instructables

"Quick" Canoe Made From Plywood

by LostWax

"Quick" Canoe Made From Plywood: Page 1

When I was growing up, our family had a beautiful,
wood and canvas canoe. It wasn't the lightest canoe
in the world but she sure was pretty. As an adult,
moving back to Canada, I decided it would be great
for our family to have our own canoe to go exploring
in. However, we didn't have a ton of extra cash for a
fancy canoe. That's when I decided to build it myself.
Out of plywood.
I found a great set of plans online, and met Michael
Storer, a boat builder with a history of well-renowned
boat designs. His idea was to design a "Quick Canoe"
that could be made in a relatively short time. This
meant simplifying the construction of a canoe into a
at bottomed boat made from 3 sheets of plywood.
One would expect a at bottomed boat of this style to
be sluggish, hard to maneuver, and just generally not
awesome. However, the combination of hull bottom
and keel creates a very well mannered boat,
equivalent to, or better than any canoe I have
paddled in (though I have never paddled in a super
expensive canoe) All I can say, is the rst time I took it
out I was beyond impressed with how well it worked!
straight as possible
1" x 4" board: 8 feet long
Epoxy Supplies (these were supplied to me by Noah's
Marine)
ARK Epoxy two to one: 3/4 gallon of resin, 1.5 Quarts
medium Hardener
11yards of 6oz x 2" breglass tape,
Wood our-1 quart, cotton ber- 1quart, coloidial
silica- 1 quart
Squeege to spread epoxy: I made my own with a strip
of rubber from a car mat, clamped between a couple
of thin wood pieces
3/4" screws for temporary holding parts together
2.5" Stainess steel screws: 10 of them to be left in the
canoe permanently

I'd love to share my building journey with you and Duct tape
maybe inspire you in your own projects. Let's get
making! Small thin nails

Supplies: Sandpaper

Quick Canoe Plans: These plans are designed by

Plastic sheeting
Michael Storer. He's a great, helpful guy with a ton of
knowledge.
Ziplock bags

3 sheets of 1/4" plywood (exterior grade or marine

Zip ties
grade)
Clear Packing Tape: To cover wood strips for gluing
2"x8" board: 10 or 12 feet long and as clean and

Paint: Good quaity weatherproof paint. I used Valspar
Duramax
Spar Varnish: For protecting the inside of the canoe. I
used Old Masters Oil-Based Spar Varnish
Tools I used: Jigsaw, disc sander, router, hand plane,
table saw, sanding machine, drill, Tape measure,
square, clamps, paintbrushes, Oscillating multi tool

https://youtu.be/_-uqld2mOw0

"Quick" Canoe Made From Plywood: Page 2

Step 1: Safety First.

I am in no way an accomplished woodworker, so just because I do something in a certain way doesn't mean it is the
best or safest way to do it. There are a lot of tools and chemicals I use in this project that have the capacity to
seriously injure you. It is your responsibility to learn how to safely use these tools and products before starting this
project.

Step 2: Make Some Marks on Some Plywood

The canoe is going to end up 15 1/2 feet long. As 16 foot plywood is kinda hard to nd, I will need to create two sets
of pieces and glue them together at the center to get my canoe the right length. There are really only two main
pieces that create the canoe's shape. There is a bottom piece that gets cut out twice (front and back) and there is a
side piece that gets cut four times. Put 'em all together and you've got a canoe!

Getting the parts of the canoe correctly drawn on the plywood is really important, because once it's cut out, that's
what you are stuck with!

"Quick" Canoe Made From Plywood: Page 3

The method of transferring the parts onto the wood is relatively straightforward but does require working without
distractions.

I made marks every 300mm along one long edge of the plywood.
I made marks every 300mm along the other long edge of the plywood.
I drew lines across the plywood, joining the marks on opposite sides.
Following the plans, I made measurements from the edge, up each 300mm line, and marked them
to give me a very simple dot-to-dot outline of the canoe pieces.

The front and back of the side pieces are slightly more complicated as it is necessary to further divide up the last
300mm section into smaller sections to place the marks correctly.

It is w o rt h do uble - che cking t he m e a s ure m e nt s a t t he e nd- I m a de a s m a ll m is t a ke but luckily

ca ug ht it be f o re I cut t he ply !

