Okay - I couldn't help myself. I had to build another canoe.

This one is the Freedom17 designed by Steve Killing. She's reported to be a sleek tripper and she has a nice rocker.

Particulars;
· Length 17'
· Maximum beam 33.4"
· Beam waterline 31.75"
· Beam gunnel 32.5"
· Bow height 19.25"
· Centre depth 13.25"
· Draft 4.25"
· Displacement 420 lbs.
· Wetted surface 30.15 sq.ft.
· Weight to immerse 143.8 lb/in
· Prismatic coefficient 0.567
· Weight 45 to 55 lbs

Forms are mounted and trued.



And another view.


BTW - you will never see my shop this clean ever again. :-)

Looks good bro. Where do you buy your wood and what grade are you using?

Hi Bud.

The wood is standard Western Red Cedar from a big box store (Menards) tight grained 2x6's that I ripped down with a Freud thin kerf. My better half wanted a very pale accent strip so we also ripped up some Aspen which is very pale. Those 2x6 cedar boards were about $20 ea ± and we got around 28 strips per board and very little waste other than sawdust. That will take some splicing on the hull but big deal. It's easy enough to stagger the joints and the color is pretty homogeneous.

The forms are simple 5/8" particle board. The paper templates I entered into my CAD program and plotted them off my plotter at work (before I was laid off). Spray adhesive mounted and cut out with a handheld Ridgid saber saw and then finish sanded to the line with a disk sander.

Our last canoe (a "38 Special" from Northwest Canoe Co. now renamed to the "Northwest Merlin 160") we did rolling bevel and staples. This time I'm still using the rolling bevel but trying a stapless technique I saw on Bear Mountain Boats forum.
Bear Mountain Boats

I will definitely document that attempt. Happy building!

How's the boat coming along?

We're only up to about 7 or 8 strips per side. It's a leisure time activity while I'm still unemployed. Time is being spent on other things.

I'm sure it will look great, especially stapleless. Probably worth taking your time for it. Good luck on the employment front. Are we in a recovery yet? Sure doesn't feel like it.

-Nick

Hi Nick

Progress shots. The one strip is only clamped on for dry fit to check for bevel. Oh - by the way. The mess is due to our son landing after a three day drive home from California.





I really should get back on it. Winter is coming on and we'll need to get cars back in the garage.

Woodbender,

My dream is to some day build a woodstrip canoe. As I study your set-up, the forms you use and the beauty of your work I am certainly impressed.

For a neophyte builder like myself, where would you recommend I turn for plans, help, or whatever in what seems like a daunting task to get started. I'd love to (dreaming) work on a project like this over the summer.

Do you have any progress shots since the last ones on 8/07?

Bapabear,.. the project is on hold until my Michigan garage has warm days again. So I don't really have (substantial) progress pics. Most cedarstrippers have read Ted Moore's Canoecraft. I own both editions and got the offsets for the Freedom 17 being built from that.

There are purists who demand that the offsets must be hand done and draw the lines with your battens and that's all good. But I am not a purist and did the offsets on cad and generated full size plots for my forms. Spray mounted the paper to the particleboard forms and cut them out. Disk sanded the forms down to about 1/64th to 1/32nd of an inch.

How purist and traditional can we be if we're building with fiberglass and epoxy? If it works do it.

A fantastic place for you to hang out and learn is the Bear Mountain Boats forums which is actually sponsored by Ted Moores' outfit.

Link is here;
http://www.bearmountainboats.com/phpbb2/index.php