 | Redwood Canoe
|
prototype canoe took about three weekends
to build. She's broad of beam and flatbottomed
amidship. Two persons can sit side
by side in the center, with one person at
each end and plenty of room for gear.
This canoe is formed around plywood
templates using ¼"-by-¾" redwood strips,
glued edge to edge. You lay up the strips,
remove the form, and the canoe is complete,
except for fiberglassing and putting
in the seats.
How to start. First, lay out the patterns
full size on large sheets of heavy brown
wrapping paper. Since a canoe is symmetrical
front to back and side to side,
you need draw full-scale patterns of only
half of each template, forming half of the
canoe. The patterns are flopped to draw
the other half of each template; duplicate
templates are made from these for the
other half of the canoe. Draw the template
patterns using a 1½" grid as shown in the
blueprint.
Build the form from four two-by-fours.
Make it square, solid, and level; the finished
canoe will be no better than the form it's
made on. If built as shown, it can be converted
into a bench for working on the
canoe right side up.
Cut the templates from ½" plywood and
screw them to the building form. Make
sure they are centered and vertical. Put on
templates 1 and 9 first; then stretch a
string over the center of these between the
ends. This lets you line up the other templates.
Next, make the canoe's stempieces
