Thread: Old Wooden Canoe

wow she looks stunning looks like you have done a very nice job restoring it, do you have any before photos you can post up ?

Thanks Honko,

Here she is in the foreground when I first brought her home. She looked a bit worse than she actually was.

regards Bill

It is such a gorgeous boat. Very few made their way here.

Does it have a plate saying who built it?

There might be one or two more somewhere in OZ, but I would think that they are spectacularly rare here.

MIK

Hi Mik,

No plates or original decal, but the from the keelson serial no & shape etc it is believed to have been made by Wm..English Canoe Co, Peterborough Ontario CA.

It was paddled around Rudder Grange, Vic a bit,

Bill P

you have done an amazing job of restoring her bill, she must be a fantastic sight on the water.

now this looks like a worthy challenge for me to sink my teeth into, are plans available any more for this type of canoe ?

how are they built is it a moulded ply skin over frames?

A chap in the US built one from scratch a few years ago. They are built upside down over a mould,similar to the wood canvas method.

It might be difficult to obtain clear boards long enough. This boat is basswood, three boards per side. They were also built in white cedar.,

regards Bill P

honkongphoie,
The best place to find out if plans are available and more general information is the Wooden Canoe Heritage Association. Their website is http://www.wcha.org/ and their forum is http://forums.wcha.org/index.php

Kelvin

Beautiful. Never seen one before, but wondering where you got it from. Clearly you got another, as seen in the background - is it also original.

Arron

Hi Arron,

The other one is also a wide board. It's a Peterborough #64, with four cedar boards a side.

I'm keen to know if there's any more of these boats in Australia.

Bill P.

Hi all,

Rollin Thurlow and Jerry Stelmok's book is pretty much all you need to build the wood and canvas version and it would bethe best place to start I would think. I've got it and read it several times. Actually, it was this style of canoe that got me started except that I went off on the Geodesic Airolite path before building one. I have the building form and associated materials including canvas and even two sets of stem moulds of Oak. The building form is in the process of being transported from Cairns to Hobart so if anyone has any bright ideas of building a wood & canvas version between those two points you'd better jump in quick.

To my knowledge there were five of these built off this form in Australia and I know where one is, and could possibly track down another.

I intend to try an find a customer for one of these so that I can have the joy of creating one in Huon and King Billy Pine.

I'll certainly be keeping an eye on this thread........

Hi Peter,

What a seductive offer.!

Nice form-love the recurved stems. Is it 16'? How come the steel bands are off? is that for storage or something.

Whats the planking stock in the pictured boat? Did you make? Tell us more!

(Just a note for clarification re the wide board canoes I have, they left the factory as all wood , ie without any waterproof covering. They were likely canvassed here sometime between the wars, to stop leakage. I have refurbished them to the earlier condition)

I understand that a number of wood canvas canoes were built in Australia at Rudder Grange on the Yarra in the 1940's.

Bill

I don't know if i should be sticking my oar, or paddle in this case. in here. I purchased a Strip Plank Petersborough Cedar Canoe Kit from Duck Flat Wooden Boats in Adelaide, about 15 years ago. It was the first wooden item i had attempted, apart from benches and shelves. It was a VERY sharp learning curve, learning to loft out the shape and curvature and make the molds. I have a book full of photos, but that was before i had a digital camera. I will have to get it down and take some digital photos of the completed unit. It took me 6 months to build it, and i had to learn as i went. but i was very happy with the results, and was reluctant to use it for quite a while as i didn't want to mark it. But it has had a bit of use now, and i took one of the seats out, and sit on the bottom with a seat back i made to make me more comfy and the canoe more stable. It came in at 26Kgs and was Christened in Lake McKenzie on Frazer Island. The book that i used to make the Canoe was called Canoecraft, A Harrowsmith Illustrated Guide to Fine Woodstrip Constuction, By-- Ted Moores and Merilyn Mohr. An excellent book, goes into every detail

Hi Bill, You've got a good eye for detail. Yes, the bands are stored seperately at the moment and unfortunately the form has been stored out in NQ rain for almost a year. I've just found that out and decided I had better rescue it before it got used for a bonfire. I'll refer your other questions to the builder of these pictured in Canberra so that I don't give out the wrong info. I have had an hour's paddle in one and found it quite stable with that big flat bottom, even unloaded.