20' Mi'kmaq Northern Freighter Canoe

A native of the north woods of New Brunswick, the Mi'kmaq Freighter Canoe Plans offers a 20 ft. freighter canoe with an elegant utilitarian design.

It has been some 15 years now since I floated the Restigouche River in upper New Brunswick.  Among the many memorable things I saw on that trip was a Canadian freighter canoe, a truly utilitarian canoe with an eye towards elegance.

As we drifted down the river with our guide, who claimed heritage to the Mi'kmaq tribe, I had some time to talk with him about these magnificent canoes and he was a wealth of information. Apparently these canoes were quite popular on the rivers in this area for getting up and down the river with equipment for fishing and hunting and simply taking the tourists for a site seeing tour.

In general, these boats maintain the general shape of a canoe, albeit a good deal larger. People tend to talk about a freighter canoe as being a good deal wider, ranging from about 48" to 56" depending on the length of the canoe, and the bottom shape tends to be fairly flat. Though I have heard of some people using motors upwards of 50 hp on these boats, anything over 25 hp on this boat is dangerous and entirely unnecessary.

When built to specification, this hull should be approximately 200 lbs and move along smartly with a 10 hp engine as long as it is not fighting too strong a current. If you are looking for a smaller version of this boat you can take a look at our 16' freighter canoe, the Minne-Mo.

Our design encourages the installation of a water tight bulkhead in the front of the boat with ample opportunity for additional flotation throughout if required.

We strongly recommend that you purchase the streaming video with the plans. However, we realize that for some of you this may not be your first time building a strip boat and have given you the option.