It's not quick (at least for me) but it's straight forward. The link below points to the forum portion of the Bear Mountain Boat website. The specific article includes 5 links to picture albums on Shutterly.com that show the process of building a canoe (not this latest canoe which has ribs but the first canoe we built a few years ago). Be forewarned, there are lots of pictures there. You can select the album you'd like to look at based on the phase of the project (shutterly only allowed 250 pictures per album...).
I added ribs to the latest build because I have a deep appreciation for Joe Seliga who built over 600 cedar / canvas canoes in his lifetime (all with ribs). He passed away at age 95 a couple years ago. They also look good.
The first project (documented in the photos) is very special to me because it wasn't my project at all. I didn't even want to do it. My son got the bug for canoeing from a trip to Canada in 2003 with his Boy Scout troop. After that fabulous first trip, he pestered me for over a year to build a canoe. I figured if he could keep it up that long and clean the garage (an equally impressive task) we ought to do it.
It was a fabulous 13 months of friendship and teamwork in a drafty garage. It produced lifelong memories for me, a new hobby that has done an excellent job of distracting me from a very stressful career and of course, a canoe.
Maybe someday he'll want to sell it for a tank of gas but I have right of first refusal for purchasing it from him in that event. Maybe he'll want to keep it.
oh yeah, here's that link I promised. http://www.bearmountainboats.com/phpbb2/viewtopic.php?t=1515&highlight=redbird+ready
And a couple photos of the canoe:
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2 comments:
oh, yeah, it's pretty straight forward. a cake walk. a peice of cake. a walk in the park.
how about the fact that every single end of every single teeny tiny strip has to be trimmed at the pricise angle across its end and with respect to its horizon. and that with those complicated multi-dimensional cuts at both ends, each strip has to be precisely the correct length? see it is even complicated trying to explain what is complicated. how about how the way the strips come together at the front edge is totally different than how they come together along the very botton and how that transition has to be clean and smooth and precise.
Honestly, I look at these things and I go, it can't be done. Too complicated, too demanding of prcision, too time consuming, too HARD. but there are two boats out there that prove it CAN be done. and done well. congratulations. they are awesome works of art. they are beautiful. and they are boats that hold people on the water in amazing places in the natural world. and they are made of wood. i already used awesome, didn't i?
What a beautiful canoe!
Just leaves me speechless.
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