Day 1, Row/sail canoe, version 2. Build time: 6hrs.
15’ LOA, 39” beam, 14.5” depth center, 21” height ends.
Started the day by burning a $90 board that had hidden stress fractures. This is why I hate working with CVG fir. Heavy, splitty, and expensive. Unfortunately it’s literally the only thing I can get here that is clear in 16 foot lengths other than red cedar. I’m framing this canoe in fir to stiffen it a bit (wouldn’t do this for a rower, only for sail). I’d much rather be working with pine, spruce, or second growth fir.
I only have about 10lbs to mess around with above the last version (60lbs) before this stops being a decent cartopper and becomes a boat that never gets used. I’m not sure how I get there. The fir alone will add 6-10, and I want to put an extra heavy skin on this one for hard use, which is another 6-10. I’m scaling this one down 3% which will help but not that much. I feel like if I’m lucky I’ll come in at 75lbs, which is just 5 pounds too heavy. This is the curse of little row sailers of all types, so tantalizingly close to cartoppable, but not quite. Rowers, yes, canoes, yes, kayaks, of course. But it’s just damn hard to break the 80lb barrier in a DURABLE row/sailer. Maybe impossible, but I keep trying.
Anyway, milled up the wood, quintuple checked my layout, marked, laminated, worked on spars for a few hours and then sliced and mortised the gunwales.
Being more careful to document all my weights, costs, and layout this time around, it makes it easier if the time comes to draw up a plan.
___
This post was originally featured on our Instagram feed.
See the original post and discussion here.
