Wood strip boatbulding as we know it has been an evolution over at least 80 years now, though there have been some major mile stones along the way, not the least of which was the Gougeon brothers experimentation and ultimately productization of an epoxy that would give consistent results for boat builders. Likely the biggest boost to the home builder market was a book by a Maine outdoorsman named Gil Gilpatrick simply called "Building A Strip Canoe". This unpretensious book sparked an enourmous movement in back yard builders. I don't know the original publication date of this book, however my copy has been on the shelf for over 25 years now. The book was the perfect mix of information on how to take a table saw, pile of Cedar and some goo called epoxy and create a way above average looking...

When you first unrolled your boat plans you probably found different pieces of the boat which required various widths, sizes and shapes of lumber. For your boat building project, chances are your best bet for milling out all of the members is from lumber that will not come from the local big box store but rather a good old fashion lumber yard. One of the primary reasons for us working on this site is to pass along tips and techniques. Over the years, necessity has proved a great motivator to either research or develop techniques which allows us to build our boats. One such technique we had to figure out a long time ago was how to make a straight edge on a long piece of lumber. One realization that you come to very fast when looking for the best lumber to fill the need of your boat plans,...

While I might be a geek who actually likes pouring over the numbers to loft out a boat for my boat building project, it is not something that I would necessarily recommend for everyone. For some reason, many people don't think they have fulfilled the requirements for a boat building project unless they start with pencil and paper. That would be like saying you didn't build a house if you didn't first accomplish all of the architectural drawings yourself. Sounds silly when you think of it like that. So why not give yourself a break and focus on building a boat? So many boat building projects get stopped at the early stage of making frames and there is no reason for it. When done the right way it could not be simpler. When done wrong, I can think of nothing more harmful to the project. Most...

WHICH WOOD IS RIGHT FOR YOU? One of the more difficult questions we get is "what types of wood.....?" People want to know what they can use for gunwales, planking, decks and so forth and it is easy for us to give an answer if you happen to live where we live. When it comes to wood types and the approrpicate uses, it in fact is not a small world. Shipping a canoe kit from the east coast of the US to Austrailia almost costs as much as a typical canoe kit does doubling the cost of the kit. The the next logical question is, "well what kind of wood in my area can I use". We get pictures from all over the world from people who have built boats out of wood we have never heard of. This is not an exhaustive listing, however it is a great start to avialable wood types and their uses and characteristics....

Spiling, Yup, it is a real word... First, A little History Spiling is one of those things I can write about, be completely wrong and nobody can prove it. I could not find a definition in most dictionaries I checked, articles I have read on it are brief, non-descript and single focused and boat building books going back to the masters of the likes of Howard Chapelle, leave enormous room for interpretation. I think the reason for this is because most people try to define spiling as a specific action instead of a goal. Even as I write this article, the spell checker refuses to accept the word.