Strip-Built Watercraft

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"Strip-Built Watercraft"

On Line Manual:

    Before We Begin
Before we Begin,   1: This Is How,    2: It Starts With a Plan,    3: What I Want Is,     4: Strongback & Molds 
5: Strips,    6: Doing It,   7: Sanding,   8: Sheathing ,   9: Details,   10: Shine  

Before we begin this voyage, there are few things I'm going to share with you.

My first set of written instructions about building in the method described in these pages appeared in the December 1979 issue of Canoe Magazine. Two more articles followed.

It was an interesting time to be an "authority" on building wood canoes. Thanks to publications like WoodenBoat and Small Boat Journal, authors like John Gardner and Phil Bolger, and the growing desire of individuals to do something creative and expressive with ones own hands, the DYI wood boat happening was booming.

I had designed the canoe expressly for Canoe Magazine, whose intent it was to sell the instructions and full scale plans. Our estimate of the demand for the package was off in a big way. The first printing of two thousand copies was sold before the second part of the article was printed. Thousands of sets followed. And no one knows how many canoes were actually built.

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 More designs and articles followed. The demand for materials and kits became evident, and for several years a little side line business thrived. A new how to manual was done for Canoe Magazine. And drums of epoxy, thousands of cedar strips, hundreds of seats, thwarts, and yokes were shipped from my garage/shop.

But in 1994 I shut the whole thing down - for career reasons that still remain sound.

What does all the above have to do with the manual that follows?

Nothing. Most of it is personal and means very little to anyone else.

Everything. The DYI wood boat happening is still booming. And the desire to create something is huge in these days of bits and bites.

If there is a mistake to be made in building a strip built boat, I've made it - probably several times. It's the "been there, done that" thing.

No reason for you to make the same mistakes.

I'll show you how to do the thing - while leaving the creative stuff up to you.

So come along now to Chapter One.

We have a boat to build!

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Copyright 1998, 1999  by Lew Miller, DBA Marlew Publishing.
Image copy granted for personal use. Please credit source.