Cottage Cruiser / Prospector Ranger / Heron Cruiser ?

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GraMac
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Joined: Wed Nov 01, 2017 1:48 am

Cottage Cruiser / Prospector Ranger / Heron Cruiser ?

Post by GraMac »

Hello: Looking for advice please.
Looking to build my first canoe but struggling to choose between 3 designs. Cottage Cruiser 15’6 or Prospector Ranger 15 or Heron Cruiser 15’9.
My needs are fairly simple: Day tripper, Maximum weight to be carried 445 lbs (me / wife / dog) – lake and river usage. Regrettably I have very limited space in which to build so hence maximum length of 15 foot.

Qu: Can the length of the Cottage cruiser or the Heron Cruiser be safely reduced to 15’
Qu: Can the bow height of the Prospector Ranger be lowered from 22” to 20” safely?

By safely - I mean without destroying the integrity of the lines / performance / characteristics.
Grateful for any advice.
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Cruiser
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Joined: Sat Apr 27, 2013 10:21 am
Location: Bowmanville, Ontario

Re: Cottage Cruiser / Prospector Ranger / Heron Cruiser ?

Post by Cruiser »

Welcome ....

I don't think the changes you are potentially going to make are going to result in a catastrophic design meltdown .... shortening a boat is a matter of making a slight adjustment to all mold distances ... changing the sheer, won't affect performance, just the look, if you are careful this can be done fairly safely.

You had a lot of thought for the canoe design, but didn't include info on the build space ... having a 15' space does not equal being able to complete a 15' canoe. So ... what sort of space do you have?

Brian
GraMac
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Joined: Wed Nov 01, 2017 1:48 am

Re: Cottage Cruiser / Prospector Ranger / Heron Cruiser ?

Post by GraMac »

Hello Brian. I’m in the U.K. and over here everything is much smaller so working space is roughly 9 x 22 feet - single vehicle garage. Going to be tight so planning on putting the strongback on wheels.
Graham.
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Cruiser
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Location: Bowmanville, Ontario

Re: Cottage Cruiser / Prospector Ranger / Heron Cruiser ?

Post by Cruiser »

The reason I was asking is that my shop is small as well, not everything on this side of the pond is bigger.

This is my 10 x 20 shop with a Freedom Solo 16'3" version, I just completed a Freedom 17' last year (it is in the rafters on the right) as well. The trick for me was to make sure I didn't use any of the floor space on the "long" dimension.

Image

I have wheels for my strongback, but I don't attach them until after the exterior fiberglass/epoxy has been applied. Once the strongback is leveled/aligned, I don't think it is a good idea to move it around until the stripping is done .. and that exterior glass is on, which locks in the shape. I do move it out to sand the epoxy outside, but that initial strip sanding is all done with the strongback in the original location. The other point about mounting the wheels is that it also raises the strongback up, making the upper sections a little more difficult to reach ... unless you planned for the wheel height when you made your strongback.

Just a couple of thoughts.

Brian
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