Bushcraft boats

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boatman

Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
Feb 20, 2007
2,444
4
77
Cornwall
Inspired by a remark on a current thread that boats are rarely mentioned.

The project nearly finished in Falmouth, Cornwall, to reconstruct a full-size Bronze Age Boat could be said to be pure bushcraft with its hull of oak mostly held together with stitches of yew withies.
[video=youtube;22chM3wYrk0]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=22chM3wYrk0[/video]

Hopefully it will be launched at Falmouth on the fourth of March.

This project has taken a lot of money and labour but knocking up a boat can be as easy or as difficult as you care to make it. A pirogue from plywood and epoxy can be built in a weekend and finished in a week easily, actually using much same basic technique of sewing as with the Bronze Age Boat.

B&Q and other suppliers will even cut the ply into the widths you need for the planks thereby saving you from the most awkward part of cutting up a plywood sheet accurately. Each plank of course needs joining which is not difficult but could be avoided if full wooden planks are used but then it can be difficult, and expensive, to get them wide enough meaning added complication for the build if you cannot.

Even more bushcrafty would be to use wooden planks and to stitch the pirogue together with withies and caulk it with tallow and moss as with the Falmouth boat, something I have been playing around with for years as a, now stalled, project.
 
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boatman

Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
Feb 20, 2007
2,444
4
77
Cornwall
Wonder why they cheated by using a welded metal frame. Ribs and stringers could have been made of tightly rolled duct tape or something like cardboard enclosed in tape. The welded frame shows a mindset that you must have heavy gear to make anything.
 

jojo

Need to contact Admin...
Aug 16, 2006
2,630
4
England's most easterly point
To me, the "ultimate" Bushcraft boat has to be a birchbark canoe. Sadly, birch bark, if available at all, is only available at exorbitant prices. So the next best thing will be a birch plywood canoe.

These pictures show what a bit of imagination in use of material can produce.

This one as to be my favourite.

IMG_0518.jpg


canoe1.JPG


[video=youtube;x1KdAdTh5CY]http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=x1KdAdTh5CY[/video]

Northern Sound Canoes

Usual disclaimer, blah blah... I have nothing to do with these guys, I just like their work!
 
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Mesquite

It is what it is.
Mar 5, 2008
27,807
2,893
62
~Hemel Hempstead~
To me, the "ultimate" Bushcraft boat has to be a birchbark canoe. Sadly, birch bark, if available at all, is only available at exorbitant prices. So the next best thing will be a birch plywood canoe.

Those are lovely Jojo, thanks for posting them

The other canoe to consider is canvas skin canoes... have a look at the 3 that Jon Ridgeon from this forum built
 

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