This is the prototype "Prospector" style canoe that resulted from my proof-of-concept test to determine the efficacy of building bespoke canoes, paddles, kayaks, and stand-up paddle boards as a business. I learned a great deal from this build; not only how to build a beautiful boat, but also that with my current shop and conditions it is simply not practical to create a production environment.

This boat was built from absolute scratch and with only a book as a guide for the process. The timbers utilized are Western Red Cedar for the primary hull. Cherry lumber was used for the decks, thwart, gunwhales, and seating. Walnut and Maple design elements were used in the feature strip. Finally the stems were made from steam-bending and laminating Ash strips.

As I regularly seek to do, materials were sourced giving preference to rescued materials and, in particular, this boat features approximately 25% recycled power-poles that had originally gone into service in 1941. After 80 years of holding up powerlines, these poles were destined for a burn pile, and were rescued by an enterprising sawyer. The cedar was very knotty and unsuitable to use for the entire boat, however the dark strips in the boat are primarily those from this recycled material.

The hull is a monocoque resin/fiberglass/wood "sandwich" with spar varnish outer coating for UV protection, while the stems are protected by brass banding. The only mechanical fasteners are bronze bolts securing the seats, stainless steel screws holding the inwhale in place while the epoxy cured, and bronze screws securing the outwhales and stem bands.

In general this was a fun project. While this took about 250 hours over the course of a year to build. Much of that was in the learning of process and just milling timbers to size. Many hours were (well) spent on trial and error in building the feature strip and steam-bending the stems.

Launch Day