Monday, 18 July 2016
Gumming the Canoes Hull
The last step before she's water-ready...gumming the hull! The whole experience of gumming the inside made for a really messy interior that was ultimately covered with sheathing. To make sure the exterior was neat and tidy looking, the gores and lap seams were first bordered with some conventional masking tape.

Masking tape on hull
There was some gum left over in the can from when I originally tempered the mixture a while back. It had hardened considerably (left outdoors) but with a quick re-heating the gum was syrupy again. To seal each gore, a large gob of gum was placed at the bottom end of the gore (positioned on top in the flipped over hull). Rather than smear it all over with a thin cedar stick (like in the interior), I wet my thumb and gently pressed it into the seam and stitching holes while dragging it down the side of hull. This left the majority of the gum below the waterline while leaving a thinner coat well above the waterline were the gum doesn't need to be as thick.
I had to work quickly as the gum would set and begin hardening after a few minutes. This meant only sealing about 3 or 4 gores before the gum would need to be reheated. To hasten the process, I left a candle burning out on the balcony and would simply reheat the can of gum by carefully suspending it over the flame and then run back inside to do the sealing. Going back and forth like this and sealing with my hands created quite sticky fingertips, so I didn't stop to take pictures along the way, but only after the job was finished.

Finished seams
Should mention that the ends received the most amount of gum which resulted in a very dark amber. In these areas, the gum was pressed into the cracks and sealed any other minor openings. Unfortunately, I noticed some new tiny hairline cracks in the bow where some eyes had opened up, probably after the hull dried after placing the ribs under tension. This meant a rather sloppy appearance at the bow end, but it was necessary to prevent any water seepage. After that was done, I let the gum sit for about an hour and then proceeded to take off the tape revealing some clean looking seams.

Removing the tape
With the hull still inverted, I gummed any remaining spots, including a tiny blemish on the bottom and the huge knothole on the port side. With the inside gumming and extra bark pressured with sheathing and ribs, some of the interior gum oozed out so I didn't need much to perfectly seal this area.

The gummed hull including knothole on the side
It was then time for the leakage test in the tub to see if I did a good job. After letting it sit empty, no leakage was seen, but when I pressed into the center of the boat (mimicking the weight of a paddler) small droplets were seen at the bow end. I also pressed down the stern but no problems there and even heeled the boat over onto each side to spot any gore leaks and there were none. The bow was sealed with another layer of gum over any suspicious spots and after a second test, she sealed up completely even when weighted down almost to the gunwales.

Testing for leaks in the tub
Even though the main project is done, I still have ideas for this model. I'll be carving some minature paddles to go with the design as well as making a background frame & wallmount to display the work at the cottage and inspire work on the "real one".

