I think I want a canoe

[MickAK]

Yeah, I did some extra reading this afternoon. From what I gather, alum's main advantage is that it can be stored outside indefinitely, where the other materials react with the sunlight and / or weather. Having worked with aluminum in the past, I absolutely believe them when they talk about temperature transfer from it on a hot or cold day magnifying your 'experience.' From some weight comparisons, it's often but not always a few pounds heavier than a comparable non-metallic canoe. Several people mentioned that it would stick to rocks rather than slide over, but also that if it got dented you could just hammer the dents back out and be on your way. Unless it was wrapped around a rock or the frame structure was damaged. Rivets could leak but there's sealer for that.

Looking at prices in my area, yeah, I can pick up an aluminum canoe for a couple hundred bucks. But also the cheap (I guess) Pelican and Coleman canoes are in that price range.

One benefit of an aluminum canoe is it makes a great beer cooler for parties and a neat flower planter if it stops getting used!

[Joe in PNG]

A buddy of mine here had a book on how to make wooden Hawaiian style outrigger canoes. And being a craftsman, he built it carefully, took his time, finished it beautifully with marine epoxy, and when it was done, put it in the water.

Two problems. One, he kind of built it a bit too short. Two, the wood he used is PNG kwila- a super hard, super heavy wood similar to rosewood or ebony. When in the water, the boat hardly floated. He had maybe a half inch of boat out of the water with him in it.

So, it wound up as a flower planter.

[peterb]

However, my experience also shows that the guy in the $150 Walmart kayak or $300 craigslist Coleman canoe has just as much fun as the guy in the $1000+ kayak or canoe.]

As is so often said here, “mission drives the gear train.” If you just want to get out on the water with family and friends, the gear requirements are pretty loose — almost any recreational canoe that’s watertight, not bent too badly, and roughly the right capacity can be a lot of fun. If you care about performance — going fast, going far, going in rougher conditions, portaging — it makes sense to consider a nicer boat and paddle.

[peterb]

@OlongJohnson

Yup, the Annapolis Wherry does have nice lines. Here's a similar boat in strip-built construction that makes me go a bit weak in the knees:



http://www.newfound.com/liz.htm

If you want to row but simpler construction, there are other options, including these: http://www.merrywherry.com/merry.html

One of the most impressive boats I've rowed has been one of these: https://adirondack-guide-boat.com/in...imed-row-boat/
The original design was developed as something that could carry a guide, client, and gear and still be light enough to portage. If you look at the hull there's a lot of flare, so it's very narrow and efficient when lightly loaded. Note the lack of wake in the video clip.

Back to canoes.....

This is an inexpensive DIY way to get on the water: https://www.amazon.com/Building-Six-.../dp/0961039671

This is a simple stitch & glue solo canoe I built from precut panels.

First time out, hadn't decided where to install the seat yet.



Putting in the first fillet after stitching the panels and epoxying the seams.
4mm mahogany marine plywood with a layer of 4oz glass inside & out. I forgot what I used for the trim. It's a bit wide for me as a solo, but has been a great dog boat.





If you're willing to invest in a boat that you can easily lift for years to come, these are very nice. I went to the shop and demoed them. Serious want. https://placidboatworks.com/

[TheDLoon]

This is such a wonderful, cathartic thread.

When I was in college I worked at our Outdoor Pursuits Center and we rented out those plastic material Old Town canoes. I have many great memories with those, including two Spring Break canoe-camping trips on the Buffalo River in Arkansas. One thing that we did to all our canoes was patch on these kevlar strips to the bow and stern to save the hull whenever beaching (or running into things). We did have one canoe that broadsided a rock pretty hard and had this big dent right in the side. It still floated though!

[Maple Syrup Actual]

Attachment 53582

Thanks for tagging me - I hadn't noticed this thread but I do love canoes (and kayaks). I find kayaks better suited to the ocean here but canoes I love for lakes, which we also have of course. Of the handful of happy childhood memories I have, probably a full third were from this point when my mom went back to school, and while she was in university they briefly had this program where kids who were taking the right combination of courses could get summer jobs as camp counselors at this university-based summer camp which was run mostly for the children of the staff, but also for the occasional mature student with kids. It hardly cost anything since it was all run with university funds, and on university grounds, and anyway, it was basically a freebie for the profs but I benefited also. Anyway, the university owns this forestry and field biology site up at a place called Lake Cowichan, which is a pretty big, deep lake surrounded by park land, and every year at this camp we'd spend a couple of weeks at the university, partly in the pool swimming and training rescue stuff etc in canoes, partly doing kid-geared forestry and biology courses, then a week up at the field lab, continuing the classes and canoeing out on increasingly long day trips from there, then go for a week-long canoe trip starting from there and camping at sites all around the lake. I went for three years starting when I was about 10 or 11 and did tons and tons of canoeing as a result; it was one of the best times I ever had as a kid. My cousin also went so the two of us shared a canoe and we're both still pretty handy with them, actually. He went on and did a bunch of whitewater stuff, and I went on and did a lot of fishing stuff, and I'm sure that spending a canoe-focused month every summer for a few years was the thing that put us both on the water so much.


I guess that was all unnecessary detail but the point is that even though I find kayaks a better match for the salt chuck around here, I still love canoes and I think that there's a real advantage to a small boat that is suited to two passengers: you can easily take your wife or your kid and involve them. I know tandem kayaks exist but canoes are just simple, two-person boats that work really well. I wish I had better pictures of mine but I have it up at my cabin where it's not getting a lot of use on account of the rugged shores. Now that I live in a house on the big island, coincidentally quite close to Lake Cowichan, I'm bringing it back here.

Anyway here's a couple of pictures from when we were taking it up there:









The trailer is not what I used to take it around, I had just briefly set it there while my other boat was in the water and found it funny.

I hope you all thought I built it but no, it was a gift to Erin (who is also kind of passionate about canoes and also grew up canoeing from a cabin on a lake) from her father, who did build it. He offered at one point to sell it and give her the money instead, a practical proposition which we both thought was insane. It's a real work of art. I'll get better pictures next weekend if anyone's interested.

[LittleLebowski]

There are some really gorgeous canoes in this thread, do like.

[peterb]

Thanks for tagging me - I hadn't noticed this thread but I do love canoes (and kayaks). I find kayaks better suited to the ocean here but canoes I love for lakes, which we also have of course.

I've enjoyed sea kayaks and whitewater kayaks in the appropriate settings, but on flat water there's something elegant about being able to make a boat dance with a single blade.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GrFLHbTzRnc

[OlongJohnson]

Those little moments that remind us who we are. I'm loving this discussion of canoes and sleek row boats, and YouTube also shows me links to this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OCRv1kM9YLc

Life is so good.

[peterb]

If anyone's tempted by the wooden boats, here are a few more kitbuilder links to get you started...

https://www.pygmyboats.com/
http://www.newfound.com/
https://www.guillemot-kayaks.com/
http://www.clcboats.com/
https://www.redfishkayak.com/
https://www.bearmountainboats.com/
https://www.grainsurfboards.com/

And there are many more....

Both the strip-built and stitch & glue(plywood) boats are usually covered with glass cloth and epoxy, so you can think of them as wood-cored composite construction. They're lighter than most people think, especially the stitch & glue kayaks, which are much lighter than plastic equivalents. Very stiff, very strong for distributed loads, but not great for point impacts. You can improve that by adding more layers of glass if you're ok with the extra weight.

Rowing: A lot of folks have a negative impression of rowing because the usual rental "rowboat" is an aluminum skiff designed for planing with an outboard motor. They don't row well. A boat that was designed to be rowed is a whole different experience.