Canoe Build – Sanding, Seating and Sealing

Day three of our canoe build today but as usual I was up early so went for a little walk around Morland before returning to the cottage for breakfast.

It was then off to the workshop to continue with our canoe. First job of the day (after making a brew) was the moment of truth – taking out the screws and string that had until now been holding the whole thing together. There were no problems though and all seemed to be holding together well. Time to flip it over and get to see the bottom of it for the first time.

Bottom of the Boat

Bottom of the Boat

Sanding

It looked lovely – not quite a work of art but we’d made it with our own hands so it was a thing of beauty to us! It was now time to give the entire hull a sanding and the odd bit of planning in order to create some smooth, clean lines. We then went along the outside chine lines inserting a thin bead of filler into them. At this stage we noticed that the filler we had built up at the bow and stern hadn’t set properly so we decided to remove it. We could have replaced it but as the wood finish was actually very clean and smooth we opted to keep it as plain wood instead.

We also sanded the gunwales for a nice smooth finish, although I did think afterward that maybe I should have put a nice chamfered edge on them with a plane first.

Seating

With time to spare before lunch we started pfaffing about with creating a third seat in the middle of the canoe. Nothing too flashy, just a couple of struts with some plywood on, but as this was all being fashioned from rough off cuts it needed a fair bit of planning and sanding.

It was then time for lunch. The first bit of sunshine we’d seen since being here enticed us outside to bask in it.

After lunch added a couple of nice wicker seats at the front and back along a few strengthening screws around the seats so that the gunwales would support them.

Seats

Seats

Sealing

With the location of the seats complete it was time to remove them so that we could paint and roll on a sealing coat of resin over the entire inside surface of the canoe. We then flipped it back over so that we could start painting the exterior. Morgan had chosen red as the colour which is quite a traditional canoe colour and was the best of the three colours they had. We were of course welcome to buy paint in whatever colour we wanted, but we were keen to get on with it so used what was available.

We’d come up with a nice simple design for it too so Anna set to applying sellotape to the canoe to mask out the pattern we wanted. We’re unsure yet whether to infill this with another colour or leave it as bare wood. That will depend to some extent on the success of the masking technique – we did quickly test it first, but we’ll see how it fares when we peel it off.

Painted

Painted

That was it for today, except for choosing two paddles To go with it.

It’s been fun so far and although we’ve been working hard on it none of it has been too difficult even for woodworking newbies such as ourselves. The techniques needed have been more than manageable and none of the tasks have been tedious either. The end result will no doubt have plenty of imperfections but it is after all a unique, hand-crafted item, not something that has rolled off a production line. ‘Fingers Crossed’ she floats!

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Alan Cole

Alan is a Freelance Website Designer, Sports & Exercise Science Lab Technician and full time Dad & husband with far too many hobbies: Triathlete, Swimming, Cycling, Running, MTBing, Surfing, Windsurfing, SUPing, Gardening, Photography.... The list goes on.

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