Gummed up and ready to rock!
Tuesday, 14 January 2014
Canoes they have
Canoes they have, but these are not my people. I find a huge party of canoeists at the put-in. There must be a dozen whitewater canoes, round and bulbous, perfect playthings for whitewater - specialty boats that aren't much good for anything else. It's too many people for me and I load my canoe quickly and make a get-away to the north.
Red wing blackbird |
Two geese are on the rockpile. I drift on the wind for a closer look and when I look up from fetching my camera, they are in the water. There is no nest yet and I wasn't close enough to scare a mother goose off of her eggs. Next, I paddle the few yards north and ease my canoe into the break of Broken Island. This is a favorite nest site and I want to be careful not to scare a goose off of a nest. I find one sitting on a nest eying me from behind a tree. I back away. The mate is not anywhere in site and it occurs to me what has been going on. Before the eggs are laid, the pair will be aggressively defensive about their nest sight with anything or anyone that comes near. Once there are eggs, the mate keeps a distance from the nest. His presence would signal the existence of a nest to any predator with the female pretty much forced to stay put atop of the eggs.
There are quite a few great blue herons around today. I see a half dozen just in the short channel by the West Islands.
There is a new goose nest on the West beaver lodge. No eggs, yet, and the pair are together on the lodge, but she will lay soon, I bet.
I see a woman and a boy out bird watching by the north point. I pull in for a chat since they are standing about 10 feet from a beaver scent mound and almost no one ever knows what those dirt piles are. We have a nice talk.
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One of the big flat backed turtles from the north marsh (18-20 inches long) |
I pass two guys fishing from $15000 of boat with a 7000 hp outboard motor as I paddle into the NE lagoon. I flush a ringneck duck. This year, there won't be a goose nest in the lagoon because the little island has gone awash in the high water. But, there are about 3 dozen turtles sunning themselves on drift logs. As I leave I spot a cinnamon teal.
There is a new goose nest on the NE corner of the #1 railroad island. I've never seen a nest here before.
I cross the bay to check for a nest on the Big Lodge. It was the first nest of the year last spring, but there is no nest, yet.
In the east marsh, I head down into the big dead end just to listen to redwing blackbirds, marsh wrens, and from an unknown distance, the whooping howl of the tiny pied billed grebe. The grebes are making quite a racket today. Few will know what that sound is.
The workbench lodge goose nest is abandoned. The pair is not too far off. There are no eggs in the nest.
I pass by the canoe club - it is a class - a kind of paint-by-number canoe paddling thing that I've never believed in, but then again, I'm not in the class. It does not look like fun.
I head to Portage Bay.
Tuesday, 2 April 2013
Hawaiian Double Canoes
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Three double canoes visiting Capt. James Cook on his third Pacific expedition. The sailing canoe holds several dozen crew and passengers, including "Tereboo, King of Owyhee, bringing presents to Captain Cook." (Click any image to enlarge.) |
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King Kamehameha's canoe, from a drawing by Admiral Paris. Note six full cross-booms, a partial boom at the forward end of the platform, the mast step (which does not sit atop a cross-boom), and the bowsprit. |
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A cross-section of an almond-shaped hull. The cross-brace (3) is held in sockets on the inside of the hull, and provides an anchor for the heavy lashings that secure the cross-boom (4). (The lashings are poorly drawn: it's impossible to tell how they terminate or where their lower ends lead.) This boat is unusual in having two washstrakes. |
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The fairly rough model shows the double-curved cross-booms that were typical of later canoes. Compare to the straight cross-booms in the line drawing above. |
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A double-rabbeted joint between the hull (b) and the washstrake (a:). The exterior of the hull is at the bottom of the illustration. The sennit lashing (c) is almost entirely protected on the exterior. |
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Elaborately carved end-pieces extended the washstrakes on each side and curved into the horizontal to form end-decks. The smaller spatulate terminal in (a) was typical of most double canoes; the larger device in (b) was more prestigious. |
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This model was made under Admiral Paris's supervision, but according to Haddon and Hornell, it contains several mistakes. Note the straight cross-booms, "ram" ends that extend beyond the washstrakes (unlike the line drawing); rigging details of forestay, shrouds, mainsheet, and a line bending the upper end of the sprit toward the masthead. |
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Propulsion paddle (a) and steering paddle (b) |
For more on Hawaiian double canoes, see our previous post on the reproduction voyaging canoe Hokule'a.
Wednesday, 3 October 2012
Sabanis Canoes or Boats
My last entry was a guest blog from Douglas Brooks, who is working on a sabani in Okinawa. He is maintaining his own blog of the project which makes good reading. Consider this post a complement to Douglas's blog.
The day after Douglas's guest post here, I discovered in my possession a booklet on sabanis which had been loaned to me by my colleague Ben Fuller, curator at Penobscot Marine Museum in Searsport, Maine. SABANI Canoes of Okinawa, by Katsuhiko Shiraishi, appears to have been self-published (in 1985, I believe, but I can't find the data now). The text is in both Japanese and English, and although the English translation is, unfortunately, awful, the illustrations are very nice indeed. (The cover is shown below; all images in this post are from the same source.)

On the other hand, it seems wrong to call anything a canoe that features such massive construction overall, and its shape is hardly canoe-like -- more banks-dory-like in its half-breadths, while the fish-form plan view is unique.

In the image below, the bow is on the left. The stern is considerably higher, to help the stern lift with following waves, according to Shiraishi.





