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Hello from Saskatchewan

Joined
Jul 9, 2019
Messages
15
Reaction score
10
Location
Saskatoon, SK
Hello all,
I’ve been quietly present on the site for a while and thought I should introduce myself. Located in central Saskatchewan. I paddle for fitness and recreation and get out tripping when I have the opportunity. Been in canoes on and off for 30 years.
I have been spending the last few long cold winters drawing up and building a couple of cedar strippers (a 20 foot v-stern for hunting and fishing and a fast solo boat for pre-work paddles and flat water tripping).

There is a lot of entertaining discussions and good knowledge being shared here!

Skinny Moose
 
Welcome! There are quite a few canoe builders on the site, and we all enjoy photos of self-built projects. Care to share some photos and perhaps some of your favorite places to paddle?
 
Hi from MB. Lots of good water up your way if you think outside the box a little.
 
Thank you for the welcomes. I have spent a bit of time near Preeceville Michael, beautiful country there!
Dagger, I do like to talk about my new canoe building hobby, so would be happy to share some photos. I'll give posting photos a shot in a minute, hopefully that works for me.
As to where I like to paddle, I spend quite a bit of time on the South Saskatchewan River in the morning and weekends, beautiful and very relaxing in the early morning before the city wakes up. My favorite place to paddle is further north in the shield, anywhere really as long as it is somewhere new to me and remote (and inaccessible to powerboats).
 
Some pre-water glamour shots of my first build, it's called "Shop Therapy", and yes it was therapeutic (to build and paddle). This was constructed over the winter of 2017/18. 17' long and 27 3/4" max width at 4" waterline and a hair under 40 lbs.
A bit of flare in the front and tucked in nicely in the middle.
Shallow arch hull with a vee.
People comment on how "odd" it looks but I like the curves.
I had no frame of reference here as I'd never been in a similar boat so it was all an experiment to me. The idea is nothing new, I basically I looked at a lot photos of boats online to gain inspiration (older and newer), drew it up and crossed my fingers. I liked the looks of the S-R Blackwater and the Sawyer boats like the DY special. It tracks great, I've figured out how to turn it effectively, and am now somewhat proficient at the sit and switch technique which I had never done before. Most importantly it ended up being what I wanted for the canoe and it's fast.

1/4" WRC with 4 ounce cloth in and out. I did not want to skimp on strength (and safety) so did cedar inner and ash outer stems and added floatation chambers out of cedar strips. Gunnels are hemlock wrapped in 1/4" cloth which is convenient as I don't have to baby it on the roof racks and in storage. I molded the seat in carbon on one of my Clipper tractor seats (not the prettiest thing up close but it is comfortable). The seat is sliding and height adjustable. I covered the douglas fir thwarts in carbon to experiment with carbon which I hadn't played with before. Decks are bookmatched WRC burl that my father had sitting around for about 20 years and was kind enough to give me.

My biggest issue was that I drew it in Corel Draw, and it was nearly impossible to fair it absolutely perfectly. I figured out how to use Delftship the next year and the second boat is much better in that regard. That one is the polar opposite, a beast of a "freighter" that I hang a 6 horse off. I don't have any pictures of that one handy at the moment.
 
Beautiful work! Really would like to see your pics of the 20 footer, as I built a 20 foot freighter too, and hung a six horse off it as well. Thought I was the only one who enjoyed suffering enough to do that, lol.
 
Welcome sir to our little world
Love the solo hull shape it does remind me of my now gone DY Special thAt I had built
Kind of addictive isn’t it this whole build and paddle thing

Looking forward to see more of your work and where you paddle
 
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