Well a number of years back a mate of mine sent away to Canada I think it was, for a set of blueprints on building a canoe. I've lost touch with him now but I was thinking of doing the same.

Has anyone here hand built a canoe, or knows where to get such plans so I may be able to build one for a canoe hunting trip I've got planned down an river near home?

I know one could buy a canoe for such a trip but I'm an old fasioned kinda lad so I'm wanting to do it the old way. A few handy links would be nice.

Many thanks,


AK.

Something like   This Canoe  ?  That's an old picture, but you get the idea.

I'd recommend the book "CanoeCraft"  Gives you all the info you need and has blueprints.  You can order kits to build your own that have all the lumber milled and forms precut... it'd save a bunch of time.  I built mine from scratch... if there's ever a next one I'm buying the milled strips!

Jeremy... that is some awesome canoe! Looks like I have a winter project coming up this year!

Al,

Me and several of my hunting partners have built canoes to hunt and fish from. They are very basic, but stable. These were built from plywood. We used the design in the book   Building the Six Hour Canoe .

We end up changing something every time we build another one, but the basic design is very sound.

I have a buddy who builds a smaller wooden boat for waterfowl hunting called   The Wacky Lassie . The link has plans and offsets for free. I have a whole file of stuff on wooden boats and plans. If you can give me some specifics about size, weight load, depth of draft and such I would be happy to steer you towards a design which would work for you.

OkKeith

Thanks Jeremy, and yes thats something like what I'm after, although I'll have to run with the un-milled lumber. Be rather costly sending all the way to Oz!

AK.

Mine is made out of clear white pine with a salvaged mahogany accent.

If you use the staple method of attaching the strips to the forms, do yourself a favor and build the forms out of MDF rather than particle board.  The staples stick MUCH better!

Milling the strips wasn't hard, just time consuming.  I used a circular saw with a 2' board clamped to it (acts as a fence) to cut the strips, then sent them through the thickness planer to clean up the saw marks.  A horizontal router table worked better for me to mill the bead and cove on the strips than a standard router table did... I had a feeling that would be the case and built the router table first.  I have good plans for a combination standard/horizontal/pin router table if you're interested.

My dad and I built this one. There are many strip canoe plans out there and they are fairly simple. I like the plywood canoe posted above. Never seen that one before.

 

I looked into this a year or so ago.  Lots of free plans and "build alongs" on the net.  Also look at "pirogue" plans on the web (basically a flat bottom canoe for calmer water).

You might also look at Glen-L and Clark Craft for plans.  I may still have plans for a square stern plywood canoe I built several years ago.  If I still have them, you are welcome to them for postage.  The plans are from Glen-l.

Here's one that I built a couple of years ago:  http://sports.webshots.com/photo/1154446908054848947seOWfg
It's flat on the very bottom and stable enough to stand up in.  It took me about 4 weekends to build, though I had some experience with epoxy/fiberglass already.
You can get plans for it from selway-fisher.com - it's called the "Raven" and is about 14' long.

If you make a pirogue, you have to sing, "Jolie Blon'" at least once.

They are great boats.

I've spent way too much time looking into plywood boat building.  What I've found is that...

1.  Building your boat will cost you at least as much as buying one

2.  Your homebuilt has the potential to be much lighter and more attractive than commercial ones.

I've got plans kicking around at the house for an 8' plywood jon boat.  One of these days I will get one built, just to say I've done it.

Jeff,
That's a good observation (#1, that is), particularly if you factor in your time.
Mine didn't cost quite as much as a factory one of similar build, but it wasn't cheap either.
If I didn't care about the satisfaction of building it myself, I'd get a part-time job at McDonald's and use the money to buy one outright.

I've been in on several wood strippers for my use or hunting buds projects.  Strippers are great for "soft water".  When it comes to Texas' rocky rivers, you just can not beat rubber foam core canoes.  

Lakes and deeper, moderate current rivers, strippers are wonderful and beautiful.  Put one on a rocky river with a current and it is tooth picks   .  I just can't stay away from swift water and rocks.

rusty

Here's a link to another simple to build plywood piroque:
http://www.unclejohns.com/boat/Default.htm

I built one but snow slid off the garage and crushed it after we got 120 inches in 3 days.  I have the kit to build another, and made up some templates to build my daughter one.  They are light and go through calmer water pretty fast.

TexasAg, that's a beautiful boat, but you're both gonna need to face the same way to get anywhere.  

Al,
When I got nuts into fly-fishing about a decade ago, I wanted a canoe to fish from.  After some thoughtful research I settled on a dingy instead.  Stability, easy reach of all gear, and easy to row.  I can stand and cast without fear of a dunking.  I use mine on lakes and mellow rivers.  I'm sure it'd be a good hunting boat too.
Scout around the local boyscout dock, sailing club or chandelery you may be able to find one laying around needing very little work- lite glasswork, paint and varnish.  You'll also have a fun little sailer too.  There are some gorgeous wooden dingy but mine is glass w/wood trim. "Double Duty" dingy...
 

Then there is this style of canoe.  I bought the plans but haven't begun construction just yet.  Looks great for my needs!

http://www.riverstoneinternet.com/canoebuilding/

Mike

I have built two boats using these plans.  They are very good plans and you can build a smaller boat for about 250.00.

http://www.gatorboats.com/

They can be made as pretty as you want or as utilitarian as you want.

If you do decide to build you will want these two web sites as well.

 http://www.mcfeelys.com/     for your stainless screws and fasteners.

 http://www.jamestowndistributors.com/userportal/main.do     for everything else like glue, stain, epoxy

Good luck.  It is a lot of fun and there is nothing cooler then paddling your own boat.

bateau.com They have free canoe plans. This is a very good site for boat building. They have all kinds of plans for sale and a very good forum.