Description
About the Cheemaun
The Cheemaun 15 will serve tandem paddlers handily on short trips and for day paddling, but is also good for the solo wilderness traveler. I designed the Cheemaun after the popular camp canoes from the 1930s thru the ’60s. The lines for the boat are published in the book, “The Wood and Canvas Canoe,” so that enthusiasts could use it to build their own boats.
The Cheemaun’s volume allows an adventurer plenty of space and buoyancy for a complete outfit – often absent in solo canoes – and the straight keel line makes straight tracking an easy matter. The relatively flat bottom affords the paddler an opportunity to explore the shallow streams feeding into a waterway and also provides the stability necessary for safely carrying young passengers and for poling.
Popular options for the Cheemaun include an 18-inch extended deck, rounded coaming, and an outside rub rail finished in bright mahogany which accents the hull shape and separates the top and bottom paint.
This canoe model’s name comes from Longfellow’s poem, “Song of Hiawatha:”
“…Straightway then my Hiawatha
Armed himself with all his war-gear,
Launched his birch-canoe for sailing;
With his palm its sides he patted,
Said with glee, Cheemaun, my darling,
O my Birch-canoe! leap forward,
Where you see the fiery serpents,
Where you see the black pitch-water!’
Forward leaped Cheemaun exulting,
And the noble Hiawatha
Sang his war-song wild and woful…”
