July 1st, 2010

  What projects would you like to see going on? Bending on ribs?, other steam bending projects?, canvassing?, any aspects of restoration?, etc. Contact us and we'll see what we can come up with.

  Well the summer solstice has come and gone. So have most of the canoes and boats that were on the floor at the time we last published this page, in March. Since then we had a former student come back and build a form for a ten foot pack canoe. The Kingfisher seen here last time has almost been completed. Another Kingfisher is well on it's way. The three boats, the two 20' Whites and the Kennebec square stern have been completed. The Duck boat is done, as well as a couple of closed gunnel Old Town Otcas and a Carleton. A Sawyer 20' guide type canoe is done too. The all wood Skimmer has been finished as well. The grand finale is the near completion of a 20 Voyager.

  We have been busy.

  As mentioned above, we are working on finishing the Voyager, the Kingfisher and 18' Old Town Sailing canoe. A 25' Old Town war canoe has been canvassed and put up to dry. We are working on a 15' Chestnut, which will be ready for canvas soon. Also, in the shop is an ancient Gerrish canoe built around 1900.

  We had some help in the shop through out the winter and spring. "The", Garrett Conover, spent some time in the shop and will end up here more, at some time or another. We had Elisa Schine who came to work for us for awhile, and she is now leading a six week trip to Labrador for Camp Darrow out of Grand Lake. We wish her luck and fair weather, and we hope she comes back here for some shop time, she was a good worker and alot more pleasant than me or Rollin to be around.

  What's happening in the shop at this very moment. Check it out, and tell us what you think. Click on canoecam and have a look. On the  canoecam page below the window for the camera is a 5 day image archive and a daily time-lapse video. You can click on those links and see the days photos and a video compilation of them. You can also check in with our blog and make snyde remarks at canoecamblog

  I hope you have taken advantage of the Canoecam in the shop. We have made efforts to move the camera around at times as we do different things so one could really see what's going on. The blog has been popular and has had hits from the Russian Republic, other Eastern block nations, Europe and South America. There is a map and counter on the blog page and if you click on it, it provides some details as to where the hits come from. It is pretty cool. We dont really update the blog as much as we should. We're not really blog kinda guys.

   Students in the shop

  Here is a picture from the webcam of Paul Houston and his dog Otis. Paul is nearing completion of the installing the ribbands on his form.

Completed canoes

                          From this........................................................to this..

  Both of these Whites were alot rougher than they appear. They both required many ribs and planks(beveled) decks and rails.

          .,

           This one was extensive, a new transom, rails, keelson,stem, a pile of ribs and planks, deck framing, deck and coaming, risers, seat braces. We did reuse the seats and the corner braces at the transom, and half the ribs and planking were ok.

This is the Shell Lake duck boat "The Mallard King"

This one's definately seen better days. This picture does no justice to the extent of damage this canoe has. Here it is stripped and ready for repair.

Here's the Carleton at first glance she looks pretty good. It was repaired somewhere along the way. The tips of the ribs and decks were glued up pretty well. After some arm twisting, Rollin convinced me to take it apart and the more I did, the more apparent it became that it was the right thing to do.

One of the Old Town OTCAs. This intricate coaming created by the owner was  part of the deck beam. We saved it and used it and added Morris style decks to dress it up.

Another OTCA

The all wood Skimmer.

Still in progress, near completion

The Voyager

The Kingfishers

The war canoe it's almost as long as the building.

The 15' Chestnut oiled and varnished, ready for canvas.

The 18' OTCA sailer, yes it will be two colors red on one side and yellow on the other.

Another Old Town this one has a serial # of 3701.

The old Gerrish.

Here Elisa and her mom, who came by for a visit, work on the Camp Darrow canoe. Elisa's mom worked at Camp Darrow when she was Elisa's age.

Here "the" Garrett Conover is canvassing one of the 20' Whites last winter.

   Bean

  Here's Bean guarding breakfast on the Allagash this May.

  She is a well seasoned traveler.  At home in a canoe, on rivers or lakes, or in the mountains.

  A rainy day on White Cap Mtn in the middle of the 100 mile wilderness with the Wallaces.

                                                                                 THE END.

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