Thread: Quick Canoe Build

Yeah its great to see it take shape from laying in panels only 1 day earlier. Its really big, the Goat is going to look huge in person, same length but twice the beam. Im building a new shed in about 6 weeks so it will be nice to start the Goat in a tidy space. The old girl PlanB was assembled in is getting knocked down.

This was my first time doing full length epoxy fillets, have done lots of gluing and filling but not full fillets. My first fillet went on really well so I got over confident and made up really big batch of epoxy (same thickness as first) and began filleting the other side and stems only to notice the first fillet had begin to run. Big batch put on hold, extra tape put along the bottom panel to catch the running fillet and dragged epoxy back into desired fillet shape. I sat back for 5 minutes to see what would happen. It began to run again but much slower as it was starting to thicken from going off. I returned to my bi batch added more powder and the 2nd fillet and stems went on like a dream, I then went back to original fillet which was now quite thick and dragged it all back to where it should be. Thank heavens or all the taping prior to fillets. A few minutes later he tape came off and al as well.

Im really busy at work now, hopefully finish on weekend.

I did read somewhere about moving the seats 40mm lower then the plans. Did any of you guys do this for extra stability?

The seats... I first installed them at or very near the drawn height.

We found it felt unstable. That's my wife and I with up to four small kids aboard. When the other adult moves it doesn't feel stable, even though it's actually very much so. The problem is mostly only because you anticipate your own weight shifts but not the other adult.

Before the last camping trip, I moved them down about 90mm (aimed for 100mm but used the wrong end of the tape measure). It feels *much* better now. It's a personal preference, of course.

For reference, I also have a much more traditionally shaped canoe, with much lower freeboard, lower seating position relative to the water and essentially nonexistent secondary stability. By myself in that canoe I feel very stable, but with another adult it feels quite tippy. The QC felt basically nearly as tippy at the other one until I moved the seats down.

The only possible problem with lower seats is reaching over the side to paddle. I use a 5' paddle, which is fine, but I only have one. The other paddle is 4' and for some guest paddlers has been a bit too short. Another 5' timber paddle is on my todo list. When I first was about to install the seats I put in mock-ups at the planned height and sat in the canoe and tried paddling it. (it was on trestles in the garage). That will tell you if the paddle clearance is okay.

When I go home this arvo I'll measure the actual present location of my seats for you.

Todd, the top faces of my seats are now 170mm below the top of the gunwhale at the front edge. (remember, the front edge of the two seats are at the same distance from the middle of the boat.)

So that brings them about 70mm below the drawn position. I would certainly recommend the 50mm lower which is suggested as an option in the plans. 50mm would have been fine for me too.

Also, if it's possible to make a temporary connection strongly enough, find a way to test the seat position for a few outings before gluing them in with epoxy. That stuff is very permanent. To move my seats down I had to cut through the long seat frames next to the seat support at the hull and reattach them hanging on some galvanised steel straps.

To actually (re)move the seat supports will be to plane/grind them off the hull. I may go down that path and attach some new supports more neatly in their new position or I may just leave the seats hanging on the steel straps.

A temporary seat height could also be obtained by resting a box of some kind on the floor of the boat and attaching temporarily I guess.

Thanks Matt,
I marked the seat supports out at the recommended 50mm lower then plan and have drawn another line 40mm lower then this. I was going to go with the lower position but after your comments on paddeling I think I will split the difference which will bring them 70mm below plans. Im going to have kids in the boat as well so the more stability the better.

Gunwales, inwales and centre spreader fitted yesterday. Todays plan is seats and decks which will give me a finished boat. I will still need to fit skeg, Varnish outside (already has chines and stems taped and 2 coats of epoxy) and paint or varnish inside.

Im pretty happy with my progress to date. Today is Day 10 of the build with 3 days of no build time during the last week giving me 7 days of build averaging 3 hours a day. I'll try and get some more pics up soon.

Work really knows how to get in the way. I moved into a new position when I returned to work this year and have been chasing my tail the last 3-4 weeks getting my head around things. Between this and the family I have had hardly any time in the shed working on the Quick Canoe 'Plan B'. This week I wasn't so exhausted and finally managed a few nights in the shed to finish everything up. Its now done. 3 coats epoxy and 3 coats varnish on the outside, 1 coat epoxy and 3 coats varnish inside with painted floor.

What a amazing package Mik has put together with the QC. The plans are super simple to follow and the boat is pretty awesome. This was a really good idea doing the QC before I take on the GIS build. I could have spent easily twice as long on the QC if I wanted to stand around with sandpaper in my an for days on end, but I'll save that for the Goat. Other then some lumpy epoxy and varnish runs she has come up pretty good.

I got a bit slack logging times and dollars but estimate around 30hrs in total and around $500. I used Pacific Maple marine ply and 3 litres of BoteCote epoxy. I figure you could build for abut $250 but I want her to last. The Pram row boat in some of the photos was built by my wife's grandfather 50 odd years ago an it would be cool if the canoe can last a good period of time in the family.

Tomorrow if weather is good im launching her for the first time and will get some water photos. These are some final build pics.

Looking good.

Beautiful! Great work.

I love the finished colour of that plywood.

Looks great. MIK spent a lot of time making the plans easy to follow.
Make sure to take some action shots when you get it wet.

Rick Landreville
Rosedale B.C. Canada

Launched the QC yesterday. Initial stability felt a little sensitive but after a few minutes its was all good. I did have my father in the canoe with me who is visiting at the moment. His 115kg of movable ballast behind me was a little unnerving. Paddles really straight and fast with no real effort. Even got my 4 month pregnant wife and two kids out for a little trip and they all approved which is a good thing. I launched from the Caravan park my folks are at just down the road from our place and every camper on the foreshore commented on what a great looking design it is. Sitting on the beach with 1/2 dozen plastic canoes and kayaks around it looked out of this world. Here are a few pics, not great quality but pics all the same. Looking forward to lots of use. This afternoon im going to paddle from the caravan park around a large isthmus under the little wooden bridge and back to my house, about 1500 metres so this will be a good little paddle to get to know her.

Congratulations!

Paddle today went well. There was quite a long distance into a 15-18 knot NE headwind blowing down the lake. Where do you guys sit when paddling solo? Yesterday I sat on the seat closest to the centre spreader but today I has to kneel right behind the spreader to get the skeg down and keep the boat tracking straight and not blowing sideways in the wind.
I paddled across the bar at the entrance to the lake which was pretty exciting with braking waves not far away. I knew the tide was coming in an it just pushed me around behind the headland and up the channel to our place.
Anyone got any capsize experience with the quick canoe? I made the decks about 600mm long with the idea of boxing them in and making buoyancy tanks. If all's good next weekend I would like to try a few capsize recoveries. Theres some deep water right on the edge of a sand bank so only a very short swim with a submerged canoe n tow if I cant get back in.

Your canoe looks terrific. My experience with capsize in a canoe is that getting back in is difficult at best. Maybe the quick canoe is easier than the aluminum canoe I was working with but get lots of practice for when it really counts. My father and I did it without practice (real thing) with water about 45 F. It was not fun and we come near hypothermia. The floatation tanks are a good idea.

G'day.

I also find it hard to go crosswind with just one in the boat.

There are 2 different sizes for the centre board/skeg in the plans, I went for the smaller of the 2, the taller one would have worked better when going cross wind.