Thwarts on

Did some work on the canoe last night after work. Ended up I was out in the garage til after 11pm!! Have put both thwarts in now, they are looking really good. I have just screwed then on with brass screws just now. When I next mix up a bathc of epoxy I will get them stuck in.

No pics I'm afraid.

Action Stations

Well its been a busy day!!

Didn't start off too well though. Decided I would put on the inwhales today. Had to buy some more timber as I had a change of plan with regards how exactly to fit them. I was a bit disappointed to find the new 12mm x 33mm was actually 2mm thinner that the last lot. Also I struggled to find nice knot free pieces. Used the wallpaper steamer and the poly-pipe to steam the wood first. I was a bit disappointed with the finish of the inwhales but on reflection I think once they are sanded and filled they will look fine.

Finished the day by taping all of the inside joins.

Disaster Strikes

Well, had a bit of a crisis tonight. It was really windy today (wind getting up to 40mph) so I thought I had best check on the marquee after work. Got back at 9.30pm to find that some of the corner junction poles at the base had broken leaving both ends of the tent flapping in the breeze!!!!!!

Have just spent the last 2 hours dismantling the marquee on my own in the dark!! Also didn’t know what to do with the canoe which is not fully epoxied yet! By some miracle I managed to manhandle the boat through the garage door using a webbing strap for grip (bearing in mind the thwarts and seats have not yet been fitted. Having got the boat inside I then had to take all the marquee poles down in the rain!!!

Learning point- marquees don’t like Scottish winter weather!!!!

Tales of Woe

Ok folks sorry for the delay in posting (I had computer issues). Using another computer now so it’s all good.

I have now managed to complete all the taping on the outside. This is not as easy a job as it sounds and too be honest I’m not 100% happy with the job as there are quite a few runs. I’m hopeful that with a light sanding it will look a lot better. Having completed the external taping I removed the moulds and turned the boat the right way up.



I still had a little filleting inside to do from the areas where the moulds and cable ties had been. In my infinite wisdom I decided that I would try and fit the gunwhales on the same day (with retrospect this may have been a bad idea). I used my router to create a round edge on the wood prior to fitting. Previous attempts to join the wood together prior to fitting had failed so I decided to join then in-situ. I started in the middle of the boat and worked along using clamps for positioning then securing the gunwhale with brass screws from inside. It was all going well until the end where I should have used steam / boiling water to soften to wood to make it easier to bend, in my rush I decided not to do this so the gunwhales were about 3mm below the upper edge of the ply. However I have since discovered that the old 40 grit sandpaper on the orbital makes quick work of the 3mm of plywood!!! The joins in the wood are not perfect I should have used scarf joints but I just could not get these to work, in the end I opted for a mitre cut- which once filled will hopefully give a satisfactory appearance. My sister helped out with fitting the rest of the gunwhales which was a big help. Also managed to crack one of the bits of wood but I think it will glue together without too much problem.




Spent today sanding down the inside of the hull- hard work. Managed the front half but will try and finish the rear half tomorrow.

Outside sanded, centre tape on

Haven’t been able to update the blog since Friday!! Managed to get the whole of the outside sanded down. Used a rotating disc style sander with 60 grit paper! The lines are looking really good now :-) Got the centre seem taped on the outside. Planning to tape the rest of the external seems on Monday.

Cable ties removed

Well, turned the boat over for the first time today. It has a nice bottom ;-) Took all the cable ties out which was a bit of a nervous moment: had visions of it all falling apart without them!! Fortunately it stayed together, spent the rest of the day filling all the joints with epoxy filler (very sticky stuff!!!)

The sanding begins tomorrow

Epoxy filleting

Started to fillet the joints on the inside tonight. It's messy work!!

It looks like a "proper boat" now

Have stitched all the panels together with cable ties this morning. It looks like a boat now!!

Windy day!!

Well it started off as a bit of a slow day. Spent most of the morning trying to work out the best way to join the wood for the gunwhales and inwhales together. Took until early evening until we worked out the best way. Finished off tonight by doing the last of the jointing of the hull pieces.

Hopefully tomorrow we will be able to start stitching the pieces together.

It’s really windy here tonight. Bit worried that the marquee may take off!! Think we may move to the garage once the hull panels are stitched together!!