Step 3: Nails + Long Bendy Strip of Wood = Nice Smooth Lines

This step is all about turning the marks on the piece of wood into nice smooth continuous lines. Boats work better
when they don't have sudden changes in bottom contours, so that's why we are going for smooth here! In order to
get a smooth line, I needed a long batten, or strip of wood that was reasonably exible, so it would bend along the
"Quick" Canoe Made From Plywood: Page 4
lines of the canoe, while still holding a nice even curve.

I grabbed a bunch of small nails that don't have a very large head.
I nailed them in at every mark I made in the previous step, deep enough to stay, but not all the way
through the plywood.
I placed the batten on the plywood, and held it on edge against the nails in the board. This required
bending it slightly until it contacted all the nails. If you don't have enough body parts to hold the
batten in place, a heavy weight or two can be very helpful.
I traced along the edge of the batten to create the lines of the canoe pieces.
I removed the little nails

If you notice that the batten is not able to contact one of the nails, this is a sign that your measurements might be o , and a
good time to do some d o ub le c h e c k in g .

"Quick" Canoe Made From Plywood: Page 5

Step 4: Cut Out the Canoe!

Using a jigsaw, I cut just to the outside of the lines I had drawn, until I had all 6 pieces cut out.

I then used a hand plane to smooth the cut edges and bring them right down to the pencil line.

"Quick" Canoe Made From Plywood: Page 6

Step 5: Skeg Doublers and Butt Straps

There are just a few more other pieces to cut out. angle.

The skeg doublers, which will add some extra
reinforcement on the front and back of the canoe are
made from a strip of plywood.
I rounded the back end of the skeg doubler by tracing
around a can.
The point of the skeg doubler needs to t right into
the tip of the canoe, so I held up two scraps of
plywood over the canoe tip and traced the lines I
needed to cut to give the skeg doubler an accurate
The buttstraps are rectangular pieces of plywood that
are going to add strength to the joint in the centre of
the canoe. I think they are called buttstraps because
the joint is a butt joint.
I used my router to give the butt straps and skeg
doublers a nice chamfered edge on one side. So I
won't stub my toe on them when I am walking around
in my canoe.....

Step 6: Make Some "No-Stick" Sticks.

Pretty soon it is time to put the two halves of my plywood parts together, but in order to do that, they need to stay
nice and still while the epoxy cures. Time to make some fancy fasteners!

"Quick" Canoe Made From Plywood: Page 7

I covered some thin strips of plywood with packing tape so that the epoxy wouldn't stick to them, and then
hammered a small nail through each end. Fancy.

Step 7: Set It Up

I lay all my pieces out on the garage oor. It is important to make sure the sides are mirror images of
each other.
I traced where the buttstraps were going to be placed so I would know where to put them once they
were covered with epoxy.
I placed a piece of scrap plywood with some plastic on top of it under the joint between the two
halves.
I nailed the halves of the canoe to the wood strip, just outside where the buttstraps would go so the
nails wouldn't interfere. This was to hold the parts in alignment while I glued down the buttstrap

"Quick" Canoe Made From Plywood: Page 8

Step 8: Let's Talk About Epoxy

If you haven't used epoxy before, it would be a good idea to do some independent research before starting this
step. It's important that you practice proper safety and understand what you are working with. Protect your skin
with gloves and protect your lungs with an appropriate respirator.

I used Ark Epoxy 2:1 resin and hardener. That means that the two parts need to be mixed together in a two-to-one
ratio. It is super important to get the ratios right, so whether that means using special pumps on the epoxy bottles
or carefully measuring in a graduated cup, do what you need to to get that ratio. If you mess up, the epoxy might
not ever harden, which will lead to much groaning and sad faces.

Epo xy must b e t h o ro ugh ly mixe d so t a ke yo ur t ime a n d d o n' t rush t h e mixin'

The cure time of epoxy varies based on a few factors:

1. The type of hardener you use: There are di erent "speeds" of hardener for di erent circumstances. I
used the "medium" hardener, and it worked pretty well. Sometimes I wished it would go o faster
than it did, but sometimes I wished it would go o slower. so, I guess overall it was the right choice.
2. The ambient temperature: The hotter it is, the faster the epoxy will cure, and the cooler, the slower.
3. The volume: If you mix a larger volume of epoxy and keep it in one big container, it will go o much

"Quick" Canoe Made From Plywood: Page 9

 faster than if you mixed a smaller volume. It will also get really hot if it goes o too fast!
4. Humidity: If it is really humid, the epoxy will cure slower.

