Tom Morrow's 6-hour Canoe / Pirogue
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CALL ME AT 660-341-0527

September 8th I started by trying to scarf the two sheets of 1/4 AC plywood together.  I used my belt sander to grind the 2 inch angle on the ends.  This is accomplished by clamping the two sheets on top of each other with a 2 inch overlap and marking back a line 2 inches back on the top one then taking an angle across all four inches.  I got instruction for scarfing the sheets from the Cajun Pirogue website. The 6-Hour Canoe book does not give instruction on scarfing the joint.  Their recommendation is to get a sheet of 4 X 16 marine Plywood.  This was not too practical for me.  I ended up getting my wood In St. Louis because I was there.  Finding or ordering a sheet like the 6-Hour Canoe book recommends I automatically assumed would be too costly and difficult especially if I had it shipped to my home in rural Kirksville, Missouri.

  My grind looked great like it would fit like a glove, no problem.  Then I turned one board over to lay it against the other angle on the other sheet and I realized I had the A side and the C side of the two boards facing the opposite direction.   Back to the grind.  Had to loose 2 inches there.  Then I epoxied the boards together and clamped them between two 2 x 8s with long screws.  I did not worry about screwing through the sheets because I figured these little holes will be covered and filled with epoxy and fiberglass anyway.  I did make sure to cover with wax paper before clamping also.  The full four foot width proved to be too much edge to handle at one time and I got about a 50 % join of the two sheets on the first attempt.  I decided to cut the sides and bottom out and do them again separately and this proved to be a little easier to handle and I got good solid joints.  I did have a little apprehension with one of them though and laid a strip of fiberglass cloth over the joint to make myself feel more confident in the joint.

This didn't work.

This did.
 

 The project comes together pretty quickly as you attach the stems to the ends of the plywood sheets.  I used epoxy and screws to join the bow and stern. The plans call for a 42 degree angle on the bow and 44 on the stern.  I got help from someone with a really good table saw to cut the stems.  I used a cedar 2 x 4  I found at the local lumber yard.  I purchased a 16 foot pine 2 x 6 for rail and chine stock.  I tried to have that ripped to 3/4 inch strips at the lumber yard but that was not their forte.  I got the bulk of the ripping done with my friend with the really good table saw.  The 1/4 sheet stock seems to be good and strong and light enough.  I dug through about 10 sheets at the lumber yard before I found two that satisfied me.  They were pretty much knot free on both the A and the C side.  I think next time I will use Luan sheets.  They would be a little thinner but they may be a little lighter also.

Momma boat looks on as the new baby boat takes shape.
The 6-Hour Canoe plans call for only one rib and the recommendation was to attach the sides to it before you bring the ends together to the stems at the bow and stern.  I found other plans on the net (The Cajun Pirogue) that recommended doing the ends first and then dropping the ribs in.  I felt like this was probably a better way to do it so that is what I did.  My only trouble with this was that the bottom of my rib protruded under the level of the sides a little more that I would have liked and the cut outs for the chine logs ended up being a little shallow which pushed the chine logs down below the sides also.  This was not really a problem because I still had plenty of stock in the rib and chine logs, it just required a lot more planing and sanding and fitting to make a true surface for the bottom to join to.
 


Rub rails go on without too much effort.  You have to trim one side short to get them both on at the same time.  I was able to get them to follow the edge of the side boards pretty well....I thought.  I did not think it would be too difficult to trim the edges of the side boards to be flush with the rubrails but It did take some doing.  I started off with the belt sander for this task but I found the plane is probably a better tool to get in ruffed down. 



 

 
You can see in this photo how much trimming had to be done.  1/4 inch or more in some places.  I didn't start trimming until I put in the chine logs, then I did the top and bottom with a more rigid structure to work with also I could manhandle it around and lay it on my saw horses not worrying about dings and dents since it was all going to be trimmed anyway.
 

 


 

Plenty of trimming to do here.  Using a good ole fashioned hand plane seemed to be the fastest way to get the material removed to form a good flat surface to attach the bottom.  Final shaping then done with a belt sander.
 
6-Hour Canoe?  It seemed everyone I showed the book and plans to before I started this project laughed at the title.  It is a bit laughable.  I definitely spent more than 6 hours working on this boat.  But the biggest slowing factor is the fact that the epoxy I used required a full 24 hour curing time.  That makes for slow progress at times when you can only get a few hours work done before you have to stop for a day and let the glue dry.  I wanted to get this boat done in a hurry because I was hoping to use it before early Teal season closed.  I did not make it to that deadline, but the season was only 9 days.  Most of the work was completed inside a nine day period.  Two weekends and the evenings in between.
 With the combination of my belt sander and my plane I got the bottom ready for attaching the bottom.  I used bucket of screws and epoxy to stick it there.  In retrospect I should have pulled all the screws on the bottom and the sides where the chine logs were fastened.  I tried to countersink each one perfectly and figured this would be good enough but any that were too deep or too shallow caused a bubble in the fiberglass cloth.  It would have been better not to have tried to countersink them and back them all out after the epoxy had set then gone back and filled them with epoxy and sawdust and then sanded them smooth again. 