Friday, 27 April 2012
Bark Canoes of Australias Murray River
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The Murray River forms much of the border between New South Wales and Victoria before entering South Australia, entering the Indian Ocean through Lake Alexandrina, south of Adelaide. (Map from Wikipedia. Click any image to enlarge.) |
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A tree from which a section of bark was cut for a canoe. Even though no bark canoes of the type described here have been built for over 100 years, several of these slow-growing "canoe trees" still remain, showing the boat-shaped scar. |
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Murray River bark canoe under construction. Note the prop sticks around the edges. |
The end of the bark that was lower on the tree was always at the stern. This was much thicker than the bark at the other end, and often it could not be bent up sufficiently. In such cases, the stern would be closed in with a transom made from clay mixed with grass or other vegetable matter.
The canoes were propelled with a pole about 14' long. In deeper water, this was used in the manner of a double-bladed paddle. In shallow water, the canoe was poled, always using the thicker end of the pole against the bottom. The narrower end was sharpened and served as a fish spear. The paddler always stood, except when hunting, when he crouched. Passengers would crouch or sit.
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A funeral procession on the lower Murray, 1864. The corpse is in the foreground boat, covered with leaves. Note the small size and minimal freeboard of some of the canoes. |
Aborigines would fish and hunt from the canoes. One fishing technique was to stir up the bottom of the muddy river with the pole in an area suspected of harboring fish. When fish then fled into areas of vegetation, the paddler would follow their progress and deduce their location by the movement of the plants, and then thrust his spear "blind," so to speak, but often successfully.
For night-fishing, a small fire would be built near the bow on a platform of mud, bark and sticks. The fire would attract fish, which could then be speared by sight. One man would tend the fire, while another would handle the boat and wield the spear.
Early European explorers and settlers used the canoes, sometimes stealing them from Aborigines; sometimes acquiring them through barter or commissioning their construction, and occasionally building them for themselves after having observed the native techniques. One European recorded using a bark canoe to ferry as many as six sheep at a time across a river. Another told of carrying 400-pound bales of wool.
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On the Darling River, 1904. The canoe is in the South Australia Museum. |
(Most content and all photos from: Aboriginal Bark Canoes of the Murray Valley
Sunday, 1 May 2011
National Canoe Day G20 Canoes

Unfortunately, heavy rain, slow traffic and a wailing child made the 1.5 hour drive seem like an endless oceanic flight. The Mrs. also seemed to have lost our camera when we visited the Toronto Zoo with our little man the day before...so no pics. Thankfully, Andre Cloutier and Alex Guthro posted some photos of the event on this thread on the WCHA forums.
When we finally arrived, the event was nearly ending but I got to catch up again with a few local members of the WCHA including Mike Ornsby who runs Reflections On The Outdoors Naturally blog. Got to see his new cedar canvas canoe built by Bruce Smith, a gorgeous solo boat with cherry gunwales and some walnut trim.
Also on hand were some vintage boats including a recently acquired 1919 Rice Lake Canoe with its quirky Aluminum Deck Plates. There's a thread about it on the WCHA forums here. Pulled a shot from the thread below:
1919 Rice Lake Canoe with Aluminum Decks
I was quickly introduced to Dick Persson of Headerwater Canoe fame who was caning some seats. Got to meet finally meet Terry McCaul, a volunteer with the CCM who was doing some paddle carving. Terry's paddles are also functional works of art, complete with gorgeous spined blades, cord whipped shafts, and laser engraved artwork. A shame that our lost camera was not on hand to take pics.
After returning back to the city, ended up reading that the wives of some G20 delegates were also introduced to some canoe culture as part of their Canadian experience. From this article in The Toronto Star:
"Eight of the first ladies spent the morning tucked away in a small, sparsely decorated hotel boardroom where they dined on chocolate canoe paddles and learned how to make nonedible canoe seats from a master craftsman."

(From L to R) Callista Mutharika (Malawi), Svetlana Medvedeva (Russia), Ban Soon-taek (UN), Laureen Harper (Canada), Nabuko Kan (Japan), Geertrui Van Rompuy (European Council) and Patience Goodluck Jonathan (Nigeria) sign on a canoe in Toronto on June 25, 2010.

Chocolate Paddle and pastry "canoe" served to the G8 wives.
Wednesday, 20 April 2011
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Sunday, 26 December 2010
Northern Sound Ply Canoes
Came across the site of another builder of beautiful birchbark alternative (plywood) canoes. Check out Northern Sound for some more pics and video like the ones below.



Tuesday, 18 May 2010
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