In this project, I used a few di erent additives to create epoxy with di erent characteristics.

Cotton Fibers: Used to create a thick, strong, gap- lling glue. Whenever I say "Glue" this is what I am
using
Wood our and colloidal silica: Used to create a paste that holds its shape- used to make the llets
around the inside of the canoe.

Another interesting epoxy tidbit is that a second layer of epoxy will only stick to the rst layer if the rst layer hasn't
totally cured yet (still just a little bit tacky) Once the rst layer has completely cured, it must be sanded before
another layer will bond to it. This is good to think about when planning multiple epoxy layers, as you want to be
available at the right time to give that second coat without having to spend a bunch of time sanding!

Step 9: Stop Taking and Start Gluing!

I mixed up some epoxy, and added cotton bers until I I f yo u h a ve t ro ub le ge t t in g t h e n a ils t o h o ld

had a honey-like consistency. t h e pie c e s rmly e n o ugh , yo u c o uld a lso use
so me sma ll sc re ws t o h o ld t h e pie c e s
I spread the honey glue all over the back of the t o ge t h e r.
buttstrap and placed it over the joint.
I got a little worried at this point, as it was the rst
I used my little tape covered nail blocks to nail time I had used this epoxy, and the glue paste didn't
through the buttstrap and the canoe pieces so that seem to be hardening as quickly as I thought it
the buttstrap would be rmly held against the joint. should. However, I resisted the urge to pull everything
apart, scrape o the epoxy and try again, and instead
I did this to connect the two bottom halves together left it overnight. To my relief, in the morning the
as well as for the side pieces. epoxy was fully cured!

"Quick" Canoe Made From Plywood: Page 10

Step 10: Draw Some Lines

I cleaned up the epoxy that had squeezed out from the buttstraps with some 80 grit sandpaper.
I made a mark 19mm down from the top edge of the sides, - I made a little tool out of a clamp and a
ruler so I could just run it along the edge to get a consistent line. There's an actual tool that does the
same thing I'm pretty sure, but I didn't have one of those.
I erased all the 300mm lines on the sides that were below the 19mm line, and darkened them above

"Quick" Canoe Made From Plywood: Page 11

 the line.
I drilled holes along the centerline of the bottom piece at every 300mm mark, and then erased that
line as well.

Step 11: Make a Big Stick Into.... Little Sticks

I got out my grandfather's table saw and ripped my however, I have learned from the many comments on
2x10 into a bunch of smaller diameter pieces. These YouTube that wearing gloves while using a table saw
will be used for the inwales and outwales, keel batten, is a big No-No, if it catches a little bit of the glove, it
and seat supports. can pull your whole hand in!

In t he v ide o I m e nt io n t ha t I s ho uld ha v e
w o rn g lo v e s t o pro t e ct f ro m s liv e rs ,

"Quick" Canoe Made From Plywood: Page 12

Step 12: Make Short Sticks Into Long Sticks
If you can nd 16 foot lumber, that's great, but since I
couldn't, I needed to splice mine together to get that
length.
Apparently, in order to get a strong splice, the length
of the splice should be six times the thickness of the
piece of wood being spliced. Mine were 15mm thick,
so I made a stack of them that stepped back 90mm
per step, and then used a hand plane to plane the
"steps" away until I had a nice smooth ramp.
I then had two sets of pieces that t together
perfectly.
I lined them up, gave them a generous coating of the
"Quick" Canoe Made From Plywood: Page 13
epoxy/cotton ber glue mix, and clamped them to a
piece of metal with a 90 degree pro le- with a sheet
of cling wrap between the wood and the metal to
keep the wood from getting glued to the metal.
This is the technique I used to make the inwales,
outwales and the keel batten.
Th e se st rips o f wo o d a re go in g t o b e un d e r a
fa ir b it o f st re ss wh e n b e n t in t o t h e c a n o e
sh a pe . Try t o ma ke sure t h e re a re n o la rge
k n o t s in t h e se c t io n s yo u a re usin g b e c a use
t h a t is wh e re t h e st rip is like ly t o b re a k .
Step 13: Zip Ties and Duct Tape

This canoe construction is a variation of the stitch and glue technique, which would normally require drilling many
holes along the edges of the wood and then using pieces of copper wire threaded through and twisted together to
hold everything in place while it is glued. Instead, we are going to use zip ties and duct tape!

