I'm hooked!

You don't know which boat you should build to suit your personal needs? Please post your questions here and our many contributors will surely have some good advice.
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Guy Deschenes
Posts: 6
Joined: Sun Jul 10, 2005 8:35 pm
Location: Wallaceburg ON

I'm hooked!

Post by Guy Deschenes »

I've been in love with wilderness canoeing for over 25 yrs and have often fantisized about building a cedar stripper to paddle in style. I just finished the 3rd coat on my first stripper. Man , I can't wait to complete this project, so as to start on another canoe!! This one was meant to be a learning experience and it was indeed. I did everything the hard way all the way. I stretched an assymmetrical 14 ft Abenaki from a plan I found in a 30 year book by David Hazen. After building a 5 ft addition onto my 16 ft shop (10 days) , built strong back cut and mounted forms in 4 days. Having no decent tools , I ripped my cedar strips with a circular saw over a 2 day period ( resulting in a sore shoulder for 3-4 wks) and bead and coved them shortly thereafter. After stripping about 3/4 of the way up the sides, I discovered this internet site, with its reems of great ideas and promptly bought Ted Moore's revised Canoecraft. I knew I was in for it when reading the section on stems...I wanted outer stems but hadnt bent them before starting the planking. Since my inner stems hadnt turned out exactly like the drawing it was now nearly impossible to match the outers without starting over...so I modified the the whole thing to look like my old glass canoe in the back yard. I messed the the fairing part also by not using a plane or spokeshave and going at it with 60 grit. After about 30 hours of sanding, I was ready to apply West system 105 and 206 Hardener (90 degrees+ for weeks) this went on so well today that I am in mild shock.
I will be doing a 9 day trip in this boat ( solo) starting Sept. 9 thru Killarney Provincial l Park, by which time I will have already started on a Freedom 17. My pretty little Western red cedar and Yellow Alaskan cedar 'learning canoe' will then become the property of my 20 yr old daughter who is a bit of a canoe addict also.
I am half way thru a year long medical leave from work and if all goes smoothly, before returning to work, should be well into building a 3rd boat for my son who turned green when he heard his sister was gifted this one. Oh well, I'm hooked and much better equipped than I was 2 months ago, so look forward to making these things as long as I'm able. Thanks all for all the geat advice on this site.
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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 »

Welcome aboard, fellow boat-aholic. :laughing

When I built my first boat (Hiawatha) I thought I would wait until the following year to build my first kayak for which I already had the plans. However, as soon as the varnish was dry on the canoe, I set it aside and immediately cut out and set up the kayak molds. I haven't stopped building since. That was four and a half years ago and I have 8 boats built and plans ready for more. But I can stop any time. Well maybe after the next one. :laughing
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