The Bear Mountain Boat Shop

Gotcha. I dont have a whole lot of paddling experience, but I'll try and do my best to compare it to the few canoes I've been in in the past. It's not the fastest canoe being so wide, but it didn't feel like we were paddling a barge either.. We kept up with our friends in a 17' penobscot just fine. ...

With a backpacking background you will be just fine. I am a backpacker first as well, and so far have done two trips in my ranger 15. First was a 5 day trip with a friend (who packed 4 times as much as I did) and 1 dog, and the other was a 3 day trip with two dogs and my wife (we both pack light). N...

Cruiser wrote: ↑Thu Jul 09, 2020 9:16 am I swear they are more worried about seeing the boat marked up some than I am.

This exactly! Too many people tell me something along the lines of "you can't use that!"

I didn't spend 10 months building a canoe to not use it as a canoe!

Easy fix ! Old saying ! If you build them, you can fix them ! Well the newness just got wore off ! It will likely look good as new ! Jim Exactly my attitude; I built it, I can fix it. I got the first scratches out of the way early on, so now I'll have no hesitations to get a lot of use out of it!

Well the last time I posted I had finished varnishing the inside and trim work. Since then I have completely finished the canoe, and took it out on its first trip! After the final varnish coat on the inside I buffed the gloss down with 0000 steel wool. I did this in order to cut down on vertical gla...

The pic in the Last post, didn't show. What I've seen so far is Great Maddog ! How did I miss this ? Nice match of the strips on the centerline ! You know what you are doing ! Hope you never need those flotation chambers ! But if you do ? You will be glad you installed them ! How do you like the se...

Thanks everyone for the encouraging words! The least I can do is post pics. Everyone who has posted pictures and written build reports on this community and other forums on the internet have helped me immensely with my own build. My little way of giving back and paying it forward. Just finished the ...

Time for an update. I had left off with two coats of epoxy on the inside, and needing a 3rd. I got the 3rd coat applied and sanded once it warmed up. Following the final coat I had then installed flotation chambers. Being a novice paddler who will often have one or two dogs along in the canoe I thou...

I used MDF. It is inexpensive, and it is flatter than the cheap plywood. It is easier to trace stations onto with a fine tip due to being so smooth. I also didn't want to fill any gaps between the plys of cheap plywood for the staples to go into. I built with staples, and am sure I could get a few m...

Yes

Jim, awesome advice on how loose to weave the seats. I knew not to weave them tight, but that reference to how much stretch and slack definitely gives me some perspective now. Have you ever added screw out deck plates to the float chambers to have them double as dry storage? I have been contemplatin...

Brian, you're probably right. During the process I thought I was doing a pretty good job keeping the squeeging even, but I definitely didn't continually keep an eye on the bottom like you describe. So far I've been pretty good about not rushing, the mistakes I've made have been more due to inexperie...

It's been a while so I thought I'd post an update! Being my first boat I don't work as fast as some of you veterans, but it is still coming along nicely! My next build will go much smoother as I'm picking up some time saving tips, and figuring out what works for me in certain stages of the build. I ...

Jim, thanks for the advice. Not only in your previous comment, but through all of your previous threads and comments. I came across them through my countless hours of research during my current build, and have used a lot of the information you've made public on multiple forums already!

A thought on the fillet on the inside of your stems .... if I were building with stemless (maybe next build), I would question the "why" of adding that fillet. You bring up good points about the fillet. After my previous post I read your comments on that topic in another one of your threa...