I'd like to have a light canoe like your Souris River. I'm just to cheap to drop that much on one. I'm like my Dad was, "What? How much? Why I can make one for cheaper then that." Of course after all the expenses and time, a person be better off buying one. But it's fun. I've read on a canoe forum about someone building a 16 foot strip canoe with a finished weight of close to 40 pounds. He is a very experienced builder tho.
I want to build a 13 to 14 foot solo for my wife, then a 16 foot solo for me. I want to make them as light as possible also. Most of the strip canoes are constructed out of 1/4" thick wood strips. I shaved mine down to 3/16". This reduced the weight by 25% on the wood. I was told I'd be fine since I was using a harder wood then most, but the wood I used was 25% heavier, so I think it equaled out. But what I didn't realize was, when I was shaving the hull smooth, after glueing the strips together and before sanding, I was making the strips even thinner. When I purchased Ted Moore's book and did some reading, I already had the outside of the hull smoothed, sanded and ready to glass. I had no idea idea how thin the hull was, and if only in spots! [emoji54]. I still had the inside to smooth which would remove even more wood. So now when we take it out, I have a fear of it splitting open like a ripe watermelon [emoji525]. Ooh I like watermelon [emoji39].
I have even considered, well thought of anyhow, building a canoe out of kevlar. But this would require lots of mold building prep work, research and some of that green stuff [emoji383]. But that's just me thinking.
Thanks for compliments. I appreciate it.
Roy
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