Wooden Canoe made with Mark V

woodbender · Post by **woodbender** » Thu Apr 09, 2009 6:50 pm

I bought a '83 Mark V from a friend at work for the purposes of building a canoe (which is something I've never done). The canoe is a graduation gift to our son who graduated from home school in 2008. Below are the forms on which the canoe was stripped up. These forms were cut out with a Ridgid jigsaw and sanded down to less than 1/32" (to the line not on it) with the Shopsmith's 12" disksander. All the wood was ripped on the Mark V. Ripping was a Freud Thin Curf ripping blade and crosscutting was a Freud finish blade

Below is the finished product. The canoe is being used in the environment it was created for - the Boundary Waters Canoe Area of Minnesota. The young man is our son who "lives" in the woods or on the water - everything else is just waiting. He is now enrolled in a two year boat building school. I thought building the canoe would get it out of his system but it was like trying to blow out a bonfire with a tank of butane.

Thanks for looking.

hoagie · Post by **hoagie** » Thu Apr 09, 2009 6:54 pm

Beautiful work. What a lucky son. That is a gift he will cherish for years and pass down through the generations. Great job.

You state you've never built a canoe before. Did you purchase plans or a bare-bones kit? I know it isn't a complete kit since you fabbed the forms and ripped the stripping. Any more info you can give us on this beautiful project?

mickyd · Post by **mickyd** » Thu Apr 09, 2009 8:01 pm

What a nice looking canoe. You did a great job!! Congrats.

p.s. post more pics PLEASE

woodbender · Post by **woodbender** » Thu Apr 09, 2009 8:51 pm

hoagie wrote:Beautiful work. What a lucky son. That is a gift he will cherish for years and pass down through the generations. Great job.

You state you've never built a canoe before. Did you purchase plans or a bare-bones kit? I know it isn't a complete kit since you fabbed the forms and ripped the stripping. Any more info you can give us on this beautiful project?

Hi Hoagie - thanks.

It is a 38 Special which we bought plans for from Northwest Canoe ( http://www.northwestcanoe.com/ ) . I did look at a bare bones kit and for the price of the kit I was able to buy all the materials PLUS a used SS Mark V from my friend.

This was all learning curve for the both of us. There were a lot of things in this project that I had never done but always wanted to. And some days we just had to sit down and "think our way out of this". But it was a blast for the most part and we were both students!

A moaning chair is a mandatory piece of equipment in a boat shop.

As I hinted in the earlier post our son is now attending the Great Lakes Boat Building School in the Les Cheneaux Islands of Michigan's Upper Peninsula. We'll never see him again! He absolutely loves it up there. He has a wonderful opportunity to work with the grandson (owner) of the Mertaugh's Classic Boats which was the very first dealer of the old classic ChrisCraft woodie runabout boats. He will be working for them this summer on an internship. He wants to work on the old classic ChrisCraft woodies from the '20's and 30's and restore them. I think he'll have his wish.

The canoe is built to be used and fished in not looked at. Some people ask "how could you even think of putting that in the water?". It gets scratched. If it gets too bad you just wetsand the varnish a little and give it another coat of UV Spar Varnish and it's literally better than new.

And to answer Mickyd's request - rather than bog down the list here I have a link to our web page documenting the whole build from rip to varnish. Have at it!

http://home.wmis.net/~eastmant/projects.html

Thanks guys.
Woodbender

dusty · Post by **dusty** » Thu Apr 09, 2009 9:17 pm

I'm not a canoe person but I can still tell that she is a thing of beauty. Congratulations to both of you for a great job well done.

The web site is also a job well done.

Is a moaning chair a place to go when things don't happen as planned? Serious question! I have never hear of a moaning chair but I think maybe I need one.

edmo51 · Post by **edmo51** » Thu Apr 09, 2009 9:42 pm

I second Dustys' comments. You and your son will have many, many hours of reminincing over its' construction. These are the things that make life GRAND.

charlese · Post by **charlese** » Thu Apr 09, 2009 10:02 pm

You Bet! These views of your canoe are very appreciated. Your collection of construction photos is beautiful. Don't ever think I will be making one, but can show your site to anyone that is interested.

Thanks for starting this thread to more fully show and develop the canoe story that was started in the sandpaper thread.

I'll bet it is actually exciting that your Son is so into boat building and restoring. The Old CrisCrafts really tug at my reminiscing heart strings. There were only a few before WWII and they were very prized and carefully kept for their owners who went off to war. I was just a kid at the time, but thrilled to partake with a couple of those heroes, getting back into their boats in the late 40s and teaching us to water ski.

mickyd · Post by **mickyd** » Thu Apr 09, 2009 10:18 pm

woodbender wrote:And to answer Mickyd's request - rather than bog down the list here I have a link to our web page documenting the whole build from rip to varnish. Have at it!

http://home.wmis.net/~eastmant/projects.html

Thanks guys.
Woodbender

All I can say is WOW (x1000). Thanks for sharing that link with us. You did a great job at documenting the process. Looked at every pic. What an amazing series of photos. True craftsmanship!

woodbender wrote:He has a wonderful opportunity to work with the grandson (owner) of the Mertaugh's Classic Boats which was the very first dealer of the old classic ChrisCraft woodie runabout boats. He will be working for them this summer on an internship. He wants to work on the old classic ChrisCraft woodies from the '20's and 30's and restore them.

I'm fortunate enough to own a 1953 17' ChrisCraft Rocket Runabout. Flat 6 Hercules engine. Here's a pic. It's all original except the bottom was fiberglassed over by my dad in the early 70's. I'm planning on replacing the bottom either this or next summer. Hopefully I won't bite off more than I can chew.

I envy your son having the chance to get involved with wooden boat restoration. It's a dying trade. There are very few qualified wooden boat restorers here San Diego and their backlog is phenomenal. I wish your son the best of luck. San Diego would surely welcome him!

cincinnati · Post by **cincinnati** » Thu Apr 09, 2009 10:27 pm

Can tell you are new. Everyone knows you must have a $500 Festool sander and a $15,000 Felder in your shop to do good work. LOL!!!

Looks great! Always wanted to build one.

woodbender · Post by **woodbender** » Thu Apr 09, 2009 10:39 pm

dusty wrote: Is a moaning chair a place to go when things don't happen as planned? Serious question! I have never hear of a moaning chair but I think maybe I need one.

Dusty your assumption is correct. A moaning chair is where you go to place your head in both hands and groan (or moan) your way through the problem presenting itself to you.

It is embarrassing how many of the moaning chair sessions are self inflicted.

Towards the end of the build we both finally wizened up and would sit down and think through a sticky spot before attempting it.

Mickyd - nice looking 17 footer. Chris would love to drool all over it.