I lay the two side pieces on top of each other, buttstrap to the center, and lined them up with each
other.

"Quick" Canoe Made From Plywood: Page 14

 I drilled a hole through both side pieces, 6mm in from the front edge, on the 19mm line I drew in the
last step.
I used strips of duct tape about 30cm long, wrappped around the front edge to hold it together.
I didn't feel like this was strong enough, so I added a couple more zip ties, one in the middle and one
at the bottom of the front edge.
I repeated this for the other end.

Step 14: Let's Get 3D

"Quick" Canoe Made From Plywood: Page 15

I cut a couple of temporary spacers from some scrap
wood, according to the pattern.
I spread apart the sides of the canoe, by standing in
the middle of it, and then screwed the temporary
spacers into place. The screws go through the
plywood into the end of the spacer.
Yo u will se e in t h e pic t ure s h e re , t h e spa c e rs
a re lin e d up wit h t h e t o p e d ge o f t h e sid e . I
t h in k t h a t wa s a lit t le mist a ke I ma d e ,
b e c a use I h a d t o mo ve t h e m d o wn la t e r t o
a c c o mmo d a t e t h e in wa le s. I wo uld sugge st
a lign in g t h e t o p o f t h e spa c e rs wit h t h e lin e
"Quick" Canoe Made From Plywood: Page 16
that is 19mm down from the top edge.
I got some help to gently ip the canoe upside down
and set it on a pair of saw horses. By laying two long
straight pieces of wood across the bottom, I could
check to see if the canoe was sitting straight and level
on the sawhorses. It was a little o , so I adjusted the
sawhorses until the two boards lined up with each
other.
I lay the bottom piece over the boards- they just were
there to temporarily keep the bottom from falling
through while I attached it.
Step 15: More Zip Ties, More Duct Tape
I used the same zip tie and duct tape technique that I
used on the front and back, to attach the bottom
piece. I drilled holes 6mm in from the edges wherever
I decided I needed a zip tie, and used duct tape to
hold the rest together.
The duct tape worked well for places where the sides
wanted to protrude out past the edge of the bottom,
but in some places the sides wanted to sit inside the
bottom edge. To help keep these parts lined up
perfectly, I used some tiny nails hammered down
through the bottom into the sides so that they
couldn't move. I didn't hammer the nails all the way
"Quick" Canoe Made From Plywood: Page 17
down so that I would be able to remove them again
later.
Depending on the type of wood you use and the type
of duct tape, the tape may or may not hold long and
well enough for you to complete the gluing properly. I
was lucky, mine held up while I glued it, but the next
day when I came back to it, a lot of the tape had come
loose from the wood. If I was to do it again, I would
add some insurance by using more zip ties around the
bottom.
Step 16: Temporary Outwale Attachment

Once I add the epoxy paste to the seams, the shape of holding the outwale to the side, and then I have one
the canoe will be pretty much locked into place. In clamp holding both sides together to decrease the
order to make sure the top edge is held in its proper stresses on the tape and zip ties.
curvature, I need to temporarily attach the outwales.
I then screwed the outwales to the top sides of the
I screwed the outwales to the sides of the canoe at the canoe, screwing from the inside of the canoe at each
center, lining up the top of the outwale with the top 300mm mark. It is a good idea to pre-drill before
edge of the side. screwing into any of these thin pieces to prevent
splitting.
I clamped the ends of the outwales to the front and
back of the canoe. This was a bit scary, as I felt like my To give the canoe some nicer lines, I raised the outwale
strip of wood was going to snap on me at any time as I slightly above the top edge of the canoe as it got close to
was bending it. Fortunately, it didn't, and I was able to the end. Later I would plane o that extra to create a slight
clamp it in place without too much trouble. In the taper in the depth of the outwale.
picture, you can see I have a clamp on each side

"Quick" Canoe Made From Plywood: Page 18

Step 17: Peanut Butter... You Wouldn't Want to Eat on Toast

With everything held in place, it's time for the magic. Epoxy magic!

I rst mixed a batch of plain epoxy with no additives, and used a sponge to apply it along the seams. This is to let
the wood soak up some epoxy so that when you add the paste, it doesn't suck the epoxy out of the paste and create
a poor bond.

I made an 80/20 mix of wood our and colloidal silica.

