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| Quick Canoe being built |
Since I have decided to actually try to build myself a boat, the handicap of my abysmal carpentry skills haunts me. I do not have hammer and nail confidence -- and no carpentry background -- at all.
So I am researching and engaging with the challenge that I have set my self from as many angles as I can muster. I project myself into the hands on future trying to psych myself up.
My first 'build' will be a cardboard model and if I can make a craft with tape and scissors out of a manila folder, maybe I can confront the wood some time thereafter.
The Quick Canoe is a simple to build flat bottomed boat, similar to a pirogue. How a 'pirogue' differs from a 'canoe' is something I'm not sure of as construction of a 'flat bottomed' canoe seems to parallel the ways and means of building a pirogue -- and bateaux and pirogues are the easiest DIY builds you can tackle.
Pirogues can be really fast to build but a good pirogue won't have the performance and ease of paddling of a good canoe. But you can carry a bigger payload and seat people where you want. Their surface area makes them heavier than a canoe.Canoes are less stable than pirogues but the upside is better directional stability and less paddling effort and less chance of catching the wind. They do have a lower payload than a pirogue....Canoes and Kayaks endeavour to be as close to the water as possible consistent with staying above said water.A canoe will have a lower topside than a pirogue and most kayaks will be lower than the canoe.Additionally a well designed canoe or kayak usually has a lot of hollow in the entry which acts as a big fin at each end of the boat.If you have ever paddled a canoe that blew around badly then it didn't have enough of this hollow.This is why transom sterned rowboats often have a skeg...Pirogue doesn't have this sort of refined shape. Putting the stem down in the water is bad also because it will increase the drag. So a pirogue is between a rock and a hard place. But geez they can be quick to build. (Michael Storer)
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| A Louisiana classic Pirogue |
Anyway I was working up my costings and checking my supply lines so that I estimate that to build the Quick Canoe from the plans I already own will cost me around $350-400.
That's a cheap boat.
The main hit is the price of the plywood and the glue coating. I'm sure there are cost cuts I can engineer.
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| Bolger Sailing Pirogue |
Since I wanted to sail the thing when I had completed the build, my intention is to use my present rig and just attach it to the QC. Then start tweaking the setup so that I don't habitually capsize.
Since flat bottom-ness is a cruising issue under sail I've been researching what you can do with a pirogue -- and people do sail Louisiana style pirogues and the indigenous pirogues of Madagascar are standardly sailed.
I also suspect that there is an innate preciousness in the canoe building community which insists on rigorous functional utility and detailed design specifics.
Whereas I tend to embrace limitations of anything as a challenge to accommodate to and work around...and darn good excuse to mess about with.
There is however a design for a drop in sail for the Quick Canoe.
My present sail rig is very different: a lateen sail on a proa style mast at a 45 degree angle. I'm hoping I can use the same means to attach it to the future hull by exploiting a carry handle on the bow. Works a treat: carry handle a a pair of crutches. I hope my centre of effort isn't located such that it will tip the canoe. Since my present paddleski is flat bottomed in a way -- being beamy -- I'm estimating that I have enough leeway in this future marriage to play around with.
