The Bear Mountain Boat Shop

Looking at the stability numbers for the canoes and kayaks I see one that had a 124. Are the numbers comparible between the canoes and kayaks and is that one really that much more stable?

Here is how mine looked. The striped stem shows the fairing better.

I just ordered the DVD; I hope it's as good as I anticipate.

One tip I got from a famous woodworking instructor was to only steam bend air dried lumber and not to do kiln dried. Something to do with the lignin in the wood changing in the kiln drying process.

I cut my strips thinner (1/8") and didn't steam them at all. It was still difficult and I had to use a sacrificial strip on the outside.

Welcome and good luck. I look forward to pictures of your build

Patricks dad advice is sound and matches my experience where the sacrificial piece breaks when bending.

Is that cedar on the inner stem? The picture looks like it's not. A hardwood would be harder to shape.

I didn't fill them at all. I just took my canoe off the forms and can see where the epoxy wicked all the way to the inside of the canoe. The look does not bother me

I debated staples or not and finally ended up using the staples. I figured I had enough to learn and I should not make if harder on myself the first time.

When I did mine I used 3/4" or MORE for the dimension you highlighted in red. The book says 7/8" strips since you may not get them perfectly aligned with you glue up the laminations and may trim them narrower to the 3/4" target. Mine ended up being 7/8 wide since I didn't have any mis...

All three coats are on, it only took twelve hours

Fiberglass going on today; pucker factor is very high! Will post more pics later

Yep, they'll come off or those straps would get in the way

I've not drilled it for screws yet. And I do plan on using thickened epoxy when I mount them. I figure I'll coat the good side with wax too to make the clean up easier too.

I got mine from Bear Mountain Boats (imagine that). I was pleasently surprised they have a cove on the back side too.