I mixed up a batch of epoxy and added my wood our/silica until the epoxy was a peanut buttery
thickness.
I put my paste into a zip lock bag, cut o one corner, and then squeezed out the paste along the
seams.
I created a nice llet along the seams by using a little tool I made from an old cutting board that had
a rounded end. Right after squeezing out the paste, I would follow up by running my lleting tool
along the edge. It seemed that I got the best result if I could do a long section without having to go
back over a part again. De nitely takes a bit of practice to get nice looking llets!
Once all the edges were done, I left the canoe undisturbed for a day to let the epoxy totally cure.

"Quick" Canoe Made From Plywood: Page 19

Step 18: Make It Smooth

"Quick" Canoe Made From Plywood: Page 20

Once the epoxy is cured, all the duct tape comes o ,
all the zip ties get snipped o , and any little nails get
pulled out.
I used my disc sander to sand the bottom edges ush
with the sides, round o the front edge, and sand a
45-degree angle all along the bottom edge. The 45-
degree angle then gets sanded round by hand with
some coarse sandpaper. The reason for this is that I
will be adding berglass cloth to these edges, and
berglass cloth has a tendency to lift away if it has to
go around a sharp angle. With a smooth radius on the
edges, it will be much happier to lie nice down nice
and smooth.

"Quick" Canoe Made From Plywood: Page 21

Step 19: Reinforce With Some Fibreglass Cloth

The edges are the parts of the canoe that are going to get the most abuse, so they need to be reinforced from the
outside. I used some 2" berglass tape for this.

I wet down the edge where the tape will go with epoxy.
I lay my strip of berglass cloth centered on the seam.
I used a short bristled brush (I cut down the bristles) to brush more epoxy over the cloth until the
cloth looked clear.

To o m uch e poxy a t t his po int is no t he lpf ul, a s it w ill ca us e t he f a bric t o " o a t " up o t he
s ur f a ce o f t he w o o d. Jus t us e e no ug h t o g e t t he f a bric t o t urn cle a r.

I waited for the epoxy to cure until it was tacky and then I gave another coat of epoxy to ll in the weave of the
fabric. A disposable foam brush works great for this, however, I just used a piece of upholstery foam that I cut into a
wedge shape. It's a good idea to have a bunch of these on hand because you will only get one use out of each of
them.

It's really important that the rst epoxy coat isn't allowed to totally cure before adding this second coat, as then
there will be no chemical bond between the layers, and you don't want to have to sand that rst layer. If you do,
you will sand through the berglass, causing it to lose its strength.

"Quick" Canoe Made From Plywood: Page 22

Step 20: Sand.

Now it's time to blend in the epoxy on the edges with the rest of the wood, so that everything is nice and smooth.
This is purely for cosmetics, so if you wanted to save yourself a bunch of time you could skip it.

I used a tiny plane to remove the raised outside edge of the berglass tape.
I use my disc sander to smooth it out further
I nished it o sanding it by hand.

"Quick" Canoe Made From Plywood: Page 23

Step 21: Glue the Outwales

I unscrewed the outwales, squeezed some glue mixture along the side of the canoe where the outwales would go,
and screwed the outwales back in, so that any excess glue squeezed out.

Once the epoxy had cured I removed all the screws I had used to hold it temporarily in place.

"Quick" Canoe Made From Plywood: Page 24

Step 22: Make the Inwales

If you haven't gured it out yet, the outwales go on and used screws to hold it in place. I used a little scrap
the outside of the boat, the inwales go on the inside of tape covered wood between the screw and the
of the boat and together they are called "gunwales" inwale so that the tapered head of the screw wouldn't
create a larger hole in the inwale than was necessary.
Now it is time to add the inwales. They are a little
trickier because they need to t nicely inside the point After dry tting the inwale with all the screws, I took it
of the canoe. I used my sanding machine to sand the o , applied glue paste and then screwed it back into
angles at the end of the inwales until i was happy with place to hold it until the epoxy cured.
the t.
Once cured, I removed all the screws.
I predrilled through the inwale at regular intervals

"Quick" Canoe Made From Plywood: Page 25

Step 23: Add a Rope Hole

"Quick" Canoe Made From Plywood: Page 26

I cut two triangular pieces that would t into the the had a hole through the front and back of the canoe,
front and back points of the canoe, just under the but it was also sealed from water coming into the
inwale. canoe through that hole.

