Took the new boat down to the water for a quick paddle and a couple rolls. As usual there’s lots of positive and lots of negative things to talk about here but I’m not gonna get too far into that until I get out on the water a few more times. The thing I...
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West Greenland kayak build: Bending test ribs
To determine the rib lengths for a new kayak replica I start by slicing up some 1/8 thick bending oak and then steam bend the thin strips under the keel by eye. The secret here is to just keep cutting and bending and not overthink things. The whole operation should take about 20 minutes....
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Simple deck tie down
While I was working on our kayak sailing system this spring, after much trial and error I settled on this combination sheet-cleat and sail tie-down as part of the system. I had to set the sail system aside to focus on summer projects, but the loop stayed in place and I have to admit...
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The micro schooner
Digging through old photos I found this ridiculous contraption that actually worked pretty well. Last year I built a triple nesting set of canoes with the smaller two being solos and the larger one being mostly just a UV protection cover for the other two. I built rowing rigs for all three of them...
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Rainy day activities
Rainy day activities: This week I’m rigging the new 14 footer, trying to find the least worst float bags that are currently manufactured, and figuring out seat location and seat balance with various gear loads in various situations. So much of what I do it is just figuring out annoying little technical things. Like...
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Experimenting with tumblehome
I like skin on frame construction because it’s the only type of boat building where it’s practical to be an experimental designer. I can build something, try it, and then build another one the next week and try that, and then build another one two weeks later, until eventually I build some thing that...
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Latest skin on frame solo canoe specs
Latest Skin on Frame Solo Canoe Specs: Just the physical details in this post. On the water videos and a full paddling report tomorrow! 15’3” long 28” gunwale width 29.5” max width 26” waterline width w/160lbs. 12.5” deep 1.75” stern rocker 2.25” bow rocker Asymmetrical, plan and profile Total weight: 32.5 lbs with seat....
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Check out this sweet little canoe built by Gabe
Check out this sweet little canoe and paddle set built by Gabe from Tufts & Batson using our system. Dimensions are 14’ x 30” x 12”, weight in pine is 34lbs, in cedar that would be more like 31. A professional bamboo fly rod craftsman, Gabe Batson discovered our building system last year and...
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Video: Testing this year’s first solo canoe
I’m pretty excited about the new drone, not just for the media potential but also because it lets me see the boat in new ways which is helpful from a design perspective. There is no perfect drone for this sort of work but after much deliberation we decided on the Skydio2 for it’s simplicity...
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New canoe outfitted and ready for action
Finally got the new canoe outfitted and ready for action. After the briefest of test paddles a couple days ago I decided that it was just a squeak outside of the size that I would like to use sitting low with a kayak paddle so I decided to set this up as a solo...
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First canoe frame of 2021!
First canoe frame of 2021! The progress on this boat is agonizingly slow because we are using it to reshoot the video course. For those of you who aren’t familiar with our canoe building system, 3 years ago a friend bugged me about building a pack canoe until I finally relented and because I’m...
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Video: Kicking off this year’s canoe building season
To kick off this year‘s Canoe building season, here’s a quick video of a pair of nesting Canoes that I shot last year. As usual, I’ll be using this year’s builds to update any outdated portions of the online building course, then doing design work (read: wasting insane amounts of wood) to expand the...
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Rigging the LPB kayak
I couldn’t bring myself to set the sail project aside quite yet so I grabbed a completely different kayak off the rack (my LPB design) and spent yesterday evening rigging it. On the last rig I was veering towards complexity so this time I decided to simplify every detail as much as possible and...
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Video: Took the sail set up out for some testing
Took the sail set up out for some testing on a rainy afternoon. The goal here isn’t so much a performance assessment as just evaluating the functionality of the rigging. I ditched the various in-line tensioners that I had bought to try to make the stay attachment and tensioning quicker. It’s a good idea...
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Video: the canoe schooner
One of the first things I tried when I was building the pack canoe system was to take both of the sails from a set of nesting canoes and put them on one boat in a schooner configuration. The result was an aggravating contraption with no practical utility, so I shelved the idea until...
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