Hi Paul,

It depends on what you mean by canoe. In Australia (I noticed you were at RMIT)people not "in the know" tend to use the terms kayak and canoe interchangably, If you're looking to build a kayak from ply then "The Kayak Shop" by Chris Kulczycki Is a good starting point, tho, Chris has a new book out in a week or so that is rumoured to include plans for the patuxent (about the fastest ply kayak you'll find) and some other well known CLC designs. Well worth the wait...

If you follow the link below it'll take you to Boat Books Australia, you can do a search there for "Kayak" or "Canoe" that will take you to some books on ply canoe and kayak building, tho, I can't really tell you if they're any good because I've only got "The Kayak Shop" and Nick's book on strip building.

I think this would be the best place to buy boat building books at the moment ( for an Aussie). With the recent fall in the Aussie dollar (aka; the south pacific peso), You may avoid the crappy exchange rate as they probably bought their stock a month or two ago at a better price than you'll be able to find now. Still, there's about a fifty dollar minimum for any book on boat building in this country :-(

Hope this helps,

Paul