Soon enough in the water...
The sealant is still coming together. The plywood is marine grade -- not your furniture stuff. The 2 pack glue mix I used is BoteCote . That plus screws, woven tape and temporary nails hold the bits of wood together and the canoe is also coated in a layer of BoteCote. But I'm gonna use house paint sealant (x3 coat to the bottom/ 2 coats to the inside) ontop of that and Dulux Weathershield to finish off.Marine paints are far too expensive and many wooden boaties use house paint even for craft constantly in the water.
The canoe is made of plywood. Three sheets of plywood cut to shape into 6 templated sections and stuck together. It's a smart put together and I wish I was a carpenter (I'm more or less skilless) as I would have had more pleasure in the fit up. But it s a surprize to consider its lines given what it is made of and how it is put together. Wooden boaties and boat builders are outside my experience.
Would I do it again -- given my ignorance?
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Pacific Islander motif that will ride
on each side of the bow. The Pirogue
will be painted yellow.
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No.
I was totally dependent on a skilled neighbour who had a professional background in these things. He even began his working like as an apprentice boat builder. But then as I carefully sand the thing I get to note our mistakes -- not just mine. After you've built a few boats I'm sure the skill curve rises sharply and maybe you can't get enough of the sawdust.
But me, I've got what I wanted: a serviceable canoe that
- (touch wood) floats
- is made of wood so refits are easy
- is big enough to carry what I want and sail but not too large that I cannot portage it
- is of a design that has further hardware possibilities (eg: bigger sail, outrigger, etc)
I estimate that the number of hours we would have invested overall to complete the build will amount to something like one work week -- 5 days. But because of this and that complication the build took much longer. Of course if you know what you are doing and have done it before it would indeed be a very quick canoe.
