When you can’t help but build a boat

[Boatman53]

The first canoe I built I used a shed alongside the old EMS store in Lake Placid where I worked. There was no power, it was long enough for the 16’ canoe but only wide enough to walk on both sides. The lighting was bad, no dust collection and the tools were primitive. It was 1975. I borrowed the use of a friends table saw to rip the strips. It was a terrible boat with built in flaws from the designer I bought the plans from. The next boat I built in Idaho in a garage. It was a strip built Adirondack Guideboat. It turned out better and is still around.
The third boat I built was a strip version of Rustons Wee Lassie. At the time we were living in a tent in Idaho (see the other thread) but I was not stopped. Again someone else’s saw was used to rip the strips but all work after that was done with hand tools, even the sanding. In one of the pictures you can see it was at a time when I was adding the wooden walls to raise the tent. The string above the boat was not for building needs, it was to support the tarp to protect the boat from the weather. 40 years later that boat is still in use.




What are the extreme lengths you would go to build a boat?
Jim

 

[Boreal Birch]

With every post, you impress me more and more. You and a a small handful of other posters keep me coming back for more.
I would love to read your autobiography.

 

[JohnSand]

I've built three, two mostly outdoors. My first boat was a Glen-L Topper 11' sailing dinghy. That was around 1987, I was just out of the Coast Guard, working ashore, missing the water. I had been reading and dreaming of boatbuilding since maybe ten years old. I borrowed my mother's yard, drove stakes to support the building frame. I think my only power tool was a jigsaw. Later I built a plywood kayak with my dad, started in a garage, finished in my brother's yard. Last I built a pine flatiron skiff for a friend in NH. No plans, no power, took about three days. Since then I've done a lot of work on boats built by others. I still hope to build at least one sailing canoe.

 

[Boatman53]

Sorry Boreal, not likely to see an autobiography. The thought of writing even a long post makes my palms sweat.
Jim

 

[Boreal Birch]

Me too.

 

[memaquay]

I may have told this story before, but I can't remember, so I'm counting on the rest of you not remembering too. When I was in my 30's, I was involved in the school canoe club, but not running it yet. I didn't have a canoe, and was completely broke. The Ministry of Natural Resources donated several aluminum canoes to our club just before we left for a 14 day trip with the kids. Some of them were put up for a secret bidding process, so I put a bid of 70 bucks in an envelope. I was sure I would get one.

Imagine my surprise when I got back from the trip, 30 pounds lighter and completely sick of kids, and no canoe waiting for me. The two shop teachers and the Principal opened the sealed bids, and then the shop teachers bid one dollar higher and took all of the canoes.

I was quite bitter, still am, lol, when I think back. That's when I got an inter-library loan for Canoecraft and started down the journey of building canoes. The first one was a 17.5 foot Winisk. The internet had just come out, and I found Martin Step and Greenvalley canoes. He was very helpful, and I'm sure he had to bite his tongue many times as he saw the abomination I was turning out. I had to put the canoe on the diagonal in my basement, and I had to squeeze around each end every time I wanted to switch sides. The basement flooded every spring, so that was interesting too. When that canoe hit the water, I was very happy, and that very summer I took my 9 year old son around the Steel Loop in that canoe.

That little room in the basement was responsible for about ten more canoes before I moved. Then I had the good fortune to use the school shop for the next 15 or so. Now I have a garage, most canoes are started at the school and finished in the garage. Just bought one of those cheap Chinese diesel heaters, going to hook it up over Christmas break and see if it will warm the garage up to tolerable heat.

I am thinking I would like to tackle another really big freighter, one in the traditional style. If the heater works out, and if I am released from my job at the end of January, it might just be a thing. Although I will have to keep my wife out of the garage for quite a while.

My name is Rob, and I have a canoe building problem.

 

[Jim Dodd]

I was in High School, when I built my first canoe. It was a fiber glass kit, Bought it in the late 60's, from a magazine add. Assembled it, in the basement. Took me a few years to get it glassed, with the help of a cousin.
Several years later, My first stripper came into existence.

I was lucky enough to have some guidance from builders, and the builders book, from the Minnesota Canoe Asc.
Part of a two car garage, a $30 Skilsaw, which I burned out on my second canoe, cutting strips, and a 1/4 sheet sander, with a carpet pad base.

First strip canoe was built from plans, from the May issue, of Mechanics Illustrated.
My Step Dad gave me the issue.

The Ball was rolling. I later picked up every book I could on canoe building.

Now 30 some canoes later ? I finished my last two, this last Spring !
I would build another. If I had storage ! Ha.

I could not have built a canoes outside, here in Iowa. The weather just wouldn't allow it.

It has been a major part of my life ! If I hadn't built canoes ? I would have spent all my time in a Bar ! Ha !

Jim

 

[MyKneesHurt]

I got into skin-on-frames in my 30s, because I wanted to build a birch bark canoe but I lived in Virginia. So I did my damnedest to copy Adney's draughts and just started building. It coincided with me getting my life back together after a shaky decade, so I'm very fond of SOFs in general. I ran the James in Virginia down to Richmond, and romped through the ADK a lot, and learned how to paddle. I've got seven canoes left; the rest have either been sold or cut up because they were terrible.