Day 2

Cut out the mould pieces from some chipboard today.

Also have turned over the parts we but jointed yesterday to epoxy the reverse. Managed to get the remaining parts under the workbech and get the first coat of epoxy and glass tape on them.

A Long Day!!!

Well, it’s been a very busy day. Dad & I have basically worked from 9am till 11pm. Going to be glad of the fact the clocks go back tonight!!

Started off by double checking the measurements I did last night. Also used the flexible tile trim to “join the dots” forming nice smooth curves. Then used the jigsaw to cut out all of the pieces. Having cut the first 5 pieces we used them as templates for the next 15. Managed to blunt 2 jigsaw bits in the process though!!

Having cut out the pieces we used a combination of tools (hand plane, electric plane, rasp type plane) to shape them up so they were all the same size. Also took the opportunity to drill the holes for the ties.

As if that wasn’t enough for the day we managed to get a few of the butt-joints epoxied and taped.

I’m knackered now!! Off to bed

Construction Begins

Well I have finally finished nightshift!!

Plan to work on the boat for the next week. Started tonight by transferring the dimensions from the plans onto the first sheet of ply. Have the patio heater going in the marquee so its quite warm.

The plan for tomorrow is to double check all the measurements then cut out the pieces.

Gunwhales & Inwhales- Timber

Yet another trip to B&Q & Homebase today. Bought some timber for the gunwhales and inwhales. Was originally planning to use hardwood for these but a) i couldn't find any suitable hardwood and b) the softwood looks like it will be hard enough to bend!!

The spec suggests 15mmx15mm for the gunwhales and 15mmx35mm for the inwhales. Due to the availabilty of wood I have opted to use 12mm x 21mm for the gunwhales and 12mmx33mm for the inwhales.

Working nights for the next week probably wont update blog for 1 week. Need to order up some epoxy and glass tabe etc at some point.

Wood Delivered

Well the plywood has arrived!!

Have a photo from my phone of the trestles in the marquee.

Just going to head out to the timber merchant to source some wood for the gunwhales and inwhales. Hopefully I will be able to get hardwood.

Trestles Complete

Did a bit of work on the trestles after work today. I now have 4 complete trestles made out of framing timber. It seems I made a slight error in calculating their dimensions. The tops are the same width as the 2ft x 8ft chipboard however I forgot to allow for the fact that the foot part of the leg is external. The problem being when the wood is in the 4ft x 8ft configuration on one side the trestle pokes out a bit. Its no great problem though.

Hopefully the marine plywood will arrive tomorrow.

I have taken some photos of the trestles and work surface but unfortunately don’t have my digital camera cable. I’ll upload them in a few days.
That’s all for now.

The background

A few months ago a friend pointed out that it was possible to buy plans and kits online to build Open (Canadian) canoes. Having been on a few open canoe trips previously and keen for a bit of a challenge I decided to construct a plywood Canadian canoe.

A quick search on google revealed several suppliers of plans. The website which I took most notice of was Selway Fisher. They produce and sell plans for a number of different types of craft including a range of canoes. After reading the information on their site I ordered plans for a Selway Fisher Prospector Canoe.

I also came across another blog which describes the construction of such a boat. Reading this blog gave me the idea to blog my own efforts!!

I have had the plans for about one month now and plan to begin construction within the next few weeks.

On Monday I finally got round to ordering the plywood. Initially I had some difficulty sourcing marine grade 6mm ply locally. Much to my surprise my local Jewson had some sheets in stock costing about £17 ex vat per sheet. I'm expecting delivery on Friday.

I'm planning to use a 6m x 4m marquee in my parents garden to build the canoe in. I have a couple of patio heaters to try and keep it warm enough for the epoxy to cure (fingers crossed). Hopefully i will have some pictures of the tent soon.

My first task is to build a suitable work surface. I have bought 2 sheets of chipboard flooring (2ft x 8ft). I'm planning to use framing timber to make some trestles to support the board.Hopefullyy this will give me the option of having a 2ft x 16ft workbench or a 4ft x 8ft one. Again pictures to follow.

Welcome to My Blog

Welcome to my blog. This is my first experience of blogging. Hoping to use this blog to record the highs and lows! of my fisher prospector canoe project.