The Bear Mountain Boat Shop

Cabela's sells just the thing, it mounts on a hitch platform and allows one person to load a canoe in just the way you describe. I bought one for my wood/canvas canoe due to it's weight and my being weak, primarily for my solo tripping. It is heavy itself, steel, so should last awhile, a little wobb...

Oh, don't throw them out, ship them to me! :applause I just started another wood canvas project, a 14' Chestnut and may replace the original alum stem bands with brass. :tu I think I put 3 layers of glass on for a skid plate since this boat is going to contact rocks at some points in it's life. Lay ...

On a wood canvas boat the canvas covers the stems, it is only the stem band screw holes that can allow water to the stem itself. The 3M 4200 Marine Adhesive Sealant was applied to the holes prior to setting the brass screws. It should stop any water from getting to the wood. You might have better lu...

A short time ago I installed the stem bands on the wood canvas canoe I refurbished. Sounds like they are pretty much the same as you have, 3/8" width, concave back. likely 4 foot length... I asked on the WCHA forums for advice on how to install them and if interested the thread for that is here...

We also used shorter stock but did the scarfing before routing the bead and cove. Being the dead of winter in our case it was a challenge in the sense the basement is 26 feet long and the strips needed 36 feet of room to pass through the router. I opened a window and fed through from outside. The st...

I built a seat for the wood canvas canoe I just finished. I made it contoured and deeper and wider than normal. I did use webbing instead of caning though. I could have bought a seat but figured I could build one and was up for the challenge. It is contoured both ways, being the main rails are shape...

If the canvas itself is cracked it needs to be replaced. Likely it is the filler which is cracked and can be repaired but a re-canvas should be done sooner than later. In my case I was working on a canoe that didn't have canvas, it had sat in someones garage as bare wood for 10 years, so I had to do...

Lagging compound I cannot help with, but I did just use Interlux brightside and PreKote primer on the wood canvas canoe I just finished restoring. First, I wouldn't recommend using the Interlux paints indoors. I did all my painting in the basement and the odours are really bad, I opened windows and ...

There was a guy who did test panels with various varnishes and he found the cheap stuff outperformed the expensive stuff in terms of weathering/deterioration. I used the cheap stuff Helmsman from Canadian Tire. No problems with it. But is it still sold? I believe the guy you are referring to is Mik...

I use Epifanes as well. None of the box stores sell actual varnish anymore, only urethanes. Epifanes is pricey, $42 a litre for me and presently I am on my second litre for the wood canvas canoe I am restoring this winter.

Alrighty, done, launched, and well, scratched already. Oh well, such is life, it isn't meant for show anyway. Handled better than anticipated, not as tippy as we thought it might be but ballasting helped a great deal. We did tandem paddle it but it is just too small for our kind of tripping but Chri...

Alrighty, one more cottage cruiser soon to hit the water! Put the first varnish coat on the hull this morning, all the interior is done so varnishing is the final step. It won't actually see any water for at least 2 weeks, then likely only a test run as we do plan to let it sit a month before any lo...

Lay the patterns out on the sheet of plywood so you can get most use of the sheet. Then jig them out rough or cut it down if you have space issues. Less waste.

I'm not too worried about it, I will just know better for the next one. I am building this for my room mate and she doesn't mind them at all. Considering it took 83 strips and 55 of them are scarfed, a number of them quite obtrusive, a few lines in the resin just adds further character. The grain an...

I have been building the Cottage Cruiser the past few months and finally got it to the glassing stage last week. This was my first time glassing such a large area and I was working alone so I had to stop and mix resin on occasion during the wet out friday afternoon. It all went well I think and I'm ...