Thread: Quick Canoe build

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Hi All,
Threads here were of great help getting my head around a build so I thought I would share my experience. Unfortunately my plan to document the entire built was thwarted by a rush to get it ready to take to my in laws for the Xmas hols. It made it 1000km on the roof of the car, with a bike carrier modified to become a third mounting point. My wife drove it up and reports a loud constant noise from the wind at speed.

Running with the "quick" ethos I found decent 6mm marine ply (AA faces, 5 ply, but sheets varying over 0.5mm in thickness) at Bunnings, and used clear pine boards from Bunnys for all the rest, ripping widths from 19 x 235 x 2400mm sheets and skarfing with a hand plane to join pieces. In Melbourne there are places that will mill Paulownia or Oregon to the sizes needed, but not in the time frame I needed. Bought Bote Cote and glass from boatcraft.com.au.

Electrical conduit was very handy for marking out curves, my rough jigsaw blades were more trouble than they were worth as I had to cut 3mm outside the line and plane down (or belt sand when I was feeling lazy.) Doing it again I would use a circular saw and straight edge for the initial cuts.

The build was pretty straightforward - major issue was finding space in my single fronted house with no garage! The seats ended up getting a very comfy foam cover after I butchered the routing of them.
Three coats epoxy outside and hull, interior and skeg got three coats of Zinsser BIN (a magic metho based paint that dries in minutes) then a couple of coats of "Marine Racer" as chosen by the 9yo.

Into the water it paddles very well. Seats at the plan height feel very stable with just me (110kg) paddling from the seat nearest the centre, or with me in the rear and my 9yo in the front. Solo it is hard to turn into the wind. With my wife in the front seat and me in the rear it feels tippy, I will drop at least the front seat 50 mm I think, but am concerned the kayak paddles might be hard to use sitting lower.
No really long paddles (30min solo was the longest) but it coped well with chop and wind, and we got the entire family including the 2yo out for one paddle.

A really satisfying project, Miks plans were very good. Total cost around $500 including paint.

Eureka next?