New Prospector

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AsaBlanchard
Posts: 48
Joined: Mon Mar 29, 2010 10:10 pm
Location: Lexington, KY

New Prospector

Post by AsaBlanchard »

Fellow Boat Builders,
I have owned an aluminum canoe for 40 years. I was paddling down a creek one day comtemplating my desire to become a more serious carpenter . I decided I would go ahead and purchase some woodworking equipment I had been dreaming of owning. It dawned on me that a real carpenter wouldn't be riding around in an aluminum canoe, he would build his own from wood. My library search led me to Canoe Craft. The highly manueverable Prospector caught my eye. I drew the plans myself from the schematics in the book, had my brother in law transfer the plans to CAD drawings and I started my boat and apprenticeship into carpentry.
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The body is western red cedar, maple and walnut accent stripes, walnut stems & gunwales, quilted maple decks. The seat frames and yoke are walnut and maple laminated together with natural cane seats.

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The checkered stripes were made by cutting 5/32 x 3/4 x 2" blocks and laminating them to a 5/32 x 3/4 x 18' maple strip. Ran through the planer, bead and cove added last.
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I would like to thank everyone for all their help in teaching me how to do this. Without this forum, I am sure there would have been an exotic bonfire in my driveway several months ago. I have read nearly every blog on this site and whether you know it or not, you were teaching me along!



Asa Blanchard
Prospector 17' 1''
Last edited by AsaBlanchard on Thu Nov 25, 2010 6:21 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Patricks Dad
Posts: 1476
Joined: Wed Oct 13, 2004 1:11 pm
Location: Warrenville, Illinois

Post by Patricks Dad »

Wonderful job! I'm sure you will enjoy paddling it as much as you did building it! What's next?
Randy Pfeifer
(847) 341-0618
Randy.Pfeifer1@gmail.com
BearLeeAlive
Posts: 196
Joined: Tue Aug 18, 2009 7:00 pm

Post by BearLeeAlive »

Great job, Asa. Do you have any more photos you could share?

Like you, I too am sponging information from this site as I move forward with my build.
-JIM-
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Glen Smith
Posts: 3719
Joined: Sat May 08, 2004 9:08 am
Location: Baie-St-Paul, Quebec, Canada

Post by Glen Smith »

Outstanding!
barrm
Posts: 13
Joined: Tue Nov 23, 2010 8:28 pm

Post by barrm »

This is the nicest canoe I believe I've seen.....absolutely outstanding. :applause
If you could email me privately at barrm@nb.sympatico.ca .....I have questions for you.
Mike
AsaBlanchard
Posts: 48
Joined: Mon Mar 29, 2010 10:10 pm
Location: Lexington, KY

Post by AsaBlanchard »

Patrick's Dad,
Thank you. After my big flip over, maybe an outrigger! Just kidding. I still need to build some paddles. I have my rod holders to install. And I want to come up with a way to "lock" the paddles in a carrying / portaging position so I can go from the truck to the water to the portage in one trip.
Asa
Last edited by AsaBlanchard on Thu Nov 25, 2010 5:41 pm, edited 1 time in total.
AsaBlanchard
Posts: 48
Joined: Mon Mar 29, 2010 10:10 pm
Location: Lexington, KY

Post by AsaBlanchard »

Bear Lee Alive,
Thank you very much. I have more photos in different stages. My camera was in my canoe when I flipped a couple of days ago, so a lot of photos are lost. Did you have anything in particular you wanted to see? I will try to find it. I am not sure how many pictures I can post on Photoshop so as long as I don' t go over the free limit. Can I remove photos from photo shop without losing them here, and post more?
Bill
AsaBlanchard
Posts: 48
Joined: Mon Mar 29, 2010 10:10 pm
Location: Lexington, KY

Post by AsaBlanchard »

Glen,
Thank you for your comments. Coming from an outstanding boat builder I appreciate that very much. Your knowledge on canoe craft has been very helpful to me. Many days I didn't go out into the garage, because I didn't think I could do what needed to be done. After reading the book, the blogs, and other buidler's comments, I mustered up enough gumption to go out there and give it a whirl. I now know you can fix anything with sandpaper, dust and epoxy! Thanks for all your advice.
Asa
AsaBlanchard
Posts: 48
Joined: Mon Mar 29, 2010 10:10 pm
Location: Lexington, KY

Post by AsaBlanchard »

Mike,
Thank you for your comments. This is not even close to the prettiest canoes you will see on this site if you look around. I will be glad to contact you, but you will be missing out on all the smarter boat builders than me with their more knowledgeable advice. This is my first build and I didn't photograph the mistakes on purpose.
Asa
Snowman
Posts: 233
Joined: Tue Jan 25, 2005 6:21 pm
Location: Gatineau, QC

Post by Snowman »

Very nice job on the canoe!!

