The Quick Canoe Thread: Boats, advice, tips. Add your own!

[Boatmik]

Howdy Matt,

Even if the side is a little bit wonky - the gunwales can produce a nice shape. Just get them right clamped in position until they start to look really sweet. As long as the ply edge is a little higher than the gunwales in the middle of the boat.

The method at the ends of the boat for tapering the vertical dimension of the gunwale means that the fair line has to be the underside of the gunwale - not the top.

MIK

[Matt457]

Ah yes... thank you. I would have missed that little detail. I would have made the top edge fair and then planed it off later and not even thought about it!

[Matt457]

Gnnnh! Where is a body supposed to get proper boat timber around here on short notice??

A few places said they can get oregon or WRC and dress it for me, but not in a big hurry. The only stuff I could have got right away is the good ol' Bunnings offerings of Tassie Oak (too heavy and hard to bend) or Pinus Crapiata.

Of course, this search for timber began at 4pm today. All these nutters around me seem to think there are other things more important to do than building boats.

I just don't see how this can be done. I would have had to get timber before breakfast time today and work most of today and most of tomorrow to get anywhere near a boat that I could take on holidays. We're leaving in less than 48 hours and I haven't even started to sort out the packing of the car and camper trailer, which is going to be a jigsaw puzzle even in the best scenario.

So I give up. For now. Some things just can't be left till the last nanosecond.

I'll get back home in late January. I'll post an update here when there's progress.

[Boatmik]

Darn - but that's cool! Have a great trip - you can post a coupla postcards on this thread if you like.

MIK

[tomsizer]

Hi Mik
1. This is the important question !!We have just finished the quick canoe hull and realized we need three seats, not two. ( One adult, two teens) What is the best placement?
2. Is the central stringer strictly necessary? Don’t the seats support the boat sufficiently? Or with three seats will I have to put in 2 stringers?
3. I don’t want to build buoyancy tanks in this canoe because I’d like to nest another canoe in it. What is the best way of securing buoyancy in it? Tying a bag under the seats? Doesn’t seem like enough.
4. Is there any reason I can’t screw the seats in and out and needed?
5. I’d like to build a smaller canoe to nest inside this one. Do you have specs for a smaller quick canoe?
6. Could I use a windsurfer sail and mast or would that be too big? (I’ve got one)
7. I read somewhere that the drop-in outrigger rig plan was available free ??

And some comments..
In Melbourne I couldn’t find 6 mm ply for under $96/ sheet. In the end I used 7.5 mm structural ply for the bottom and 4,5 mm bracing ply for the sides..feeds a bit thin, I think I’ll have to fibreglass the sides. Looks beautiful, with meranti -coloured sides and pine rubrail and decks.

I don’t know what kind or duct tape people are using, but I have found it useless. Everything fell apart and I had to put it together again with cable ties.

Its been so much fun, on the last lap now..

Many Thanks

Tom Sizer

[Boatmik]

Reply to Tom here

https://www.woodworkforums.com/f169/q...ml#post1586995

Michael

[Captn Nemo]

Thankyou muchly.

I had purchased the 3 x 6 mm ply and a 4 mm sheet for some other stuff. But i ran for council and used two of the sixes as hoardings (missed by 60 votes). was debating the purchase of two extra 4mms to do sides but was unsure about fitting bottom out of the one remaining sixer.
Read your post.

Raced outside tape in hand.

Huzzah its 2500 so thin sides it is

nemo

Hmm... sorry I hadn't come back and updated the thread. I partly marked up a 2440 sheet and found I *couldn't* get both parts of the bottom onto it. How did you do it?
I *did* get them on a 2500x1220 sheet, which is luckily what I have in 6mm. I'll cut them out today and get to work marking the sides. I plan to push the pair of side panels over closer together on a sheet and then split the two sheets in four pieces and cut out the four panels together. If you hear loud cursing tomorrow you'll know I failed at this. ;-)

(ed: On a 2500x1220 sheet, there is only 4mm between the two bottom panels when I pushed them each right out to opposite corners.)

[Sparhawk]

I would like to build the quick canoe this year (maybe easter long weekend, gives me time to plan and get materials).

My question is how do you usually tranpost a canoe like this? We have access to a ute with towbar, but no trailer unless we borrow one.

[callsign222]

Top of car. Back of truck. On your shoulders. Drag behind your bike.

It's light. Lots of options, only limited by your imagination!

[Oli]

Hi there, I've just got my plans in the mail! They are very clear and comprehensive. I'm new to building boats (new to building pretty much anything) but I'd like the boat to be as light as possible. Should I build the whole thing out of 4mm ply and glass the outside of the bottom with light glass (assuming I don't need to glass the inside) or should I just use 6mm for the bottom and 4mm elsewhere and just glass the joins on the outside with tape. I plan on using epoxy and filleting the inside joins without glassing.

Oliver

[whitewood]

Hi there, I've just got my plans in the mail! They are very clear and comprehensive. I'm new to building boats (new to building pretty much anything) but I'd like the boat to be as light as possible. Should I build the whole thing out of 4mm ply and glass the outside of the bottom with light glass (assuming I don't need to glass the inside) or should I just use 6mm for the bottom and 4mm elsewhere and just glass the joins on the outside with tape. I plan on using epoxy and filleting the inside joins without glassing.

Oliver

I don't profess to be an expert on boat building and don't know what sort of boat it is which would help considerably for members to respond. If the craft has framing i suggest you use Paulownia. It is even lighter than WRC &` just as strong. It is easy to work with provided your tools are sharp. I used to sell it and many of my customers used it for lightweight crafts and especially wooden surfboards.

Whitewood

[Cliff Rogers]

Mine has a 4mm bottom & it bows upwards in the water.
We had some 2mm & made foot pads in front of the seats 'cos I was worried that I might foot my through the floor.

I have now made some pine braces to go under the middle of the seat in line with the keel & screwed up through the keel & down through the seat into them.
That transfers the weight of the passenger directly to the bottom of the boat rather than down the sides of the boat so now the floor doesn't bow up under load.

[Oli]

Mine has a 4mm bottom & it bows upwards in the water.
We had some 2mm & made foot pads in front of the seats 'cos I was worried that I might foot my through the floor.

I have now made some pine braces to go under the middle of the seat in line with the keel & screwed up through the keel & down through the seat into them.
That transfers the weight of the passenger directly to the bottom of the boat rather than down the sides of the boat so now the floor doesn't bow up under load.

Thanks for that Cliff. I've looked at some of the great pics of your boat. I guess I'm wondering whether, given your experience, you think it's worth using 4mm for the bottom given the extra glass/supports etc that seem to be required add weight as well as effort? 6mm for the bottom and 4mm for the sides would appear to require 2 sheets of 6mm and two sheets of 4mm which adds to the cost but I'm less worried about that. So my thinking, subject to any advice from more experienced folk, is to go with a 6mm bottom and 4mm sides, fillet the joins, epoxy coat the inside, just tape (using epoxy) the joins on the outside (ie not glass the whole bottom of the hull) and then paint the outside, probably just with an exterior water based paint. I plan to use the boat a maximum of 10 times a year in enclosed still waters and the rest of the time it will be locked up in a shed. But I would like it to last a while.

[Cliff Rogers]

Yup. Use paving paint on the outside.... it is tougher.
Make sure you use a good sand-able undercoat of some sort, ever a thin coat of epoxy with the sanding powder in it 'cos we didn't & the finish looks like sheyet.
Anywhere that has sanded epoxy looked good, anywhere that has unsealed ply looks crap.

[Oli]

Thanks Cliff, will take that advice. Hoping to start the project this w/end. Oli