Launchings/Guestbook

My craft was finished in early summer 1999 and I enjoyed very much making the craft. The only problem was that my wife complained that she didn't see me at all. As soon as dinner was eaten, I disappeared into the workshop.

The hull was made of Norwegian pine and the details of oak and mahogany. The boat came out well, but it could have been even better of it wasn't for some problems with warping due to changing humidity in the workshop. After I had laid the glass outside it was a couple of weeks before I was ready to lay the inside.

In that period the weather had become dryer and the canoe had become 10 cm narrower. I was shocked to see this and thought at first that the shape was permanently changed but I found a way to get the shape back. I carefully wet the inside of the hull and the workshop floor and the shape came back with small irregularities which were annoying as the hull was perfectly smooth before.

I think the problem of warping deserves a chapter of its own in your building manual as amateur builders often have workshops that are not properly heated or insulated and so have problems of a similar nature.

I so enjoyed building the canoe that I am determined to build something else with the same technique, like a kayak.

Oyvind Loken
Stord, Norway