Hi All,
Old style cedar strip canoe (16ft x 35") being sold in Rapid Media's current Paddling Buyer's Guide by a Canadian based company: www.ottawapaddleshack.ca (boat not available on their website...?) who bought out Trailhead Canoes-the older company that was building these... (small inventory left?) They were built without fiberglass cloth and use permanent internal ribs. The strips are nailed to the ash/oak? ribs and the whole thing is epoxied and varnished. You see the copper nails through the clear coat- very cool looking but heavy by our standards = 65lb. The boat shown in the Buyer's Guide has an interesting strip lay out and shorter wider strips: 5-6ft long by 2"+/- wide. The strips are arranged in a non-linear pattern= angled down from stem to keel at bow and stern while the middle third of the boat has strips parallel with the keel. Anyway at $3200 Can. it will be interesting to see if enough are soled to warrant building more. It has me wondering about applying some of these older techniques to our builds- like strip dimensions and pattern and/or skip the nails and try epoxying the strips to an internal frame somewhat like Tom Yost's experiment. If you don't want to pay for the Rapid Media Paddling Buyer's Guide online ($10) try this web site for a look at the original builder as he presents a slightly different strip lay up to Prince Andrew (then 17 years old.)
http://www.ottertooth.com/che-mun/Outfits/Chemun137.pdf
Michael