Boat Building Forum

Find advice on all aspects of building your own kayak, canoe or any lightweight boats

I am a retired aerospace engineer who discovered boating far too late in life. I have built several canoes of my own design in marine ply with all-wood construction. Last year I built a small sailboat to a purchased plan which I modified heavily - but with the designer's approval! Currently I am experimenting with different sailplans for the sailboat and some way-out sailing ideas for my plastic kayak.
My experience with my last canoe is that it weathercocks in a cross-wind. A skeg was added which helped a bit but it now tracks too well for my local winding streams. The latest canoe has more rocker and the sheer was raised at the bow and lowered at the stern. I hope this will balance the boat better in a cross-wind.

Plans for 2010 (hopefully) include a solo canoe using J. Henry Rushton's lovely Wee Lassie as a starting point. So far I have entered the offsets into my computer, modified them to allow for butted chine seams instead of lapstrake, and entered the results into FreeShip for analysis and sanity check. I aded a little rocker to Rushton's almost straight keel to improve agility in narrow waters. Depending on the weathercocking of the latest canoe I will also adjust the sheerline.

Construction of the Wee Lassie variant is of interest: instead of the one-piece oak keel that Rushton used I will use a 4-piece built-up keel of cedar and pine. In addition the planks will be butted and reinforced by narrow ply battens running full-length, with epoxy-filled gaps. This is a melding of an old Peterborough, Ontario technique using metal battens, and the modern epoxy-fillets used in stitch-and-glue construction. Since it is an experimental technique, it may not be as easy as I think!