The Bear Mountain Boat Shop

Fantastic. Nothing prettier than a lapstrake sailboat. Your craftsmanship looks spectacular! Well done my friend!

Do not take the glass off the inside until you lay up new glass on the outside. You run the risk of the whole thing coming apart if you take the glass off both sides without glass on one side of the canoe to hold it together. If the glass came off that easy, then it was probably best that you remove...

If you have not made your thwart yet, flare out the ends nice and wide so the holes are drilled through each piece of the scarf joint, but not through the joint itself. You should be able to stagger the holes so they go through solid wood. This will keep that joint from coming apart. I normally stag...

You paid about $200 too much in my opinion, for what it's worth. For $220 you could have purchased the lumber for the canoe and built your own. Everything else you are going to spend wether it is to refurbish or build new. You can get canoe plans out of Gilpatrick's book and about $40 in plywood for...

Jeff, You are not along in the "football patch edges unravelling" category. The only time I did a football piece this happened to me and I see the results everytime I look at the canoe. I tried to go along and lift them out of the wet epoxy and trim them but there were too many to get all ...

In well ventilated area, or outside, use some heat to see if you can soften the fiberglass/resin on the exterior and remove as much as you can by just pulling it off. Then, I would take a random orbit sander with about 40 grit paper and basically try and sand off all the old fiberglass and resin unt...

That is pretty close to the end of the earth. Actually, I love the vastness of ND. Never tried to live there but have travelled throughout the state. Where do you intend to paddle in that part of the world. Very few rivers, but lots of sloughs that I recall.

Where in ND are you? Renneberg Hardwoods in Menaga MN has anything you need. It is just East of Fargo about 1.5 hrs drive. They also deliver or can ship UPS.

I would give it a try. Perhaps increase the size a bit to give a little more strength. 7/8" x 7/8" on the outwales and 1/2" x 7/8" on the inwales. You just have to be prepared that they will get beat up over time but so what. I would definately use fasterners to hold them on and ...

bnarus, I have a sticker on my computer that reminds me every day "He Who Makes No MIstakes Usually Ends Up Making Nothing At ALL". I think it came from a fortune cookie, but it keeps me motivated to try new things and not be discouraged by failure. One last question, why didn't you use ep...

Inside the cockpit, it looks like there are strips of wood. Did you build the entire hull with woodstrips the traditional way, them come back with the veneer over the top of the strips? Unless it is a trade secret, tell us the steps in making the hull. I assume you fiberglassed over the veneer? How ...

You can store your wool sweaters in it in the winter time? Just goes to show you that you can build a canoe out of about any type of lumber. That is a really cool looking canoe. It will come alive when you put epoxy on that hull! I have built a few canoes from rough sawn lumber. It is really cool to...

I like to think in terms of linear feet of strips per board foot of lumber. If you rip 1/4" strips with a thin kerf blade, you will get roughly 36 linear ft. of strips per board foot of lumber. Now, you have to figure in a few knots and errors so plan on about 32 linear ft. of strips per board ...

Well, I succesfully launched my 15' square stern version of the 20' White Guide canoe out of Gilpatricks book. I could not be happier with it's performance on the water. Glides along with the electric trolling motor, paddles really nice, super stable and quite roomy. Also, I epoxied cleats on the hu...

I love the idea of building a canoe out of reclaimed lumber. I recently finsihed a square stern version of the 20' White Guide and did not buy any lumber for the canoe, or at least used lumber that was purchased over 10 years ago. I ended up with about 10 different kinds of wood in the canoe, and ev...