canoe build

breghall

Right,

am i going to chance making something from scratch this summer. I going to start with something basic and of use, so i'm going to build a 16ft canoe with plans from the web. The other half and I do a bit of canoeing and are looking to replace our old one and we thought ' wouldn't it be great to use one that we've made'..

Am hopefully gonna start it shortly as work will be a bit quieter, before i go ahead i have a few questions that you may be able to help me with, so i can price everything up. Now i have replaced transoms and stringers etc before in fibreglass boats but have never started anything like this from scratch.

1. WBP or Marine ply (would rather WBP as the savings will off set the resin costs and it'll be fully coated)
2. Best place for cost effectiveness to get epoxy resin , I'll prob use 10 litres (hopefully not)
3. Need to source cedar as i plan on making 2 paddles as well
4. Need to source a hardwood strip for the rub rail so some where i can source this too please.
5. Any tips on varnishing as I haven't done it before on this kinda of scale, can i varnish over epoxy even??? how many coats??
6.lastly the plans don't call for it but, would glassing the bottom of the canoe with CSM or woven be worth the effort to protect it from weirs and rocks etc? or will a few coats of resin just do?


Once up and running i'll add pics of the progress...

thx folks.

fergal.b

1. Marine ply, it's worth the extra money WBP can have hidden voids or be patched with fillers causing weak spots.

2. I use west system it's tried and tested and there is a lot of info on their web site. It's more or less the same price everywhere but I get mine from marineparts direct.

3. http://www.abbeywoods.ie/

4. Woodies do some hardwood strips that you can laminate or again Abbywoods.

5. I will be varnishing my boat over epoxy in the next few weeks and will post the process

6. I would use 4-6 0z cloth on the bottom if I was going to paint it if you are going for an allover bright finish I would just coat in epoxy as it's easy to fix if you get a scratch or a ding where as if you damage the cloth on a bright finish it's near impossible to fix.

Best of luck with it.



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breghall

i rather have the toughness underneath so I'll go with the cloth, thanks for all that Fergal, I would never have thought of Woodies for the hardwood strip.

fergal.b

breghall wrote: »

i rather have the toughness underneath so I'll go with the cloth, thanks for all that Fergal, I would never have thought of Woodies for the hardwood strip.

You could do it up to the waterline and paint it then varnish from there up.
Woodies do the Richard Burbidge collection of hardwood moulding some of the big stores have quite a good selection, I think Homebase also have some.



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pedroeibar1

Have a look at this guy's work http://www.etiennemuller.com/ I saw one last year, beautiful workmanship.

breghall

pedroeibar1 wrote: »

Have a look at this guy's work http://www.etiennemuller.com/ I saw one last year, beautiful workmanship.

thanks for that link Pedro, he certainly does good nice work....