Hi Angela,

The Eureka would be ok in grade 1 or 2 because you can avoid most rocks fairly easily. But if hitting rocks regularly one of the specialised boats that are commercially available will be better.

They won’t be as pretty or as light .. but that is OK.

My family just moved to Southland, NZ from the states (leaving our canoe behind:-( ). My husband is looking at possibly building one of your Eureka canoes. We live by some major rivers and would love to canoe them, but are wondering how the Eureka handles in fast water (great trout rivers), and how durable they are as some areas are rather shallow and quite rocky at times.
Thanks,
Angela

Hi Mark,

The Eureka is a completely different design by me. A very different shape.

The idea was to accept a slightly lower weight carrying ability in return for a finer shape that would have better directional stability and paddle a bit easier in chop. Most experienced users have reported they are happy. The ends are very much more like a classic canoe … or at least as far as I could push the shape in a good looking plywood canoe.

In a way the Quick Canoe is more similar to the flatter blunter shape of the Musk Duck and the skeg design at each end of the QC would be a good model to help the directional stability – I know the problem well so set up the shape of the QC to account for that from the start.

Thanks very much for your comment! Always nice to show how much it is possible to do with a cheap, simple and relatively easy to build boat. 700 miles is not to be sneered at!

Best wishes
Michael

Hi Charlie,

That will be too heavy for either of my Canoes I think. Have a good look for a boat that is 16ft or larger and about 36″ beam.

Also do exactly what you did with me and check with the designer first. There are boats in this size range that will deal with the intended weight well and others that won’t.

Good luck with your project!

Michael

Sorry about the slow reply Johann.

Generally I would not recommend Douglas Fir ply. It tends to “check” (gets small cracks in the paint or other coating along the grain) quite badly. The boats shown are meant to be built out of 1/4″ ply or lighter. The lightness with strength is one of their features and they are nice to carry.

I am not sure which of the canoes you mean, but the Eureka will be very difficult to build out of 3/8 plywood, there are too many bends and twists.

In 1/4″ lightweight ply the Eureka weighs in under about 50 lbs so is Ok for one person to carry. The 3/8″ one will be about 75, which is starting to be a serious lift down from a car roofrack and to move to the launching spot.

You don’t need a table saw or router if you can buy the timber close to the finished dimensions you need.

Hope this helps

Best wishes
Michael

also do I need a table saw or a Router for this canoe?

I guess desire won out over practicality. I have downloaded from Duckworks the plans for Eureka, the Drop-in Sail Rig, plus the free paddle design. Now to finish that Murphy Bed project so I can get started.

Jim B in TN

Hi Jim,
Wrestle a bit longer until you have it worked out. But you can start making paddles or the drop in rig and they will suit either boat.

The drop in rig has about 26 (I think) sq ft of sail which is quite conservative and will be Ok on either boat. Try it and see how it goes.

Probably worth making a polytarp sail. Then it is easy to increase the size if you find it too boring or easy to handle.

As you have seen, Paul Herbert has been playin with much bigger sails – up close to 40 sq ft for his super narrow quick canoe version – but he is more of a maniac (in a good way) than I expected him to be.

Actually, maniac, is not fair at all. He is an excellent canoeist and knows how to handle tricky boats to make them do amazing things – you can see that in some of his videos. So I think he likes the challenge of tricky boats and has transferred that to sailing boats from his knowledge base with canoes.

I really like difficult boats too – a lot of fun.

But the basic sail rig will not produce something that is too tricky with either the Eureka or the Quick Canoe – so start with that. Upgrade later.