Lapstrake Canoe 1 - Adventure Awaits
I think most of us could use a getaway from the everyday world once in a while. For exercise and leisure I have always turned to nature, and indeed for privacy, reflection and solace as well. With this in mind I wanted to build a watercraft for exploring close to home, yet so portable you could take it on vacation, for immersion in a world away from screens, easy to use often, maybe alone, maybe together. A canoe can be all of this. Lightweight, maneuverable, quiet, and pretty to look at, a canoe can bring you to places you could never see otherwise. Some of my favorite canoe memories involve a Blue Heron rookery, and the waters of the Puget sound teaming with life like seals and octopus. Memories of paddling upwind back to the campsite and the feeling of victory at having braved nature and returned.
Canoes are the stuff of dreams, long and stable, deceptively fast, and able to be carried from the car, or portaged from one pond to another or around a damn on a river. There are few places a canoe can’t go in the right weather. Most places in our country have many lakes, ponds and rivers where a canoe is at home. My own area in Northwest Vermont is bordered by a 100 mile long lake to the west, that has several major rivers running into it, several smaller rivers, and is dotted with many lakes and ponds.
I wanted to build a boat for all uses. Small, light and maneuverable for solo paddling, but with enough space and buoyancy that a companion would be welcome and camping gear too. I chose glued lapstrake as my construction method, and fiberglassed marine plywood as my hull materials. The stems, gunwales, thwart, seats, and breasthooks to be local ash hardwood.
First I setup my molds on the strongback , and made my fore and aft stems. The stems will give the planking something to land on and are made by laminating thin layers of steam bent hardwood together using West System marine epoxy.
This boat is for sale, and there is more info available on my page: Canoe- Green Mountain Ghost