Building a cedar-strip canoe

Deciding

This is how I knew it was time to build a canoe:

• Canoeing is fun but I didn’t have a canoe.
• Buying a canoe sounds fun, but I’d prefer a nice Wenonah at generic sporting store price.
• YouTubers demonstrate cedar strip builds and it looks doable.
• Ignore indications that it could take 500 hours, assume I can do it in 40.
• Ashes Stillwater Boats had nice plans, and the Angler’s Special looked good.
• Running low on special projects to keep things interesting.

Main steps

1. Buy plans to avoid risking 500 hours of work on a lousy design.
2. Buy a few planks of cedar and strip them out through a table saw.
3. Build forms according to plans.
4. Canoe-bit the strips so they can round over the curved.
5. Staple, clamp, and glue all strips to forms until you have formed the hull.
6. Trim up ends.
7. Remove staples, sand, clean up exterior.
8. Lay fiberglass and apply epoxy to exterior.
9. Pop off forms and flip canoe.
10. Clean up and sand interior.
11. Fiberglass and epoxy interior.
12. Add gunnels, scuppers, and other finishing touches like seats.
13. Build or buy a paddle and find out if it floats.
14. Come back later and sand down then apply marine spar varnish to protect from UV damage

Photos

To be added

Reflection

It’s fun to have a canoe we can enjoy as a family. Building a canoe is likely more time consuming than your expect. The work and wait is worth it assuming you have the patience for it.