absolutley
stupendous paper birch, 16-20" DBH, as uncommmon as it is.

However, boats in the interior are cottonwood logs, most recent was carved just 3-4 years ago in Prince George at their museum.
On the coast, the boats always were sea-worthy, ocean-going cedar canoes of 40 - 60' lengths,
still being carved (quite the process). Mungo Martin had been involved in the making of more than 40 of them.
The ocean is the only road which connects many of the villages on Haida Gwaii.
 

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