Funny to hear your flipping venture. I have also recently taken a dunk (in my kayak) and also destroyed my camera. At the time, my concern was more focused on survival and by the time I had that under control, I knew it was too late for the camera which had been submersed for quite some time. It was probably the first time that I didn't have it in a drybag - because one never plans on getting wet. About the only positive thing was that I was too cold to really care about the camera - it was a cold paddle back...

Enjoy your beautiful craft.



Snowman
Snowman back East
BearLeeAlive
Posts: 196
Joined: Tue Aug 18, 2009 7:00 pm

Post by BearLeeAlive »

Asa, I am just keen on seeing up close lots of the details, but as well would like to see some full shots from the side to get the full effect of the details you built in to your canoe.. That thwart looks interesting, as does much of the detail work.

I would still try to recover the photos from your disk, even if it got wet. I know of a few people this has happened to and they were able to get the photos from the disk.

I use a SmugMug, a paid photo hosting site. I see you are using photobucket, and am not sure what limits they have for free hosting. I know lots of people that use Flickr and like it.
-JIM-
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Sherm
Posts: 73
Joined: Fri Nov 20, 2009 8:28 pm
Location: Milledgeville, Georgia

Post by Sherm »

Super NIce,,,,,I envy some peoples persistance to seek perfection, couldn't fine the
first flaw in the photos. The checker board strips has giving me ideas for my
next build. ( I am sure for others too) I like the decks and how the bead and cove
pattern "shows" near the ends of the canoe along the top of the gunwale.

Thanks for sharing.
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mtpocket
Posts: 562
Joined: Wed Sep 08, 2004 2:48 pm
Location: Indiana

Post by mtpocket »

:applause Lots of pizazz. Great job Asa :applause
AsaBlanchard
Posts: 48
Joined: Mon Mar 29, 2010 10:10 pm
Location: Lexington, KY

Post by AsaBlanchard »

This first photo shows a nice quarter angle view of the canoe and shows the relationship of the checkered stripe to the bow/stern check.
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Claiming to be the most honest guy on the planet, this is how I cut the inwales too short, and how I patched them. After patching them with wood slivers, I filled it with walnut dust and epoxy by taping the edges of the outwales and filling the whole area with epoxy, I sanded it all until I liked the look. Don't sweat the small stuff. Sand some more until it looks good!
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This is what it looked like when I got it sanded the way I want it. Even though you can see my mistake, I decided to show what I did instead of hide what I couldn't do. The honesty coming out in me. I needed to be true to myself. I sleep better.
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Same thing on the other end. I have an idea to improve the iinstructions for measuring the inwales. I would save a 18' strip plank, clamp it in place at the center of the canoe and work it toward the bow and stern stem. Bend it in place clamping along the way. Cut it to fit and use it to mark the real inwale!
For my yoke, I believe I saw this somewhere and decided to copy it. I started by resawing a piece of 3/4 walnut on the bandsaw. I then turned the maple grain perpendicular to the walnut grain to increase the strengh in the curves.
I used a lead and plastic architectural drawing tool to bend around my neck and make the shape. the yoke sits nicely on my shoulders as well as on my back.
Hope this helps.

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Just for the record, I made another straight yoke incase this one breaks. It has popped and cracked a couple of times when I have picked it up. I believe I failed to mix filler in the epoxy, and I spread the epoxy too thin.

The truth will set you free.
Asa
BearLeeAlive
Posts: 196
Joined: Tue Aug 18, 2009 7:00 pm

Post by BearLeeAlive »

If you hadn't pointed out our inwale error, I woulda thought you meant to do it.. ;)
Very interesting shape to that yoke, I like it.
-JIM-
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