Skin-on-frame row/sail canoe version 2, impressions:. For those who haven’t been following along this project was an attempt to make a small row/sailboat using my super easy canoe building system. I was curious how far a free bent system would scale up and how the shaping formula would perform at larger scales. The boat...
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Day 6, Skin-on-frame tandem canoe
Day 6, Skin-on-frame tandem canoe. Build time: 6hrs. There is seldom a day in my life where I don’t pay some form of the ‘idiot tax’ fixing boneheaded mistakes that should have been obvious beforehand. After moving the center thwart reinforcement a very important 1.5 inches sideways, I added a carrying handle to ends...
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Day 5, Skin-on-frame tandem canoe
Day 5, Skin-on-frame tandem canoe. Build time: 7 hrs. Faired the stringers into the stems. I’m liking the new curved stem shape, it feels right on a full size canoe. I’m wondering if I could still nest a pair together? Wouldn’t make sense for a pack canoe where every inch counts, but for a...
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Day 4, Skin-on-frame tandem canoe
Day 4, Skin-on-frame tandem canoe. Build time: 6hrs. Tied the stringers on today, and then burned the rest of the day filming new and replacement videos for the building course. I’m getting ready to release a major update next weeks so we are scrambling to get all the pieces in place. One of the...
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Day 3, Skin-on-frame tandem canoe
Day 3, Skin-on-frame tandem canoe. Build time: 4hrs. A pretty easy and uneventful steam bend this morning. I had Liz fire up the camera to make a new bending video for the canoe course. I figure you can never have too many views of the process before you dive in. I will also post...
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Day 2, Skin-on-frame tandem canoe
Day 2, Skin-on-frame tandem canoe. Build time: 6 hrs. I sometimes think that the hardest part of working out a boat design is deciding on a stem shape. At some point you just have to commit because it’s impossible to get it right your first time. I’m working a bit of recurve into this...
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Day 1, 16ft skin on frame tandem tripping canoe
Day 1, 16ft tandem tripping canoe. Build time: 7hrs. While I’m deciding what I think of the row/sail canoe, I thought I’d take the week to build a straightforward Prospector-style tripping canoe. 16 feet long, 35 inches wide, 13.5 inches deep. 2 inch progressive rocker, 8 inch sheer, shallow arch hull shape, little bit...
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Le Tonkinois impressions
At the recommendation of someone on Instagram, I decided to try Le Tonkinois varnish on my last project and I wanted to take a moment to post my impressions. Cost: at 40 bucks a quart it costs about the same as any of the other medium grade varnishes. They sell a 2 1/2 quart...
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Video: Capsize recovery in the sailing canoe
The first thing I do with any new boat is work out a capsize recovery plan. Little sailers are always sketchy with all the strings involved and that’s a strong reason to have as few as possible. Stowed oars, a sprit rig, and a daggerboard would eliminate all the tangles but the sheet, although...
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Introducing Shipshape Boatworks, our licensed UK builder
I want to take a moment here to introduce Ant Mace of Shipshape Boatworks, our exclusive UK builder. An experienced wooden boat builder already, Ant first caught my attention by asking about my skin-on-frame guideboats. I get a lot of interest in these beautiful craft, but very little follow through. I sent Ant a...
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Day 14: Row/sail canoe, version 2
Day 14, Row/sail canoe, version 2. Build time: 5hrs. Woke up to beautiful light in the shop and started working out a flotation strategy. I want to have easy options from bare boat photoshoot/protected water rowing mode, to svelte grey pool noodle light air summer sailing mode, to big yellow repurposed inflatable fenders middle...
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How a simple material change can tip the balance between skin and frame in a skin boat
Compared to other forms of boatbuilding skin-on-frame is significantly faster, easier, and less expensive, so much so that it can feel like cheating at times. The big caveat is that there are formidable design challenges owing to the unpredictability of the materials. Unless you simply overpower the problem with extensive bracing, lamination, or oversized...
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Day 13: Row/sail canoe, version 2
Day 13, Row/sail canoe, version 2. Build time: 7hrs. A huge disappointment today, I’m having difficulties with the shape of the canoe due to the heavy skin I put on it. It’s worth a detailed explanation so I’ll tackle that in a separate post. Got all the pieces together today and started setting things...
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A hard-working umiak
A stark contrast to the romance of polished brass and meticulous varnish is this hard working Umiak built by my friend Don in 2001. Beginning in Olympia, Washington, Don and his wife Edith rowed this boat 1000 miles self supported to Juneau, Alaska. The trip took 143 days. Almost 20 years later the boat...
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Day 12: Row/sail canoe, version 2
Day 12, Row/sail canoe, version 2. Build time: 2hrs. Webbed the canoe seat copying the commercial seats I’ve purchased. I have a compressor and a 1/4 crown pneumatic stapler so I was able to do it the exact same way as the pro seats. Not sure how you could do it otherwise. I set...
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