Wood-and-Canvas Canoe Construction

This is a six-day course.

Cedar-and-canvas canoes are more popular than ever. Not only are they wonderful to look at and a pleasure to build, they also perform quite well. This construction method permits a clean, sharp entry and a subtle shape that is difficult to achieve with aluminum or fiberglass. The century-old technology of clenching thin planks to steamed frames and then covering the hull with a tight canvas skin yields an amazingly flexible and rugged craft. And the ingenious forms developed years ago by companies like Old Town and E.M. White make the building process relatively quick and easy.

In this course, the instructor will lead you through the complete construction of two traditional Maine Guide canoes, the 17’ Atkinson Traveler and 13’ American Beauty, designed by Rollin Thurlow of Northwoods Canoe Company.

You’ll start by steam-bending the clear cedar ribs onto the two forms. While they cure, you’ll make up ash thwarts and pre-bend the stems and gunwales. Then comes the fitting and fastening of the planking—a good chance to practice hand-tool skills in a very satisfying process. Working this thin cedar is a real pleasure. At week’s end, you will canvas the canoes in the traditional manner, using the “envelope” method, stretching the canvas drum-tight, tacking it in place, and filling the outside weave with a special compound.

Two students will leave this course with a new canoe^* nearly ready for paint and varnish; all will leave with knowledge and experience of what is probably the most indigenous of American boatbuilding techniques, a process directly evolved from birchbark canoes and still very much alive today.

* The two lucky students will reimburse the School for the cost of materials.