My first canoe

[Roibeard]

I recently finished my first homebuilt canoe.
After reading Jon's canoe thread from last summer I was inspired to have a go myself at builidng a canoe.
This site and several other websites as well as a kayak building book served as my guide.

I used mostly Norway spruce and pine from a local lumber yard. Plywood was used for the recurved stems.
Here are a couple of pictures to show the rough outline of the building process.

The gunnels and the keel stringer held in place with tempory braces.
I then added curved stems made from two layers of plywood.

The rib were steamed in a PVC pipe with a household steam cleaner then fitted in to place with a zip ties and G-clamps.

I had a very tricky time keeping the ribs even with a flat bottom for stability.
As a result the canoe has highly flared sides.
After the ribs were doweled in, I fitted with an inwale with more dowels to sandwich the ribs between the gunnel.
After the frame was finished I skinned the boat with ballistic nylon. It was attacted with a thin strip of wood screwed on and also sewn at the stem. I then gave it 3 coat of polyurethane. As I used no paint was used the skin stayed somewhat translucent so it’s possible to see the water when inside.

I launched it in wet and windy weather in nearby lake which didn't help alot as I am complete beginer at canoing. It turned out to be a bit unstable but perfectly capable and quite fast.

 

[John Fenna]

Looks good!
If you bring it over to Wales I will give you a bit of coaching - if I can have a go in it!

 

[spamel]

Looks good!
If you bring it over to Wales I will give you a bit of coaching - if I can have a go in it!

That's an offer you should take up, quite quickly! Nice one John, and well done to you Roibeard as it looks like you've done a good job.

 

[pauldr]

that is amazing well done

 

[Singeblister]

Looks great , I love the see though effect you got there

 

[addo]

Great stuff, well done.

 

[craeg]

Brilliant canoe mate. I will have to add this to my list of to do projects that seems to be getting longer with every post I read

 

[Celt_Ginger]

Great job. I'm well impressed.

 

[firecrest]

Thats brilliant! And of course, with any new craft, you're first one is bound to have little imperfections, when you make the next one you will iron out those problems.

 

[Tor helge]

Looks very good.
I`ve played with the tought of making something like it myself. Not a canoe but an umiak.

Tor

 

[Bernie Garland]

Brilliant work of art

Bernie

 

[Steve27752]

Well done that man.........................I like the clear hull.

 

[Mungo]

Wow - that's brilliant. Great job!

A few questions:

1. In retrospect, what would you have done to flatten the bottom more effectively?
2. What the heck is ballistic nylon?
3. How long did it take you to manufacture your canoe?
4. Was it as difficult as you imagined?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IMxWLuOFyZM has other questions, but they are not particularly relevant... just funny.

Cheers,

Mungo

 

[Roibeard]

Thanks for your all replies.

"Looks very good.
I`ve played with the tought of making something like it myself. Not a canoe but an umiak."

An Umiak would be amazing project.Too big for me though,I don't think it would fit on our car.

Wow - that's brilliant. Great job!

A few questions:

1. In retrospect, what would you have done to flatten the bottom more effectively?
2. What the heck is ballistic nylon?
3. How long did it take you to manufacture your canoe?
4. Was it as difficult as you imagined?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IMxWLuOFyZM has other questions, but they are not particularly relevant... just funny.

Cheers,

Mungo

I bent the ribs on my own I guess a helper would have helped a lot.
Their was so little time to bend the wood when it comes out of the steamer.
I bent and fitted the ribs while the canoe was upside down, maybe if the canoe was right side up I could have used my feet/weights to ensure a flat bottom by standing on them.
Birch bark canoes are built like this, with the right side up.
I used pine ribs, cedar would have bent much more easily.

Ballistic nylon is one of the best materials to cover this kind of boat. It’s really tough and shrinks around the frame nicely. Apparently it got its name because it was used in military body amour.
Other people use canvas or Dacron. I ordered it from the skinboat school in the United States. skinboat.org.

It took about seven weeks in actual building time. With experience and a band saw it could have been made in less then half that. Most of the time was spent sawing. I had to rip down the 10 16' 1" square stringers with a hand saw from 4"x1"s.

In retrospect it wasn't as difficult as I thought it would be. . It didn't come out exactly as was planned but I am still very pleased with the result.
It’s quite a straight forward way of boatbuilding especially suitable for a beginner.
I am definitely planning on making a sea kayak this way.

 

[jon r]

Wow! that looks fantastic!!!

This is really nice to see! Glad you were inspired by my canoe. Yours really looks like a beauty! Well done!

how heavy is it?

 

[maddave]

Great work Jon. Next time use a polythene skin and you can charge people a fee for seeing the fishes...Glass bottom boat style !!.....



I'll get me coat

 

[pothunter]

Hi Roibeard

I think that is excellent well done, how hard has the ballistic nylon set? and how durable do you expect it to be?

Pothunter.

PS. If you go to Johns for a few lessons can I have a go to!

 

[jdlenton]

Great piece of work looks fantastic. i've seen drawings for this type of boat and toyed with the idea of making one. howmany hours have you put into it?

 

[Roibeard]

Wow! that looks fantastic!!!

This is really nice to see! Glad you were inspired by my canoe. Yours really looks like a beauty! Well done!

how heavy is it?

Thanks for your comments.
I tried weighting her today on a bathroom scales, not very accurate but I got 49 pounds. Heavier then I hoped but still not bad for a 15'4" canoe. I made some parts like the stems far heavier then was really necessary.


maddave
I tried wrapping the boat in clear plastic wrapping before I put on the proper skin for a trial run in my garden pond.
It worked really well. I could see a lot in the water through wrapping but it only lasted about 30mins before water started gushing in.


pothunter
The ballistic nylon is still flexible but has a really rubbery feel. I will be definably keeping the boat away from white water to be safe. I think it should be reasonable durable. I installed an oak strip on the bottom to take the brunt of the abrasion.
I guess I will just have to wait and see how it lasts.
I only used 8.9oz grade of nylon there are much heavier grades avaible but they do add a lot more weight.
I’d love to bring it over to Wales, but the ferry costs bringing it across the Irish Sea would be too expensive for me right now I think.

jdlenton
I didn't really count the hours I spent building It, but maybe 30-90 hours over seven weeks. I was quite relaxed building it.

 

[gunnix]

Nice canoe, I'd like to give a try at building a canoe in that method once as well. Looks far simpler then the canoes I built. Did you have the canoe all the time outside while building?