The Bear Mountain Boat Shop

Here is a picture of the stem.



Here's the transition between 1/8 & 3/16.



Here's the stripped boat.

Stripping is finished! Pictures on my Facebook page . For the stems, I'm skipping the internal stem, but I wanted the speed that comes from building with an internal stem, but I didn't want the weight or the stem taking up a bunch or room on the inside of the boat. I'm going to bend cedar or ash -- ...

End of day two. Hoping to finish the football tomorrow.

More progress. I'm one 1.5" strip and three 3/4" strips ahead of this point now, but I'm waiting out a rain storm before I can go back out. Stripping with 1.5" strips goes quickly! I'm not sure why I haven't done it before on the sides. Less seams and faster stripping seems like the t...

I like using those sighting strips. The one in the picture had to be replaced, because it wasn't holding together. I'm not using bead & cove. I find that doing the extra shaping is too much work and wastes time. With a carbon fiber interior. No one will be able to see any light through the hull,...

Today I set up the strongback, forms and put on the first strips of my new canoe. It's secret codename for now is "Darth Canoe" because I'm going to dye it deep deep walnut and the inside will be carbon fiber. I rather like to look of this canoe and think it's going to be a sweet one to pa...

That's a Siskiwit Bay sea kayak. I like it.

I made one from 1/4-inch ply. For the handles I just screwed on 2x2 blocks onto each end. I use spray adhesive to hold the sandpaper on. It comes off pretty easily.

I've used pine. It's heavier and stronger than cedar, so use thinner strips. It seemed to work fine. I don't own the kayak any longer, so I can't tell you about long-term yellowing.

Not yet. I did decide to use a modified Gilpatrick method for the stems. It combines the lightweight of a Gilpatrick stem with the ease of making of Moore's method. I take pictures and document the process.

I've been a little slower than I hoped on this canoe build. I just got the forms cut today, about 3/4 of the cedar is milled, I need to decide on the types of stems that I want to use and then cut them. I'm trying to come up with a name for the canoe. I'm leaning towards the Temperance. Here's a pic...

3/16-inch strips deflect more which means that the breaking strength is equal to that of the stiffer 1/4-inch strips. Once you start adding extra layers of glass, 3/16 actually gets stronger than 1/4-inch strips.

If you want tough, you're going to need extra glass. I suggest using multiple layers of 3 ounce tight weave.

Nice. Thanks for posting it!

I'd love to look at it.