Wilderness Express AKA Chestnut Pal

Many years ago, I acquired a set of plans from Carrying Place called the Wilderness Express. The fella told me they were essentially a copy of the Chestnut Pal. I build several of them, ranging in length from 16 to 17 feet. I found the 16 footer to be a good solo, but unless you had two lightweights without much gear, it wasn't much of a tandem tripper.

Fast forward to now, I went upstairs in the high school wood shop and dug out the old forms for the Pal. The Outers club is looking for a solo canoe, and I'm thinking some kids in my senior woodworking class might build one. However, I don't want to build a Raven or Osprey or something with difficult knuckles and such. I recall the Pal was a pretty easy build.

If I shorten the stations from 12 inches to 11, I come up with a canoe around 14 and a half feet long. However, the center station is around 35 inches across. I'm thinking this would be a beamy thing for a solo, but if I set it up solo, the neophyte paddlers probably wouldn't be able to tell.

I don't want to build new stations for a new canoe, trying to keep costs down, as there is basically no budget.

I also did a test panel with the cheap table top epoxy you can buy on amazon, for ridiculous prices like 4 gallons for 250 bucks. It was a little thick, but it actually looks good and seems tough.

Any thoughts on a beamy tub built with table top epoxy from amazon?

memaquay said:

Any thoughts on a beamy tub built with table top epoxy from amazon?

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You're not the one that has to paddle it so I say go for it!

Kidding aside it will probably be fine. Like you say, a newbie paddler probably won't know any different.

Alan

You could eliminate the center station to narrow it down a little.

Mark

You could eliminate the center station to narrow it down a little.

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That's a really good idea. I had measured the the two stations on either side of the centre, and they were around 33.5.

I am looking forward to (hopefully) see this project come together and watch you and your lucky students make this canoe.
Is the art teacher going to have a hand in letting students paint it like you did with the paddles?
I have fond memories of Mr. Clemonson & Mr. Gunderson involving my classmates in some wonderful woodworking projects when I was in school. Wish we had made Wannigans, pack boards (like Canotrouge’s Trapper Nelson masterpieces from a few years back) and canoes.
Our school was too poor for a lot of things, but wouldn’t it have been great to have had an industrial sewing machine course in making tarps, tents & packs.
I was too late in thanking many my good teachers for the education I received. The ones that were still living when I called to thank them must have been shocked that I had turned out somewhat better than they had thought I would.

dogbrain said:

You could eliminate the center station to narrow it down a little.

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memaquay said:

That's a really good idea. I had measured the the two stations on either side of the centre, and they were around 33.5.

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If you can do this, 33.5" is a much better beam for efficient paddling than 35" for a 14.5' solo canoe. It still should be plenty stable enough at 33.5" beam for a tyro. On the other hand, if you just want a very stable "platform" canoe for stand-up fishing or such, then a 35" beam is appropriate.

I think you could eliminate the center station as DB suggests or narrow the center station to 33.5" and shorten the station spacing. Maybe eliminate the center form & one of the stations beside it, use the other 33.5" form as the center and maintain the original spacing? That would shorten the canoe by 2 feet giving you a 14 foot solo.

Will it be used by the Outers? If so, maybe just eliminate the center and build it 15 feet long to allow for gear?

Yes, the idea is to give it to the Outers program when we finish.

Boreal, funny story told to me on Friday. One of my colleagues overheard the grade nines talking, they were saying that the teachers were nice to them because they had to be, it was part of the job. One of the kids piped up and said "Not that old guy teaching woodworking, he actually tells you when he doesn't like you". Made my day, lol.

I'm on March break right now, a week off from school. When I get back, I am going to start the Pal solo build. I've got a couple of good kids for the entire afternoon, so I'm pretty sure they will be able to finish it before the end of June.

The forms for the Pal start with one centre form, then matching pairs all the way to the bow and stern. At first I was thinking of just eliminating the centre form, as suggested by Dogbrain. I measured the next stations, and they came in around 33.5, which I still thought was too wide. The third set of stations comes in around 31.5. I was thinking of making an extra copy of that station to serve as the centre. That would give me roughly two feet of the hull that would be identical, no variation in rocker or hull dimensions. I'm going to aim for total length around 14'6". I'm going to use both internal and external stems, of course. I'm going to pick up some donated cedar this week, but I'll be nixing the idea of the table top epoxy, I'll find the funding for the good stuff somewhere.

Looking forward to the build, if it paddles well, I might have to make one for myself, lol.

This is a great idea. The narrower hull will make it a much better solo canoe. Increasing your station spacing to roughly 12-1/2" brings it to about 14.5'. It should end up being a stable solo canoe with plenty of displacement for a tripping load. Once you build the hull you may even be able to get away with pulling in the gunwales in the center a little bit too for more reach. Are you planning to reduce the height any? Looks like it will end up around 13.5" in the center and 21" at the ends.

I'll probably reduced bow and stern height a couple of inches, but I still want it to look traditional. Once I have the stations set up, I'll be able to get a better sense of the proportions.