Homemade canoes?

[Paul_B]

Has anyone made their own canoe, kayak, boat or SUP? Did you use a kit or make it from scratch perhaps with only plans to guide you? I've been looking at Fine Boat Kits and they do look nice and not that hard, but I've no experience or tools.

Has anyone experience of this? Do you have any photographs of what you made and work in progress?

 

[alphaburner]

No experience but I did read a few books on making strip built canoes and kayaks. Looked like an interesting method but whatever way you do it, you’ll need some space.

 

[Paul_B]

I've got a 19 foot plus garage. A little tidy up and there's probably enough space there.

 

[Broch]

I built my first 'boat' when I was sixteen - an Ottersports touring double kayak - stitch and tape - and I still have xxx years later - there is nothing more satisfying than pushing out onto some nice peace of water in a boat you've built yourself

I have a number of books on building canoes - cedar strip and wood & canvas - both of which I really want to do, and will do sometime soon (in my case it will have to be very soon!).

 

[Stew]

I’ve made my own SUP - hollow wood strip wood.

I then repeated the process to improve it but built a surfboard. I filmed that one more thoroughly than the SUP. I’ll find the footage.

I’ve always fancied making a strip wood Canadian canoe but am realistic that I wouldn’t use it or have the space to store it.

 

[Stew]

Timelapse that still puts it over half an hour of footage! I would suggest playing 2x speed as well!!

 

[nigelp]

I’ve made 4 with plans from Selway Fisher. I just had the plans and cut the ply and stitched it together and used resin and tape. It’s not too difficult if you can use a saw and can puzzle out how to do things from a DIY perspective.
I still have the plans and also ones for a motor canoe that I have yet to make.

 

[Stew]

Some canoe drool worthiness - Trent sells them for approx $100k!

Trent Preszler, PhD (@preszlerwoodshop) • Instagram photos and videos

169K Followers, 189 Following, 1,025 Posts - See Instagram photos and videos from Trent Preszler, PhD (@preszlerwoodshop)

www.instagram.com

 

[Paul_B]

Some canoe drool worthiness - Trent sells them for approx $100k!

Trent Preszler, PhD (@preszlerwoodshop) • Instagram photos and videos

169K Followers, 189 Following, 1,025 Posts - See Instagram photos and videos from Trent Preszler, PhD (@preszlerwoodshop)

www.instagram.com

I would say my former friend made more beautiful boats than this guy. He completely matched colour and grain of the wood strips so the boat was mirror image about the centre line. He wasted a lot of wood for that I reckon. His view was that he was doing it because he loved doing it and wanted perfection, even if that meant he wasn't really being paid for his time. Seriously, his boats should have been in an art gallery they were so beautiful! I have certainly never seen any boats online quite so nice.

Mind you he could only make a few each year like that. If he accepted a commission you'd be waiting for it but I guess you'd not mind once you got it. I love real craftsmen made boats in wood.

 

[Stew]

I would say my former friend made more beautiful boats than this guy. He completely matched colour and grain of the wood strips so the boat was mirror image about the centre line. He wasted a lot of wood for that I reckon. His view was that he was doing it because he loved doing it and wanted perfection, even if that meant he wasn't really being paid for his time. Seriously, his boats should have been in an art gallery they were so beautiful! I have certainly never seen any boats online quite so nice.

Mind you he could only make a few each year like that. If he accepted a commission you'd be waiting for it but I guess you'd not mind once you got it. I love real craftsmen made boats in wood.

I think there’s a certain level of subjectivity with which someone likes more than another.

I matched grain left to right on my sup and surfboard. It’s not too tricky.

 

[Minotaur]

Gary Dierking Wa'apa has always stuck me as a really interesting idea.
Also have a look at the Nessmuk canoes because no one is really making canoes like that any more.
Check out song of the paddle forum as there a lot of good books out there being recommended.

 

[TLM]

I made a kayak from the very beginning. An Aleut baidarka. Got the lines from a book, did some smoothing, made a mold and finally the kayak itself. Did not dare to count the hours.

There is a way to make a kayak from Al tubing and 10mm polyethylene sheet with an impregnated fabric covering. Can be made foldable. Just simple tools required, jig saw, drill, tube bender. At least two fairly good pages on the net tell how.

 

[John Fenna]

I made a Birch Creek Malamut canoe - 4mm ply stitch and tape - and it was excellent! I canoed on the sea, lakes and even grade 3 white water in it, guided tourist groups on the Teifi, did multi day river descents, sailed her - the lot
Rot eventually got into the wood but that was after many years of hard usage and outdoor storage.
The plans I used were full size paper patterns, so life was easy and I had help from my boss who ran the tourist trips and from Alan Bridges who designed the boat and made the patterns. Unfortunately the have both died since then and I do not know if you can find the patterns anywhere now.
All my photos of the boat (originally called "Honey" after the colour of her varnished woodwork then after multiple repairs I painted her black and renamed her "The Black Joke", had Skull and Crossbones on stem and stern and a pirate flag as a sail to replace the multi coloured beach umbrella fabric of her original sail) are on transparencies and I cannot post them

 

[monkey boy]

I have built a plywood canoe. I bought the plans from Selway-fisher design, which is the 14ft prospector. Here is a little video I made of the build.

Sent from my SM-T510 using Tapatalk

 

[demented dale]

Has anyone made their own canoe, kayak, boat or SUP? Did you use a kit or make it from scratch perhaps with only plans to guide you? I've been looking at Fine Boat Kits and they do look nice and not that hard, but I've no experience or tools.

Has anyone experience of this? Do you have any photographs of what you made and work in progress?

this is cracking Paul. x

 

[Watch-keeper]

A very long time ago I made a plywood-glass reinforced canoe it was about 15 feet long and took a couple of weeks to make. I bought it as a kit with the ply sections cut out and ready to go. The construction process was very straight forward I just followed the instructions. The kit I bought could have been the canadian conoe from the fyneboats link, it was pretty comprehensive the only thing I needed to buy was the epoxy resin.
The whole thing was very straight forward and only required limited tools, construction was done in my bedroom.
I dont have any photos of it before during or after I made it but it was pretty good once it was completed.

 

[Tengu]

Anything GB appropriate or are we confined to logboats?

 

[Mendologist]

I made a canoe from a single sheet of 5mm ply and other bits of timber etc.
The plan was called Bojak XL or XXL.
A New Zealand chap has lots of free plans and idea's.

Copy and paste this -

ARIAWOOD BOATS

ariawoodboats.yolasite.com

Flat bottom with curve (bow to stern).
I put a softwood 40mm x 12mm strip bow to stern on the underside of the hull for rigidity and helping with tracking during paddling.
Fun to build and most of the family has had a paddle on the Selby canal in it.
Just fitted a cheap foam and textile seat into it.
Waiting for better weather to try it out again.
Really enjoyed building it.
everything was easy to cut too.

 

[Megatramp]

Hats off to all of you who have made your own beautiful watercraft. I look forward to someday having the time to do the same. Until then, does anyone have a reasonably priced packraft for sale?