Thread: Canoe V2

A couple of other forumites have built a "Bob's Special" which is a name used by Bear Mountain for one of their boats. Have a look at Rob Laundy's thread "WRC Canoe". It's several pages back now and last added to in late 2009. Not sure if it is a Bear Mountain plan or not.

As for materials I dare say someone will recommend Paulownia - lighter than cedar and about as strong, and available from plantations in Australia. This is one source: Paulownia Timber Suppliers
and I'm sure there are others.

For more detail on this timber and other materials I can only say

"Paging Mr Newhouse........."

Bit the bullet and ordered plans for RedBird

Thanks for the info on the Paulownia. I guess I'll have to wait until I get the plans to know exactly what I'll need...

G'day q9
Recently finished a Bob's Special, got full length clear WRC and white cedar strips from Cedar Sales in Qld, they trucked them down to Melbourne then did the bead and coving using a router. Took my time and glued one strip at a time cove side up with Titan Green glue using a 20mm syringe with a bit of plastic tubing on the end, just ran the glue along the upturned cove; glassed finished hull with 6 oz cloth and West 5:1 epoxy resin for a clear finish followed by several coats of varnish. Plans and the building instructions are on the money, some things I learnt are; set up the building frame and stations exactly as specified and follow the instructions and you won't go wrong and will end up with a fair hull, take care with machining the 1/4" bead/cove dead centre to avoid torn/feather edges and gaps that need filling later on, get the first strip on each side of the hull level with each other at every station and the last stips on each side of the finished hull will meet exactly, when gluing push each strip's bead edge fully home into the cove in the strip below at each station and between stations. Used wedges instead of staples at each station to hold the strip while it dried and between each station used 2" wide cloth type tape to pull down/hold the strip (put a bit of 1/4" dowel in the upper cove of the strip being glued to stop the wedges/tape damaging the cove edge. Proper seating stops strip creep and caused excess glue to be forced out, just wipe it off with a damp rag afterwards when you've got each strip locked down. This method slows the building process down but gives a good result with no gaps or staple holes. Pick the right time/temperature when glassing otherwise you will spend time chasing air bubbles outgassing from the WRC. I ended up re-setting the seats lower than specified for more stability. Also built in a small bouyancy chamber under each deck, on a recent outing I deliberately filled the canoe with water and it sort of floated with about 3 inches above the water. Photo of finished canoe is on The Wooden Boat Association
Cheers David.

Howdy,

Often it is a question of looking at different opinions and working out what suits you.

From my point of view there have always been holes in boat planking. The idea of no holes seems a little strange.

I don't like stapling because it leaves lots of little dark holes that are scattered in a semi random fashion.

I like to use flat headed nails - probably about an inch and a half long and put a short piece of plastic tube on them. They have huge holding power and are quick and easy.

The holes end up being single and lined up so reflect traditional methods.

A good method for filling holes is to save some of the sawdust powder from sanding the hull smooth and use that to fill the holes. It will always end up a few shades too dark, but by adding some white powder you can make a pretty good match.

That will work for any gaps or gouges, whether or not you decide to use nails or staples or nothing at all.

It just has to fit what you want from the project.

Best wishes
Michael Storer

Thanks for the replies guys.

Plans arrived today - yay! I'll need to get a BOM together and get shopping

Fairly close by, Cedar Sales looks good for the planking: Cedar Sales - Cedar Strip Planking

Thanks for the tip boatasaurus!

Was it terribly expensive?

q9
Fine sawn 19x6mm WRC was $1.30/metre, yellow cedar was $1.50/metre then add GST and freight. WRC came in 4.8m lengths and yellow cedar in 6m lenghts. You pay for the convenience of having machined strips delivered to your front door.
Cheers David

Woohoo! My Christmas present arrived today - 450M of cedar strips!