What I was busy with last week – building a Quick Canoe

Quick Canoe Plan info

USA precut canoe kit available

UK precut canoe kit available

I had really hoped I would be able to build the boat in a day.

I ended up being slower than the fastest builders of my canoe – Rick and Clinton1 who managed to build this plywood canoe in 4.5 and 5.5 hours respectively.

Plywood and plans for Quick Canoe.

It is the first time I have felt disappointed taking a day and a half to build a boat including all the details. The biggest hold up was I was using a water based exterior glue and in the wintry weather (need I mention the deluges of rain we had) it just wouldn’t dry so I wasn’t able to shape things or trim them off as quickly as if it was the summer. In the end I should have used epoxy which would have taken the same amount of time except for glass taping the hull together.

All the bits and tools before …

Quick canoe - easy build plywood canoe plan

I was doing it on the the cheap, so tried to source cheap plywood. The local exterior ply was so bad I decided to use the cheapest marine ply which had really nice faces and was only $12 more expensive per sheet – this is in Australia – it will be much cheaper to build the boat in North America or Queensland for that matter where ply prices are more competitive.

Stitch and glue canoe before using duct tape.

I used polyester resin to tape the boat up because I know it would cure in a couple of hours rather than overnight, which should and did save me a day. I had the glass taping done within 3.5 hours of starting cutting the panels on Friday morning. Polyester is not the best choice for a boat you want to last for a long time, but it cures in an hour or so instead of overnight like the higher quality epoxy resin.

Fitting seats to the plywood canoe.  See slideshow for details.

In the end the big defeat was that I got the boat together but could not sand, round or trim any of the timberwork because of the slow glue. It was like watching grass grow in such damp conditions.

Anyway … here is the flickr slideshow

IMG_8634

4 thoughts on “What I was busy with last week – building a Quick Canoe”

    • Hi Todd,

      Did it go OK after that? I imagine it would have been a bit more labour – but would work fine.

      Most have found the tape works OK, but it does depend on the brand and a little bit on the conditions. Very Cold conditions or dusty conditions do make the tape a bit more difficult, but it seems to work in most cases.

      Some of the tapes like “Gorilla tape” are very aggressive and can stick hard enough to pull up wood fibre when they are removed. But warming them with a hot air gun or hairdryer softens the glue the little bit needed.

      But nothing wrong with wiring!

      Best wishes
      Michael

      Reply
  1. Got my plans for quick canoe. first attempt at building my own boat.

    The plans look easy to follow.hope to start as soon as i find cheap source for epoxy.
    the posts and other info on web site have been a great help
    will talk again as soon as i start
    thanks Todd
    west coast of Florida USA

    Reply

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