Strip Built Canoe

You do beautiful work. I can on dream.

You are a man of few words for such a skilled project. (And from your photo you are apparently very young… 12 years old maybe?)

Absolutely gorgeous!

What a beautiful canoe. You did a wonderful job on it.

God Bless
tom

The hired help looks happy. What's your secret? Promise of a trip to Disney World maybe? C'mon no one is that happy to run a sander without a bribe.

Great work though. Did you venture to make any paddles as well?

always,
J.C.

The one thing I just don't like about wood working is that you can't drink beer while you do it. Its just to dangerous. But YOU Mike have found a beautiful way around that! Make a boat and then go drink beer in the boat. BRILLIANT!

I guessing that a finish on a boat could be a good all around outdoor finish?

Great looking work.

Spaids,

It's even better than that…I take it out on the Schulykill River canal. It's about a three mile long canal perfect for canoeing. I park on one end and canoe to the other. My wife thinks its for exercise, but at the other end of the canal is a little tavern with a deck over looking the canal. Perfect place to pull up, have a few beers/wings, and catch a little b-ball before I have to paddle back to the car.

Life is good!

Mike

Dooley: I bought the plans from One Ocean Kayaks - Vaclav Stejskal is the designer. From all the research I did, he seems to be one of he better designers out there. There are some good books out there too - "KayakCraft" from Ted Moores is very good. I read the sister book, "CanoeCraft" when I built the canoe and it was very helpful. Another is a book written by Nick Shade called "The Strip-Built Sea Kayak". Nick is the designer of another very popular design of kayak called the Guillemot. There are also quite a few website forums out there specifically for wooden boat builders.

Chuck Bender: Thanks for the complement. I'd be happy to give you some pointers, but I've seen some of your work on your site and I don't think I should be giving you advice on anything. Your work is beautiful! I can only wish to do what you do. Where in East Coventry are you? I'm in Royersford. I'd love to stop by and see your shop. Let me know if you get serious about building a canoe. There are so many differnet designs out there it can be hard to chose. You can take mine out for a paddle to see how it feels and compare it to other designs.

Jcees: I did, but I didn't put them in in the picture. I used the same wood as the canoe, so they match pretty well.

Mike

Mike,

Wouldn't it be easier to build a tavern at home and send her paddling down the canal? Dude, where are your priorities?

Should you be leaving that beautiful canoe outside in that area? Looks like a rough neighborhood. Wow!

That thing is BEAUTIFUL!

OUTSTANDING beautiful and amazing well done.

beautifull work !
and wonderfull detailing .
thanks for the share .

Stunning ….. you aren't going to get it… WET… are you? ;-)

fabulous… looks amazing… great work on this…

I built one exactly like that back in 1996. haven't used it too much though. I hope you didn't get any epoxy in your arm hair…

Only comment I have is, enjoy applying the the Spar varnish every year or two, and if you hang it by straps in your garage, don't hang it upside down. I had it upside down so the dust wouldn't collect inside and after about 2 years hanging in the same place the rails slowly flexed enough that they cracked.

That is really awesome, the detail looks great and i also really like the Jig/
Table you constructed for this job. Well done

That is one good looking canoe!!!!