The Bear Mountain Boat Shop

I don't know the kind of bottles or containers glue is sold in the USA. Here in Europe all glue is sold in the kind of bottles: http://www.pattex.be/ned/images/fotos/houtlijmen.jpg It 's easy to put on the glue with those. I apply glue onto the last strip installed , and then disperse it with my fin...

it 's not common to place a keel on a canoe, at least here in Europe. The reason is that a keel will significantly change the paddling characteristics of your canoe. It will not want to turn anymore. Therefor I wouldn't recommend it.
Erik, Belgium.

Which model of sailing boat are you building. Any pictures of it yet (they 're not on your website http://s89.photobucket.com/albums/k221/zpeteman). I 'm more and more tempted by small sailing boats like Penobscot17 or Coquina. Every time I see one, I 'm lost... I 've been thinking of converting my ...

After my ISP having hostingproblems today (friday the 13th indeed...), I finally managed to put the pics online: http://www.qajaq.be/BootKayakHappeningGhent.htm All kind of building techniques were shown at our boot last weekend: woodstrip, Yost folder, traditional Greenland Skin-on-Frame, Stich &am...

So sad you have to live with this. Must be a very hard thing to live with. Wish you better luck in the future.

Erik, Belgium.

I recognise the typical stripping pattern used by Nick Schade in his book 'the strip built seakayak'. It 's a VERY nice stripping pattern indeed, but NOT simple !


Erik, Belgium

hi Geordie, The wood is picea abies (Nordic spruce), which I brought home on a trip to Sweden. It has grown in a colder climate, and has very few knots. Indeed the color will darker (or yellow) a bit over time. The cutout area behind the coaming actually is a skeg sliding box, from where I can lower...

see my site for a link to the webpage of Geoff Horsley (Australia)
Also several builders from New Zealand listed in my webpage

www.QAJAQ.be

Erik, Belgium

I 've never seen a guide boat in real yet (only on the internet), but I think your next project is going to be really challenging. Wish you luck on that, and ... enjoy every minute of it !!

Erik, Belgium.

On saturday we launched Johan's sailing kayak (a converted Guillemot Expedition Single). The plans for the conversion kit were bought from CLC boats. The sailing loom is 4,5m in high. With a light breeze of 2 to 3 beaufort windforce (?) this sailing kayak instantly accelerated to 4 to 5 knots (6 - 8...

Kerry, the wetted-out hull is storng enough without the stations, correct. But don't expect the hull to keep its' exact shape for weeks or months to come, until gunwales are mounted. Therefore you need to place something to ensure the canoe's width remains the same (i.e. 2 woodstrips, with slight cu...

For steap areas on the inside (near the stems) I always use another trick: I apply a think coating with thickened epoxy near the stems (at least one foot). I let it cure a bit (15') and then gently place the glasscloth against the thickened epoxy. Here also: try to place the glass on the right place...

Ah, there 's a lot to write about how to do a nice even layout of glasscloth. I 'll try to keep it short. Situation: hull scraped and sanded. Holes filled and ready to go. Here 's what I usually do: First , you could do a first saturation coat on bare wood (I 've done it only for my latest layup, an...

I noticed there is a growing interest in sailing canoes and kayaks lately. A fellow builder in my neighbourhood, Johan Toorman, has just finished transforming his Guillemot Expedition Single into a trimaran sailing kayak. He asked me to post some pics on this forum. We 'll be doing a first test padd...

Getting ideas by seeing others building canoes is the very nice thing about the internet. I borrowed a number of techniques as well, one of the nicest were the "dragon teeth" (an idea of Jim Dodd) as an aid for clamping while glueing the decks. http://s14.photobucket.com/albums/a317/Erikva...