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Stopping here to introduce myself. I'm a relatively new lover of paddling, having visited Algonquin Park annually with experienced friends since 2008, and taken some moving water training (to level 3) this summer, which greatly increased my paddling skills. I'm feeling more confident about both my paddling and camping skills and would like to do a solo trip for solitude and retreat, not to mention intimacy with nature. I'm here for advice regarding a lightweight, portagable canoe for a female. I carried the 57lb Mad river tandem on our last trip (a few weeks ago) over @6900 meters of portages, but I needed help getting it up. At the take-out I encountered a woman putting in who had built her own solo cedar strip in the 40 pound range. That idea has captivated me. Looking forward to looking around the boards here and sharing.
 

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Welcome. I am new here too, though not to paddling.

Building your own canoe is not too tough, just a bunch of things you need to learn, but if you are at all handy and inspired, easy enough to do. One member here, Mihun09, has built a canoe and worked on others. Not sure of all she has done, but from what I have seen, a very handy and talented lady.
 
Welcome to a great, small canoeing site. There is a wealth of information here to be had. There are a bunch of guys that build strippers regularly who are committed (or should be) to lightweight wood canoes. I'm sure they will chime in eventually.

I've built one stripper and it is a beast at 57 pounds. Now I mainly do wood canvas restorations. My solo boat is a 14 foot Chestnut that is also 57 pounds, but I don't try the sassy pants lift with that. Our main tripping boat is a 40 pound Kevlar Swift Mattawa.

And thank you BearLee for the kind words.

Karin
 
I have built a 15 foot solo stripper (weight about 50 lbs) and a 14 foot solo skin-on-frame (weight about 19 lbs). Making a skin-on-frame takes far less time than a cedarstrip boat and costs far less in materials.
Valerie
 
Hi Valerie,
Can you point me to any resources on building the skin-on-frame boat? Plans? How-to's? How does the skin-on-frame handle? What load can it carry?
Thanks,
vicki
 
Hi Vicki,
I used the book Building Skin-on-Frame Boats by Robert Morris and a description from WoodenBoat 205 magazine, article The Solo Carry, which I paid a few dollars to download.
The boat handles nicely (it is based on a Snowshoe 14) but it not as fast as my stripper (a 15 foot Soulmate). I have not used the SOF boat for tripping - only day trips. The stripper has been on trips. I also found a lot of information by just googling and finding articles and youtube videos.
A few photos of the build are on http://sof.paddler.nl/
 
thanks for the welcome everyone. Valerie, I looked at your photojournal from when you built your SoulMate? After a few years, are you happy with the model you chose? The half-moon from Carrying Place looks interesting to me. http://www.carryingplacecanoeworks.on.ca/pdfdocs/halfmoon.pdf
I'm not sure it'd be big enough to for a trip though. thoughts on that?

Murat, I posted some online blogging about my trip @ http://emmaatlast.wordpress.com/?s=algonquin+2014 not a traditional trip report but there are some photos there too.
 
Welcome to the site Vicki,

You'll find some great folks here. Very helpful to say the least.

If you are interested, I am at the tail end of my cedar strip build. It's documented here and is titled Hiawatha long term build. You can find it in the DIY section. Now, if you do go for a little read of it, just be warned...its taken me 20 years to get to this point. It does not take 20 years to build a canoe. Please don't be put off by this. It just happens to be the way my life has gone. My canoe should be around the 40 lb range when complete, so quite light.

Algonquin is a fantastic place, and have visited it almost every year for about the last 25 or so.

I hope this and the other suggestions above put you on the right path to building your own craft with your own personality.

Have fun exploring

Momentum
 
thanks momentum. i'll check it out. Algonquin is a great place indeed :)
 
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