Building a Boat

[Woody]

Have any of you built your own canoe, kayak, or other boat for float trips? There are a lot of interesting kits online expecially some really light canoes, 30lbs, but for my purposes I would be building my own to be cheap. I have a regular canoe but it is a three seater and is a little hard to transport and lauch solo, so I was thinking of building a single seater.

[PastorLarryT]

Out of mine too, BearLeader.  I have seen pics of homemade canoes and kayaks that are absolutely gorgeous, but I would hate to think what one I made would look like -- much less wonder if it would float!!!   

Best wishes to you Woody.  If you decide to start constructing one -- keep us updated on your progress.  We'll cheer you on!

[Woody]

How about one of these? They do not look too difficult.

http://personal.eunet.fi/pp/gsahv/

I like this one, seems simple and wouldn't cost much either.

http://personal.eunet.fi/...gsahv/oss_sam/oss_sam.htm

[Rob]

Woody, Sounds like a fun and rewarding undertaking. Although I've never built much more than a bird house, I did see my Dad and Grandfather spend two years building a 30' Trimaran sailboat. They had NO experience in boat building but did have numerous resources to draw upon for technical assistance. As you can imagine this was an enormous financial undertaking for them, quite possibly one of the reasons it took two years to build. This thing was huge but only accommodated four people on trips other than day sailing. It turned out quite nice as I recall. But the best reward came from the memories of my Dad and Grandfather's obvious feeling of accomplishment, and watching them sail that albatross. Every time I smell Fiberglass resin It brings back those memories. Now my Mom's and grandmothers account would be very different from mine, but that is another story........... ..... 

Good Luck, You can Do it!

[Lostsheep]

I may can help some, and yes, it is tough.

During college, we actually competed in the American Society of Civil Engineers in the concrete canoe contest. Our goal was to build a canoe capable of holding 4 people and floating out of concrete. We were allowed 2cu ft of flotation throughout the boat as well. We build a skeleton out of wood, poured our cement, removed the skeleton, and then finalized the boat my smoothing it and sealing it. It was tough.

Now, on to something you're probably looking for, wood. I assisted my grandfather in building a wooden canoe and it wasn't too terribly hard. He bought the kit and we used 1"-2" strips running from bow to stern. It had a nice keel on it toward the back, two seats, and a small storage bin in the middle. We spent the evenings working on it and it took a few months to get it compeltely finished. Unfortunately we only had it for a few years before a thunderstorm put a large tree limb through the storage shed holding the boat.

Now that I have my wife hooked on kayaking, I'm tempting her to let us build a kayak as well. I had an engineering professor share some kits with me and show me the ropes for a while, and his boat is a beauty. It's definitely on my to do list soon!

I'm going to look at some of those kits previously mentioned and see what it looks like to complete, when I have more time to dig through them.