There are two plywood canoes in my range catering for quite different parts of the market. A quality first class boat and also a very cheap and easy to build boat.
To order the Quick Canoe simplest and cheapest plywood canoe plan – $30
To order the Eureka best plywood canoe plan – $75
One is the best plywood canoe I could come up with – the Eureka Canoe. It is probably best built of premium materials such as gaboon plywood to further reduce the weight. Building time is around the 70 hours mark, but most part time builders seem to take about three months of part time work. The premium materials recommended bring the cost out to $400 to $800, but you could build cheaper.
Eureka Canoe - Classic shape from a plywood canoe.
The other is the simplest and cheapest plywood canoe that would still look good and work well – the Quick Canoe. I will be developing the Quick Canoe into a series of boats over time. I have also made the plans of this boat really cheap to fit in with the low budget nature of the project. Boats have been built for budgets of $130 – $250 and building time has been as short as 4.5 or 5.5 hours from two experienced builders, though a nice job will take around 20 hours for a first time builder.
Quick Canoe - the simplest plywood canoe I could come up with
Generally the lower end of the prices is building in Canada or the USA where materials are a lot cheaper than the rest of the world.
The things the two plans have in common are the detail in the plans – anyone can build either of these boats following the step by step instructions. There are several photoessays from home boatbuilders of different experience on my forum and the consensus is the plans are pretty good. I also update the plans using feedback from builders, so as time goes by the plans improve even more.
Ok … so how to choose between these two boats.
Slideshow of assembling the Quick Canoe – fast build plywood canoe
Slideshow of assembling the Eureka – classic stitch and tape plywood canoe
The Eureka is based on classic canoe touring shapes from a time when canoes were used for real transport. Everything from delivering the milk or mail, heading off for six months collecting beaver pelts – less common today, but the main idea is the boats had to work well whatever the conditions were like. They had to travel real distance and be efficient and track well despite wind and waves.
So the Eureka paddles very nicely. It will greatly outperform the average fibreglass boat (though there are some very good classic shapes available in North America in fiberglass – but none in most of the rest of the world). The wooden boat is also about half the weight of most glass canoes. A typical Eureka built with Gaboon comes in around 45 lbs (20kg) but making some effort and building of thinner ply you can get down to 33lbs (15kg). Great for portages and getting it on the car roof. It is built by the stitch and glue method.
Eureka being assembled by the stitch and glue method.
The Quick Canoe is a much simpler shape, but I have kept the classic sheerline of a “proper canoe”. The unusual skeg/keel arrangement is to overcome the normally crappy directional stability of three panel canoes. The skeg/keel can be reduced if more manoeuvrability is required for various uses but it is about right for lake travelling as it is.
The Quick Canoe is made of only three panels and it is suitable for using duct or gaffer tape to hold it together while the filleting or glass taping happens on the inside of the boat. This is a not a method that will work with any boat shape (don’t try it with the Eureka!!!), but it has been trialled through several boats with the Quick Canoe and seems to work quite well. While I am a great believer in epoxy to reduce maintenance and reliable construction the Quick Canoe – as a cheap project – would be fine in good exterior plywood and with polyester resin and glass tape. It won’t last as long as an epoxy one … but at this price … who cares! It is way more ecologically sound than a full glass or plastic boat.
The Quick Canoe gets taped together before flipping and epoxy filleting or glass taping the inside
So the summary is … if you want a really nice paddling canoe, the Eureka is a great choice – inexpensive, lightweight, easy to build, very nice to paddle. If you want the simplest, cheapest and fastest to build then the Quick Canoe is a good choice.
What are the length/beam/load capacity of Eureka?
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One builder who has done quite a bit of canoeing told me he was pretty happy with 420 to 450 lbs but would not go much over that with his use.
So it is not an ultimate load carrier for two big people and lots of gear.
The general specs are on the webpage.
Length – 15’6″ (4.73m)
Beam – 34″ (0.86m)
Weight – 44lbs (20kg) – Gaboon (Okoume) Ply
Can be built down to weights of 34lbs (15.5kg)
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Hi Michael…my husband, Ori, who is an avid woodworker and designer has had me sit in front of this computer looking at ALL your canoes (yes they are beautiful, but he is the enthusiast…lol).
He is desperately trying to find free plans for his first attempt at building a canoe so he can try it out before spending heaps of money on the Eureka (which of course is what he wants at the end of the day). I read in your site that you started with a prototype and then moved on to the amazing creations of yours today…so I was wondering if those prototype plans you send out for free for those like my hubby who really want to try before buying…if you know what I mean.
We are currently living in Israel and the wood itself is astronomical to buy, let alone the other supplies (even tho he will do this in the end…he is on a mission…lol).
If you would be so kind as to let me know if this would be possible it would make an excellent birthday present for his 40th birthday in 3 weeks. I know sappy story, but true…anyway, please let me know what we can do at this point to move forward with this dream of his. Thanks so much for your time and your gorgeous work.
With kindest regards,
Colleen Canaday
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Hi Colleen,
I am sure that there are some carefully designed free plans with good information on the net somewhere, but even I don’t know how to find them amongst poorly designed and conceived ones with little help and support for builders that proliferate. As one of my friends points out, after meeting up with a neighbour who had used a free plan and paddling the boat – that you get what you pay for. His own Eureka was simpler to build, much lighter, cost less and felt like a real canoe on the water compared to the free plan canoe.
One of the few ways you can be sure you are getting a good plan is to see if you can find people building them. If lots of builders are happy … then it is probable that the plan is Ok. The feedback from builders, and teaching people how to build them in spring schools has helped me improve the Eureka plans so that anyone can build one and end up with a really nice boat. If there is a problem for a builder … I update the plan to avoid it.
At the same time I do understand what you mean, because lots of people do think about a “trial boat” before they build the final thing. But the best economy is to buy good materials and build the good boat from a detailed plan. It is less frustrating and also the cheapest option.
If I had a new design that needed to be tested I would consider asking your husband to build one. But I haven’t got anything at the moment.
Hope this helps you a little bit! Write back if you have any more questions.
Best wishes
Michael
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