Building a skin on frame Canoe. Part 5: testing the canoes

Trip report from our weeklong trip on the John Day River, where we put the new canoes through their paces to see how they handled the conditions, stresses, and some of the experimental modifications. I forget to mention in the video that the pad you see in the canoe is a Therm-a-Rest ridge rest, this catches grit, protects the inside of the boat, and adds comfort. I sit on a 2 inch foam pad on top of it.

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[yotersmitt]

Loving this series with your detailed descriptions of the boats and their tripping performance.

[AshleyMillsTube]

This is amazing. Thank you for making these videos. Don't worry about them being "long": you're giving us information gold. Honestly, this is all incredibly useful.

[MxBraeWilliams]

Thanks for making these videos! Watching your design process, building, and testing is so great.

[RLFOXWORTHY]

Love these videos and commentary! Thank you for sharing your thoughts and am excited you're taking us along in this process.

[susanhayden]

Hey Brian, so good to see, hear and learn from you again. John B and I are still loving the skin on kayaks you taught us to build, 5 years later, and now they are at home in Manzanita. Not taking any rapids with them though. With appreciation.

[Quaker-snfr]

That sounded like a good test. I'm really impressed by your design approach. It works very well and the boats look stunning. Keep going Brian. Glad you and Liz got back safely. Pete UK.

[donnicodemo]

Thank-you for this report. I am in the process of building a skin on frame canoe.

[wisenber]

Awesome. That's what boat design/building/use should be like. You get to tweak your creative side in the design, get the reward of seeing a boat built, AND use it. Great test lab too. I am really interested in making a skin on frame boat, but I'm caught up with building a nice little wooden trimaran at present. Skin on frame amas might be a great way to lighten up a trimaran. Thanks for your work and the video.

[draven]

As a kayaker that you are, you seem to want to cross the kayak with the canoe, you are definitely parcel to the kayak as I am

[Nomadboatbuilding]

I got my start in boatbuilding with double paddle canoes and while I appreciated the efficiency of the double bladed paddle, I grew to prefer the single blade. I like the tempo they provide. The pause while you work through a j-stroke or the steady methodical manipulation you use in an indian stroke. The challenge is coming up with a canoe hull that compliments both paddling styles. The narrow, straighter keeled boat that works well for a double paddle doesn't favour the single quite as well. I'm sure your journey down this road will lead you to searching for the perfect compromise. I'm confident you'll find it. I'm loving the movable thwart. I assume you have a carrying yoke version on your checklist. As light as these boats are, a little extra comfort never hurts. I've spent many hours puzzling over drawings of J.H. Rushton's solutions to he removable carrying thwart. Seems like he never quite nailed that one down very well.

[martind]

I have a fun idea. Have the cover snap-to the edge and when you need a sail, it lifts up and is the sail. I also think that people sculpt canoes rather beautifully to slope high to the eye fore-and-aft but the predictability of a completely flat plane is good for vehicle loading, storage, and movement and might look good too. It also would mean easier calculation for people eager to do a production run. Mebbe.

[rellirTnoraa]

The fact that the boat survived that wrap surprises me! do you think they would survive the claws on a German Shepard?

[dougstephens]

Brian, I'm sold. Let me know when you've got construction plans available.

[douglasbaumber]

I used to do long trips in a Canadian. I see the flaw in their canoes- two small- one person and low sides. We used an 18-foot Roscoe-had gear for a few weeks. much higher sides. and have taken down level 4 rapids. never had a problem

[kentowakai]

I've got a prototype pedal system that would work really well on these. It clamps on the back like any trolling motor. It's made with off the shelf parts. Oh, and it would help with the tracking problem. Would definitely NOT be appropriate for any kind of rapids.

[qaannat]

There was a dude on the kayak forum years ago, rolled his truck over a couple SOF on the roof, there was minor damage, IIRC.

Don't you want to move to NC? We have a lot of water. It's warm. White oak and Cypress abound.

[DayReviews]

what kinda pad is that in the bottom of the canoe? great video im really liking this series

[stevehisey]

Thanks for the trip details. Can't believe your boat survived hydrolics of wrapping a rocck like that. Those Inuits knew a thing or two about boat design, and you have applied that well. Are these boats still at 1.5 inches of rocker and is that something you would change for tracking v.s. bow and stern fullness? I broke a few ribs trying to get a v shape in the last rib. Do you sell the bunges in different lengths? Thanks again for all the discoveries in your build process.

[robertw]

Allez ! Bravo ! This is adventure. Have you tried standing up in them ? I need one for lakes and bays in the east : )

[larsfredriksson]

You shod try running over a skin on fram high your car. An old one.