I glued them in place using the epoxy glue paste. This is not something in the plans, but I wanted a
good way to carry, and tie the canoe to my car, and
Once the glue cured, I drilled a large hole through the this worked great!
side of the canoe and through the middle of the
triangular block, coming out the other side. This way, I

Step 24: Clean Up the Ends

I cut the ends of the outwales o and used a hand plane to plane the outwales down until they were even with the
top edge of the plywood.

I used my circular sander to round o the front edges of the outwales.

"Quick" Canoe Made From Plywood: Page 27

Step 25: Make the Centre Spreader

I put the center spreader just in front of the Buttstrap. I applied glue paste and then screwed it in from the
I made it from a 1x4. outside of the canoe to hold it in place while the glue
cured. These screws will actually be replaced later with
It is necessary to cut the ends at a slight angle and some permanent stainless steel ones.
then plane a shallow angle on the top so that it butts
nicely against the side of the canoe as well as the
underside of the inwale.

"Quick" Canoe Made From Plywood: Page 28

Step 26: Glue Down the Skeg Doublers

I used a few temporary screws to hold the skeg doubler down while the epoxy glue paste cured.

Once cured, I removed the screws

"Quick" Canoe Made From Plywood: Page 29

Step 27: Deck It Out

I went a little more intense than the pattern calls for here. Rather than just gluing the decks on top of the
gunwales, I decided to inset them. It was de nitely more work, but the end result is really classy!

I used a piece of cardboard to gure out the shape of my decks.

I used my router to remove about 5mm from the inwales, and deep enough so that the plywood
deck would sit ush.
I cut a short piece of wood to go under the unsupported edge of the deck.
I notched the support piece so that the top of it was ush with the bottom of the cutout for the
deck.

"Quick" Canoe Made From Plywood: Page 30

Step 28: Fancy Clamps for Gluing the Deck

I applied glue to the notch where the deck would sit, and put it in place.
I applied glue to the deck support wherever it would contact the deck, the inwales, and the sides
I clamped the deck support to the deck with some small clamps.
I lay a sheet of plastic over top of the deck.
I made two loops of rope and threaded two boards through them, so that one board would rest on
top of the deck, and the other would rest against the bottom of the canoe.
I used two thinner boards to twist the rope on both sides until there was enough pressure to hold
the deck down nice and rmly in place.
Once the epoxy cured, I sanded any extra epoxy away.

"Quick" Canoe Made From Plywood: Page 31

Step 29: Filling and Sanding

You may have noticed that as I have been making this canoe, I have actually been putting lots of holes in it! Not
something you want in a boat.... Happily, that's not too hard to x, and some epoxy, thickened with wood our does
"Quick" Canoe Made From Plywood: Page 32
a great job.

It can be hard to ll a hole with a paste if the hole doesn't go all the way through because air gets trapped in the
hole and blocks your best lling attempts. What worked well for me was to use a matchstick. I would dip the end of
the matchstick in the epoxy paste and then push as much paste as I could in the hole. I nished o by leaving the
matchstick stuck in the hole. Once the epoxy cured, I cut o the matchstick and sanded it ush.

I used a router to round o the edges of the gunwales.

I sanded the gunwales until they were nice and smooth.
I sanded the epoxy llet inside the canoe. I used some coarse sandpaper wrapped around a round
dowel to match the concave shape of the llet.

"Quick" Canoe Made From Plywood: Page 33

Step 30: Epoxy Coating the Canoe

In order to give the canoe a good waterproof coating, I waited until that layer was cured to the point of
I spread a couple of coats of epoxy on it, both on the being tacky and then gave it another coat of epoxy
outside and inside. using the same method.

I mixed up a batch of epoxy and spread it as thinly as I I did this on the inside as well. Shiney!
could all over the bottom and sides of the canoe,
using a squeegee. (make sure you have something ....but not for long
down to protect your oor)

"Quick" Canoe Made From Plywood: Page 34

Step 31: Sand Away That Shine.......

Okay, this is the sad part, as well as the time- I used a combination of random orbital sander and
consuming part. The epoxy I used is not UV stable, so hand sanding. I got it as smooth as possible without
if I leave it exposed to the sun for too long, it will start sanding all the way through my precious epoxy.
to degrade. After all this work, I de nitely didn't want
that, but in order for paint to stick to the epoxy, it
needs to be sanded......Yay.....

