Unless the canoe has a very flat sheer (upward curve at the ends) the 1/2" thickness won't be a problem, the 1 1/4" height of the wood will be. I'd split that in half and post bend laminate them.

Bill H.

I am working on a design for a 16' x 32" ply canoe to try out a transverse planking method. By coincidence I plan to try 1-1/4 x 3/4 pine for the inwales. The reason for such a heavy gunnel (by canoe standards) is the build method, for which an extra stiff gunnel is required to keep control of the shape. Weight will be saved elsewhere hopefully. But I wouldn't attempt to bend the wood in the vertical plane, I will profile it so it only has to bend in one direction - otherwise it would probably want to twist and would require a heavy duty building form to hold everything in place intil the build is complete. So I agree with Bill, the 1 1/4" height is going to be hard to handle especially if the sheer curves up more sharply near the stems as canoes often do for traditional reasons that have little relevance with modern materials.