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Hey, Just looking out the window at the snow coming down and dreaming about canoeing in the spring. We took the canoe all over the place this summer, we even got in the ocean around the 100 wild islands https://www.100wildislands.ca/. Completely finished it's a little under 60lbs... more than I'd hoped for, but I can put it on and off the van by myself, the length is more trouble than the weight lifting it. I may have put on too many coats of spar varnish, the hardwood in the deck pieces, and the choice of floor boards could have added weight. It paddles the best with more weight in it... when I have a light load (just me and a kid or two) I have to sit on the floor in the center so that one end doesn't stick out of the water. Some changes I'd like to do this spring: Carrying handles at either end. An attachment for the figurehead my father and I carved, and a double ended paddle for when I'm the only adult in the canoe.

Hey, So I got the canoe out for a test run, just checking for leaks, no leaks. I just got myself and my 8 year old in for the test run. Observations: if I only have myself and Lily in the canoe I need to sit in the center to keep the front from sticking out of the water... probably want to bring ballast with me if I expect to sit in the back when I take the kids out by myself. Going to take my husband out in it today... he's not so sure how it will handle his weight, before this we had an 87lb 12ft fiberglass fishing canoe, so this seems a little delicate to him. Before he knew me he'd never been in a canoe.

Here are some pictures. We finished most everything except for painting the skin and adding the rub strips. The canoe is now in our basement on saw horses, and my husband is going to assist me with the last couple steps. Great father-daughter project for handy people, we did it in a week and a half, evenings mostly. For people who aren't already hobby woodworkers... I imagine it would take much, much longer. The dragon head was an add on of my father's, it might help counterbalance when I'm in the back and my little girls are riding with me. I did most of the carving, except he cut out the teeth with a jig saw before I carved them with a rotary tool. The wood for the breasthooks was walnut, cherry and I think maple in the center. It's not sanded or finished yet. I need to add some tung oil to the gunrails. We ended up doing the seats the way in the plan, I still need to fill them in with some sort of weaved seat.

Dad would like to clarify that it was 75 C-Clamps, and that doesn't include bar-clamps and pipe clamps.

Hi everyone, I've been building a mayfly with my Dad over the christmas holidays... Tomorrow is the last day he has for me, so whatever we don't finish will have to be to be done at my home in the spring when I can work outside in the yard. We have the frame build and tied, the gunnels glued, and we pre-oiled most of it other than the gunnels. Tomorrow we're going to put in a thwart and the breasthooks... we glued together a bunch of neat pieces of glue tonight and have a guide to cut it out tomorrow. We're also screwing the floorboards on tomorrow. I was hoping to put the seats in to act as 2 more twarts... but time is tight. QUESTION - Do the seats have to have their own stringers or can I hang them on a stringer that is already present. Or could I add other twarts and hang the seats from the gunrails? QUESTION - If I don't get the seats installed will the canoe still be structurally sound to transport on my van? ALSO... How do normal people build these... we used like 75 clamps to glue the gunnels... my father has to be the only person who has that many clamps.