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Author	Message Text
SteveB	06/04/2012 10:37AM   Love the seats and decks. You should be very proud of it.
HighPlainsDrifter	12/10/2011 10:03PM   Ben that is a beautiful job. You have a great talent for bringing out the best that wood has to offer. Your inwales caught my eye. Nice job
Moonman	12/08/2011 04:36PM   That Sir is a beauty! What was the final weight? Did you use a standard layup of 6oz cloth and 1/4 strips? Any specialty woods beyond the cedar and maple decks? Moonman.
SunCatcher	12/08/2011 06:37AM   That is awesome. Beautiful! Very nice job! SunCatcher
tumblehome	12/08/2011 07:59AM   Wables, That's a real beauty! I like the quilted maple decks (I think it's maple) and the varnish looks to be of the better quality. You can't get that deep gloss with cheapo varnish. -Tom
jdevries	12/08/2011 09:37AM   Incredible. First thing I noticed was the decks too. JD
Wables	12/08/2011 08:43PM   Thanks for all of the comments! To answer a few questions, the decks are curly maple. I will attach a close up, along with the decks from my Freedom that came from the same board. The lighting is very poor in the first photo and it came out yellow. The colors and "pop" of the grain in the second picture is more representative. The gunwales and seats are cherry. They look like cedar now, but in a year they will be a deep cherry-brown. I did a standard 6 oz. layup both inside and outside, but went easy on the final epoxy coat on the outside. The hull is all 10 and 12' cedar from Menards. On my Freedom I had serious issues using Epifanes over U.S. Composites epoxy. Both worked out well by themselves, but didn't play nicely together. For this boat I used Raka epoxy and Rustoleum Spar Varnish because I was on a budget. The Rustoleum was not as thick as the Epifanes, but I was happy with how it turned out. We'll see how it looks after a year or two of use. I didn't get a final weight, but in comparison to my other boats I don't think that is an ounce over 50 pounds. I will weigh it when I get it back in the spring. You probably notice that I did not put "handles" behind the gunwales. It carries just fine by holding the decks, and I attached 1/2" bronze pad-eyes under the decks for a secure tie-off point. This last photo shows how dark the cherry gets after just a year and a half. Sorry for the crappy cell phone pick. It turned out yellow masking the red in the cherry and the grain pop of the curly maple.
Wables	06/02/2012 04:44PM   It seems like forever since I finished the boat, but it finally hit the water yesterday and today. Here is a quick video of my 6 year old paddling it. http://youtu.be/XGrAVyCv2QM You will notice that in both pictures I am paddling it backwards. I tried to set the seats up so that my son would fit backwards in the rear seat, or I could paddle solo with some ballast. It seems to work just fine. Hopefully I can paddle it forward soon with another adult. The boat is more stable than I had even hoped for, which is good since this is a fishing boat. I still need a name for this boat!
amhacker22@hotmail.com	12/08/2011 08:41AM   Nice! The first boat I built myself was a Bob's Special. It was a great boat & I'm sure you'll love it. I'll be in Duluth this weekend & I'll probably stop by the shop to take a look. Looks great though! -Nick
Wables	12/07/2011 11:13PM   Here is my Bob's Special. I finished it up back in October and am finally getting around to posting some pictures of it. This is going to be a SWEET boat! I originally built it to take my kids out in as my Freedom 17-9 is too much to handle without a strong bow paddler, but I think that this is going to make a nice solo fishing and short tripping solo as well. Unfortunately, she has not seen the water yet. Before I finished, I was asked to display it at Frost River in downtown Duluth until next spring, so I kept it out of the water. If you would like to see it, stop by the store!
bear bait	12/08/2011 07:58AM   WOW! very nice
KevinL	12/08/2011 07:14AM   Beautiful job!
Wables	06/03/2012 11:03PM   quote HighPlainsDrifter: " Your son is a good paddler. I think the canoe has a name.......... "Bob's Special" :)" Unfortunately, my father-in-law's name is Bob. We don't want to go there...
HighPlainsDrifter	06/03/2012 10:54PM   Your son is a good paddler. I think the canoe has a name.......... "Bob's Special" :)
Naguethey	12/11/2011 02:14AM   Beautifuly done, I really like the accents you laid into the sides also.