"Quick" Canoe Made From Plywood: Page 35

Step 32: The Keel

A standard canoe creates it's own keel e ect by the way the front and back cut into the water. If I just left the
bottom at, it would spin on a dime and be very hard to paddle in a straight line e ciently. That's why it needs a
keel. The keel will also serve to protect the bottom of the canoe from bumps and things.

The keel is made of 3 pieces. One triangularish shaped piece on each end that has one side cut to t the contours of
the bottom of the canoe, and then one long strip that stacks on top of the other two and stretches the entire
length of the boat.

I cut the two end pieces from my 1x 4, following the measurements on the pattern. That got me
close, but I still needed to do a fair bit of sanding to get a really nice ush t against the bottom of
the canoe.
Once I had a decent t with the end pieces, I glued the long keel strip to the two ends to make the
complete keel.

"Quick" Canoe Made From Plywood: Page 36

I glued this to the bottom of the canoe, screwing it in from underneath through the holes I drilled
way back in the beginning.
Once the epoxy cured, I removed the screws, and lled all the holes except for the two through the
skeg doubler. These I replaced with some stainless steel screws that would stay permanently. I
applied a little epoxy to the screw rst so it would seal the hole as the screw went in.
I also replaced the temporary screws on the center spreader with stainless steel screws in the same
way.

"Quick" Canoe Made From Plywood: Page 37

Step 33: Make the Keel Look....Keely

I used a exible steel ruler to create the curve at the front and back of the keel.
I cut it out with a jigsaw and rounded the front edge with sandpaper.
I then sanded any excess epoxy that squeezed out between the keel and the canoe bottom.

"Quick" Canoe Made From Plywood: Page 38

Step 34: Add Seats

I actually painted and took the canoe out for a few test paddles before deciding on the seat placement. I wanted to
make sure I had it how I liked it before committing. Of course, if you know where you want your seats, it is much
more e cient to attach them now.

I cut out the side brackets from some 3/4" thick wood.
I sanded one side of each bracket at an angle so that it would match the side of the canoe, with the
top edge staying horizontal.
I temporarily screwed the brackets to the sides of the canoe.
I lay my crossbars where I wanted to place them and marked them on the brackets.
I removed the brackets and made a cut out for each crossbar.
I sanded the side of the canoe where the brackets would be glued.
I glued the brackets to the sides, using the screws to hold them until the glue cured.
I glued the crossbars into their slots.

I ended up using seat placements quite di erent from the placements shown in the pattern. I felt like the ones shown were
"Quick" Canoe Made From Plywood: Page 39
too close to the center of the canoe and would create di culty paddling. My seats are in what I think are fairly traditional
spots, with the rear seat closer to its end of the boat than the front one is to its end.

Step 35: Protect All Your Hard Work

"Quick" Canoe Made From Plywood: Page 40
I mentioned before that the epoxy I used wasn't UV safe, so I needed to protect it.

I sprayed the outside with Valspar Duramax paint.

I varnished the inside with Old Masters exterior oil based "Spar-Marine Varnish"

Step 36: Go Explore the World....in a Boat You Made YOURSELF!

"Quick" Canoe Made From Plywood: Page 41

I am super happy with how this build turned out. The One thing I know, we are creating memories in our
canoe looks beautiful, paddles really well, and tracks plywood canoe that will last forever!
nice and straight but also turns when you want it to.
It's pretty stable- I could stand in it and wiggle it side Thanks for hanging out with me!
to side without feeling like it was going to tip. The If you'd like to see more of my projects you can nd
weight is a little more than I would like, it is around me here:
70lbs, which is similar to a molded plastic canoe. That
makes no di erence in the water but you don't want Subscribe to my Costume Making YouTube Channel
to be portaging for miles carrying it! I used r marine
plywood, but I found out afterward that r has a Subscribe to my "Everything Else" YouTube Channel
tendency to check (get little cracks in it), and I notice
that happening to my canoe. I think if I give it a coat Follow me on Instagram
of paint every couple years, I should be able to
adequately protect it, but in hindsight, I should have Check out my pattern shop
spent a tiny bit more for the higher quality marine
plywood.

Step 37:

"Quick" Canoe Made From Plywood: Page 42

Beautiful work!

Thank you!

"Quick" Canoe Made From Plywood: Page 43