Been thinking about building a freighter canoe for a long time. When I lived on a reserve up north, the 20 to 24 foot freighter was the standard boat of choice. They were all wood/canvas canoes, functional and beautiful.
So I first found some plans that looked like they had been lofted from a freighter. Tim Marchetti is the designer, and I bought the e-plans off him. Here’s what it looks like:
Now one of the unfortunate things about living in a small town in the middle of no-where is that it is difficult to procure anything that doesn’t come from a convenience store. I was having a heck of a time getting the very large plans printed out.
So I contacted my go-to guy for canoe plans, Martin Step from Greenval.com. Martin provides plans for all of John Winters designs, and had provided the plans for my 17 foot square stern, the Nipissing. The lines for that are shown below:
I asked Martin if he could expand the plans for me, to make it 20 feet long, 54 inches across and 20 inches deep. He said he could indeed, and within a week, I had the full size plans in my hands.
Up to now, I have drawn all the stations out and have begun to cut them. There is a lot of cutting! I will be building with ½ inch thick strips. I have a lot of spruce and pine laying around, so I think I will use that, mostly because it won’t cost anything. This canoe is going to have to be trailered, as I suspect it will come in between 2 and three hundred pounds.
I found this beast on line to do bead and cove on ½ inch strips. Might experiment with it today.
At this point, I am planning on using 10 ounce cloth, doubled on the bottom and the inside. I have an old two stroke six horse that I will probably try with it. Since it is a displacement hull, I’m not sure if a 9.9 will move it much faster, and it is hard to justify $3000.00 for a new 4 stroke.
Hopefully I will be starting construction before Christmas!
So I first found some plans that looked like they had been lofted from a freighter. Tim Marchetti is the designer, and I bought the e-plans off him. Here’s what it looks like:
Now one of the unfortunate things about living in a small town in the middle of no-where is that it is difficult to procure anything that doesn’t come from a convenience store. I was having a heck of a time getting the very large plans printed out.
So I contacted my go-to guy for canoe plans, Martin Step from Greenval.com. Martin provides plans for all of John Winters designs, and had provided the plans for my 17 foot square stern, the Nipissing. The lines for that are shown below:
I asked Martin if he could expand the plans for me, to make it 20 feet long, 54 inches across and 20 inches deep. He said he could indeed, and within a week, I had the full size plans in my hands.
Up to now, I have drawn all the stations out and have begun to cut them. There is a lot of cutting! I will be building with ½ inch thick strips. I have a lot of spruce and pine laying around, so I think I will use that, mostly because it won’t cost anything. This canoe is going to have to be trailered, as I suspect it will come in between 2 and three hundred pounds.
I found this beast on line to do bead and cove on ½ inch strips. Might experiment with it today.
At this point, I am planning on using 10 ounce cloth, doubled on the bottom and the inside. I have an old two stroke six horse that I will probably try with it. Since it is a displacement hull, I’m not sure if a 9.9 will move it much faster, and it is hard to justify $3000.00 for a new 4 stroke.
Hopefully I will be starting construction before Christmas!
