The Bear Mountain Boat Shop

I used some cypress under the side decks of my sailing canoe to stiffen them for sitting on. These were pieces about 7' long by 3/4" wide and 1/2" thick. I ended up with cypress because the local woodworkers' shop had it on sale and it was virtually knot free. The boards they had in stock ...

I prefer painting the outside. Here are a few (casual!) snapshots of the three canoes I've built, two of which are painted. The paint job is strictly no-frills but I really like the way it highlights the natural finish. http://s124.photobucket.com/albums/p15/cecbell/Canoes/?sc=6 If you decide at the...

This is just to put some closure to the daggerboard conversion. Before the weather turned too chilly, I was able to go out under much better conditions for getting a reading on the helm balance. The breeze ranged from 4 to 10 knots but was mostly at 6 to 8. Wavelet crests would occasionally break bu...

I agree with Eric. I had the opportunity some time ago to compare two rather similar canoes, one with and one without a keel. The difference in turning ability was considerable. I felt that the keel wrecked the canoe's maneuverabilty. The wind, however, doesn't seem to be influenced much by it which...

Don, The wood I used was some kind of spruce I got at the local lumber yard (definitely not Sitka). It wasn't great quality but was reasonably straight with not too many knots (and not too expensive). The board was 16' x 6" x 1" thick (from 5/4 stock). I believe its intended use is for dec...

Don, I'm afraid I've been remiss in not posting this info, about mast building sooner. In the chapter on strip composite construction, The Gougeon Brothers on Boat Construction by Meade Gougeon ( http://www.westsystem.info/gobronboco5t1.html ) has a small section on using strip construction for buil...

Don, I don't see why a leeboard wouldn't work on the Rice Lake Skiff. There's a 70 ft. gundalow replica in our area that sails with a leeboard. (I don't know what the gundalow's beam is but it must be around 20 ft., give or take.) So size obviously isn't a problem. It's leeboard isn't so very differ...

An Update: When Bryan posted a picture of my canoe in Jan., he mentioned I had a few things left to do. At the top of that short list was building a trunk to convert the leeboard to a daggerboard. It's taken way too long to do that but I finally got it back in the water Sunday. Conditions were spect...

Rich, I have the same situation. Two of the three canoes I've built have been kept unfinished in the unheated garage over winter. The hulls were stripped but not fiberglassed. I left the staples in until I could get to it in the spring to start sanding and fiberglassing. And in one case, I parked th...

Scot, I have to vote with you on this one. Brass screws against the wood grain is both traditional and attractive--and it saves the work of plugging the holes with something else (I'm already slow enough that I don't need extra work on the boat.)

Wil, It sounds as though you're missing about 18 in. from each end. You're probably OK just leaving it that way, feathering in the glass edges. From what I've read, some builders do just that to avoid fussing with the fiberglass up in the narrow stem area. (Perhaps somebody here can confirm this?) I...

Woodbark, Unfortunately, those changes aren't atypical around here. The first time the humidity dropped from around 85 - 90 percent to 45 percent in a couple of days, it opened a long crack in one of the 2.75 in. wide cedar deck planks that had been glued in but not glassed yet. Not a little hairlin...

Also, for what it's worth, I had a huge effect on one canoe from humidity. I guess it depends on where you are in the construction when it happens. In my case, I'd finished the planking in late fall when the air was dry. It gets too cold in my garage to work over the winter so the canoe went into st...

Bryan, My old copy of The Gougeon Bros. on Boat Construction (4th edition, 1985) describes an older way (pre bead & cove) of making strippers by using low density epoxy filler in the gaps (microballoons or, in the case of WEST System, 410 Microlight). Low density filler is more compatible with t...

Greg, are you by any chance referring to polyester resin? If so, that stuff can usually be identified by its strong, penetrating obnoxious odor. :td