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As you probably know, the apparent issue is with heating/cooling causing differential expansion of the gunwales vs the royalex. I don't know if the temperature itself is the issue. In a garage, the temperature increases and decreases slowly, so you are less likely to have cracks appear. As you...

Nancy, the Canoecraft book has plans for the Bobs Special. If you don't have that book, there is probably a snapshot of the page online that would give you the offsets. You can send the "reasonable fee" to Glen as a contribution to Canoetripping if you wish. Mark

They sell a 6 quart kit, which is what I would suggest. There's nothing wrong with having a little too much epoxy, compared with too little. Agreed on the thinner epoxy, and I would go with the non-blush slow hardener. Mark

It doesn't look bad at all. My boats look the same at that stage. Most of the shiny vs dull will be gone after a couple coats of varnish, especially if you use a semi gloss or satin. One more coat of epoxy will even things out better but is just extra weight. Once you use it and get in there...

I think others here do it like this. I do both stems first; a bias cut strip and a small panel in the tight stem area to get the hard part out of the way. I let the epoxy set or even leave it overnight. I then lay out the overlapping pieces, with the overlaps going in one direction. Once they...

It looks like alder to me, but a clear board 22"x14' would be unusual from my experience. I used some for thwarts on a really light canoe build. It is much lighter weight than other hardwoods but heavier than cedar or spruce. Weigh a board and see where the density falls. Mark

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

I have owned 2 canoes, a bell and a mad river, with the words “blem” or “2nd” clearly branded into the royalex. Both were minor cosmetic issues and hardly visible. I’m certain the original owners didn’t pay msrp. Your canoe seems to fit that description. If you paid with a credit card I would...

Lots of people are using kayak paddles these days in canoes, so it seems on topic enough, but I have never seen a leash used in a canoe. I get the entanglement concern in a river, but not so much in flat water. Do you care to elaborate on the flat water danger? In my sea kayak days I used a...

I just looked and saw this in the Osprey builders notes. Winters explanation is much better than mine with regard to station spacing. Thanks Mark

I liked the old title: "For the benefit of My Kite". I just wanted to make sure the reference to the Beatles song survived in some way. Quite creative. Mark

Wow! They deserve an award for gettin'r done. I would probably use butter instead of margarine as a release agent. Mark

I have built a number of canoes from plans and with the Kite I found that if you have properly made and set up the forms, there will be no need to bevel anything but the stems. In this case, fairing will only invlove the process described by Brian. Of the different designs I have built, 2 of...

You'll very likely see people, motor boats and airplanes on this route. There are outpost cabins the whole way and a small native village and a lodge on Whitewater Lake, and a couple lodges on Smoothrock. If you want no human contact, you'll have to go further afield. Mark

As others have said, you have to somehow know the flow at a specific stream gage that is un-runnable, either through your personal observation, or through other paddlers, paddle shops, online resources etc. Once you know that number you just go to the real time flow conditions for that gage and...

Thanks for sending that link Benson. I see a similar symbol painted near the end on one of the canoes on his website. Mark

My memory is that Henri Vallencourt built Malecite style bark canoes, at least in Mcphees book, that have a different stem profile than the canoe in the photos which I believe is Algonquin. I don’t have a copy of the McPhee book or Adney and Chapelle with me, so I could be completely wrong. Mark

Thanks, that's good to know. I've never had problems anywhere I've left a car. It might be that I drive old, beat up looking cars that look like somebody already got to them. Mark

Looking foward to seeing your progress. I have looked at Mems maps for this route before, what's the parking situation? I had to laugh, my 86 year old mother replies to every single OK message. Even after I explained the additional cost of extra messages she still responds to every one. Even...

If you're looking for the lightest tent ground cloth, try window heat shrink film. I don't know what it's made out of, but it is crazy strong and impervious to water. Somehow it doesn't seem to puncture, at least not easily. There is the standard stuff that works fine, and the slightly heavier...