Building a Plywood Stitch & Glue Canoe

[Flysmallie]

First of all I would like to thank Webfreeman for getting me into this mess. I have always wanted to build a wooden canoe, but couldn't justify the time and cost of a woodstrip canoe when I know the waters that I would be taking it on. Webfreeman found me an alternative. He posted about some canoe plans that he had found and that got me to thinking about this all over again. The weekend after his post, I was going to St. Louis and saw 4 plywood canoes in the backs of 2 pickups. That did it for me right then.

The past couple of weeks I have spent time on the internet, in the library and several bookstores trying to get an idea of what I'm getting myself into. I have no woodworking skills, actually I would say that I'm in the negative on woodworking skills, but this actually looks simple. Time consuming, but simple.

I also spent a lot of time trying to decide on the style of boat that I wanted. I've looked at canoes, pirogues and kayaks. I finally decided on the canoe pictured below. A kayak was out because I need to be able to take my kids with me. I like the idea of the pirogue but don't feel that it's what I need to float our local streams.

Here is a picture of the Pirogue 500 that I have decided to build instaed of the canoe.

[WebFreeman]

I knew I should have come up w/ something besides my name when I signed up for this board. Tell your wife I live in california and I'm in the witness protection program.

[Don]

After taking my kids on their first float trip, I've considered purchasing a couple of canoes next year. But now that you went and did this to me...dadburnit...I'm intrigued. Where did you get the plans?

Thanks.....Don

[Flysmallie]

After taking my kids on their first float trip, I've considered purchasing a couple of canoes next year. But now that you went and did this to me...dadburnit...I'm intrigued. Where did you get the plans?

Thanks.....Don

JEM Watercraft

[Gavin]

Cool...I've been playing around with a design for a paddle jon off an on for about a year know but havent had the time to build it yet. Will probably get busy on it in a couple months after we get settled in our new home.. The design I'm working on is similar to this one

http://www.duckworksmagazine.com/05/outing...unner2/free.cfm

but it will be skin on frame construction like a McKenzie Drifter

http://gregboats.com/customerboats/boatpics/redtrailer.jpg

and incorporate some features found on an Au Sable Drift Boat, fly rod racks, posibly the front catbird seat/fish box.

http://www.woodwatercraft.com/AuSableRiverBoat.html

Keep us posted on your progress.

[Flysmallie]

Okay so now I'm building a Cajun Pirogue.

Here is a link to one.

In another topic Crippled Caddis suggested that I look at this boat. The funny thing is, I have looked at this design. I have been telling everyone that this is what I was building. I like the looks and the stability of a pirogue in flat water is great. I guess what changed my mind was I thought the canoe would be able to carry more weight. It's no secret that I'm a big guy. Add another person and a cooler and you could be pushing 550 to 600 lbs.

Well to hell with all that. I building the Pirogue. Much better looking boat in my opinion. I'm still going to probably end up with a 16 or 17 foot boat and as wide as possible. It will carry what it can carry and I'll just be happy to float in it.

Back to the drawing board. CC thanks for getting me back on track.

[Crippled Caddis]

Fs wrote:

<I building the Pirogue. Much better looking boat in my opinion. I'm still going to probably end up with a 16 or 17 foot boat and as wide as possible. It will carry what it can carry and I'll just be happy to float in it.>

Are you going to use Matt's (JEM Watercraft) 'Pirogue 500' plans for those who need a higher capacity craft? IIRC he designed that one as a special request from one of more 'heroic' proportions.

If you wish I'll ask a friend of 'heroic' proportions who designed the pirogue he built for he and his son to fish from. I recall that he had it designed especially to be more useful for bigger people. I'll ask him for permission to give you his e-mail address too if you wish then you could correspond with him on the subject. In the meantime I'll notify him about this thread in case he wants to chime in.

FWIW, Morten Olsen, who designed the DK touring canoe in your 1st post above also has a jonboat plan available. I've corresponded with him a bit (he's in Denmark) concerning the authentic Ozark jon and he sez he hopes to eventually redo his jonboat to more accurately reflect it's Ozark genesis. CC

[Crippled Caddis]

<I like the looks and the stability of a pirogue in flat water is great.>

I guess that guilt finally overcame my natural reticence about giving unsolicited advice, but I just must comment about stability and the perceptions surrounding it.

A flat-bottomed craft such as a pirogue will have great 'initial stability'. That is it will be very stable up until such time that it is heeled over too far, at which time it's inherently poor 'final stability' surges to the fore and you find yourself practicing your breast stroke.

By contrast a craft with a slightly vee'd or rounded bottom, while suffering in the 'initial stability' category, has far better 'final stability' in that it WANTS to be self-righting.

In both instances the flare of the upper gunnel region has a lot to do with the 'final stability' issue. In general terms the greater the flare then the greater the final stability.

If that confuses anyone take heart----I've been studying watercraft for many years and I still find myself confused frequently. ;o0 CC

[Flysmallie]

<I like the looks and the stability of a pirogue in flat water is great.>

I guess that guilt finally overcame my natural reticence about giving unsolicited advice,

Don't consider it unsolicited, I would appreciate any advice from anyone. That's part of the reason I wanted to post my building log on here. I have looked at building a canoe for a long time. Right not I'm just some guy goofing off in his garage, learning all that I can by making lots of mistakes. I'm not really worried how this one turns out as long as I can learn something from it. I would like to build a really nice kayak over the winter.

CC - Thanks for all your input so far. I'll take all the info you have.

[Flysmallie]

< A flat-bottomed craft such as a pirogue will have great 'initial stability'. That is it will be very stable up until such time that it is heeled over too far, at which time it's inherently poor 'final stability' surges to the fore and you find yourself practicing your breast stroke.

By contrast a craft with a slightly vee'd or rounded bottom, while suffering in the 'initial stability' category, has far better 'final stability' in that it WANTS to be self-righting.

In both instances the flare of the upper gunnel region has a lot to do with the 'final stability' issue. In general terms the greater the flare then the greater the final stability.

If that confuses anyone take heart----I've been studying watercraft for many years and I still find myself confused frequently. ;o0 CC

Okay, initial and final stability I know about. But I am confused about the flare. You have to explain that, sounds very interesting. I thought the more it was flared the less final stability it would have.

I did purchase the plans for the Pirogue 500. In the plans it said to mount the seats as close to the floor as possible. Won't that increase the stability? I am planning on using the seats from Uncle Johns, they look really nice.