I am absolutely thrilled to share this 17’4” x 34” tandem canoe built from our plans by Steve and his wife in Yellowknife, Canada. This was designed as a fast day tripper / light camper rather than a heavy cargo hauler. Here’s what Steve has to say about it: “Finished up yesterday , and...
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More photos of Bart’s canoe
Here’s a few more photos from Bart, who built one our smaller solo canoes a few years ago to fly fish near Jacksonville Florida. “Hey Brian, The boat is two years old this month and I fish out out it exclusively now. It is 13″8′ long, 28″ wide and 10.5″ deep. I have taken...
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Charles’s tandem canoe
Check out this lovely little tandem built by Charles using our online building course and plans. Without any pigment in the coating the finished result looks elegant, and delicate, (even though it isn’t). It’s too bad that clear boats slowly turn yellow because I really like the white! Anyway, Thanks for sharing Charles! This is probably...
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Bryce’s canoe test bend
Bending test ribs is one of the most important parts of our building process. This gives you some steam bending practice and also lets you dial in the perfect steaming time for your particular rib stock. More importantly it lets you double check the shape of the canoe before committing to cutting all of...
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George’s tandem canoe
Check out this tandem canoe built by one of our students using our plans and videos. This is George’s second canoe, he started with a solo before moving on to a tandem. Both boats nest together for transportation or storage, which is a standard part of our system. “I finished this last week and...
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David’s custom canoe seat
Check out this brilliant seat that one of my students designed for his pack canoe. David is an excellent craftsman and is one of the few people that we have given a commercial license to teach our designs. I like to keep things a bit more simple than this, (although you wouldn’t know it...
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Greenland paddles and pack canoes
I generally discourage using Greenland paddles with pack canoes because they tend to get a bit heavy at the lengths which work well in a canoe and the drips down the blades tend to give your lap a veritable soaking. Weirdly, however, I do get people who build them for this purpose and are...
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Rory’s yellow cedar tandem canoe
The unique thing about our Skin on Frame Canoe Building System is that uses a mathematical formula rather than a strongback and mold to determine the sizing and shaping of the canoe. So rather than being a plan for a single canoe, it’s a plan for hundreds of different canoes just depending on how...
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Jim’s F1 on the Student Builds blog
A fantastic resource for anyone considering building one of our skin-on-frame boats is the Student Builds Blog on our website. We offer a $75 discount on the cost of your plans in exchange for writing about your build and posting pictures. There’s a map that shows where people are building and a feature that...
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Joe’s rowing shell float test
Here’s a couple videos and some photos of a prototype skin on frame rowing shell designed and built by Joe, a high school student in Maryland that I’ve been mentoring for a school project. (See this post from a few weeks ago for framing photos) This is the second saran wrap test of this...
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Karl’s solo canoe
Check out this lovely student built solo canoe! Karl is 6’0” 225 lbs and decides to go 31” wide and 14’8” long. With tumblehome it’s 29” wide at the gunwales. Normally I would advise a bit more length to float that weight, but Karl took an interesting approach to adding a progressive measurement to...
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Will’s quadruple nesting canoes
I am absolutely thrilled to share this quadruple nesting canoe build by Will, an Air Force pilot living in Illinois. Working with his wife and two young sons they completed these Canoes in 7 weekends and then took them on a river trip. All four of them fit together on top of a car!...
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Joe’s Senior project rowing shell
Check out this 23 foot rowing shell in progress by Joe in Maryland. Joe (a senior in high school) approached me last year to see if I would be willing to do a remote apprenticeship with him for his senior project. Having already built one of my Canoes I knew that he had the...
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Timelapse: Giovanni steambending his canoe ribs
Thank you to Abby of The Bainbridge Barn for sending me this video of one of my students steam bending the ribs in his canoe. I really like it sharing photos and videos of student builds because it helps people to see that you can get the same results without being an ‘expert’. If...
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Giovanni’s tandem canoe in progress
Here’s an excellent example of a tandem canoe in progress using our building system. Giovanni has just finished steam bending the ribs and tying the stringers on. I generally encourage people using our canoe building system for the first time to build a small pack canoe first just to get a solid foundation before...
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