 
I formed my keel out of one of my ill-cut pine strips that started at 3/4 inch on one end and went down to about 1/4 at the other.  I shaped the keel with a plane and ran screws through from the inside to hold in in place while the epoxy dried.  I pulled those screws and patched those holes afterward.
The first glass was now ready to go on.  I figured I would get less waste and things would be a little easier to handle if I just cut strips from the end of the sheet of 8 oz cloth I had purchased so my strips were only 4 foot long.  I started in the rear so the cloth overlap between 4 foot pieces would be toward the rear.  This would not be the way to do it if you were planning on finishing the boat clear with natural wood showing through but being's how this boat is intended to be a camo mud, blood and sweat boat it did not matter.  There were a lot of things that did not matter because of this fact.  The big drips of epoxy that appear here would have required a lot more sanding if I had wanted to make a pretty boat.

The keel proved to be a big source of air bubbles under the glass where the edge of the keel and the hull met.  I had to give them several coats of epoxy to fill these gaps.  There should not have been a 90 degree angle there.  I could have tapered the keel down to the hull and this would have been a little better.  I filled the area between the seem strips of glass with larger sheets of glass cloth so the whole bottom was covered with one layer of cloth and epoxy and there was just a little overlap between the sheet glass and the seam and keel strips.  This is the only glass on the boat.  I gave the exterior of the sides, the rails and all the interior seems a couple coats of epoxy.  The rest was just painted to protect the wood.


 
 
We got the whole thing smoothed down pretty well before the paint went on.  Smooth enough for a mud, blood boat anyway.  My boy Luke put in some work with the palm sander.  This proved to be a good tool for the job too.  One other indispensable tool was a small disposable paint roller.  This really helped put the epoxy down on the cloth with out much trouble.  A brush was a nightmare on the cloth.  The epoxy I used was a little thick for a brush if you were going over the glass cloth it would pull fibers and create buckles.
 
This was the part I really hated to paint over.  The cedar stems are pretty soft but they when they were covered with epoxy they seem pretty tough and definitely good looking if you did not want to paint the boat and leave it natural wood.
Ready for paint. Someday I will have to try to finish one in natural wood just for head turning qualities.  The problem is I want this little boat to be a duck hunting boat more than a fishing / paddle touring boat.  I have a real fishing boat and painting this camo will not detract from fishing or playing around but not being camo would negate the duck hunting unless you would make a camo cover for it.
Maiden voyage!  The little boat cartops and transports pretty easy either on my head or with canoe carrier wheels I fashioned for it.  The weight with paint turned out to be 73 pounds and it is right at 15 feet long.  I also fashioned a detachable yoke for carrying it on my shoulders if I need to carry it far. I figure the yoke will be good to use if I need to get into a remote little fishing spot and I have someone else to carry the gear. Here I am carrying it with the bottom on my head and shoulders.  This transport method works well, without too much discomfort if the portage is less than 150 yards.

 

Christened "The Duck Hunter Pirogue" September 23rd 2004 with a bottle of Goose Island beer.  My wife bought me the Goose Island, it was the closest thing she could find with a duck on the label.


Wow! it seemed a little bigger than this when I was building it.  Handles great with just me in it.


Here is about maximum usable load for my taste.  We could add a little gear to this load and do some fishing.  190 plus 60 pounds for a total of 250 felt pretty comfortable.

190 plus 170 pounds = 360.  This did not feel too stable.  I wouldn't want to do too much fishing out of the boat loaded like this.  We definately floated and were able to get around without too much effort but with this load I would want to waterproof my camera and make sure It was tied in.  Not a problem for playing around in the water in the summer when you don't mind getting wet.  360 plus three dozen decoys, lunch, shells, guns, 35 degree water?  Count me out of that impending disaster.

Here is the 250 pound load without proper balance.  We paddled all the way across the lake like this and it did not feel tippy but we got hit from the port rear with a boat wake and got a little splash over the side.  It would not have happened if we had been a little better balanced.  This kind of load is better suited for warm weather in a small body of water for this boat.

All Camouflaged and ready to hunt ducks.  One addition I made that helps with duck hunting is spud pole holders.  These are simply U bolts drilled through the rails on opposite sides near each end of the boat.  These let me drive a pole in the mud and anchor and stabilize the boat when I am set up in the marsh.  With these in place I can stand in the boat and shoot if necessary.  My usual hunting position is sitting.  I have yet to work out a good camo system for the boat that matches the camoability of a layout boat but I surly will before next duck season.


Summary

The boat really did turn out great despite my disappointment on the total weight carrying capacity.  The boat makes a better duck hunting rig for one man than a layout boat only in that it is lighter weight and easier to transport and maybe easier to camo and hide.  I took this boat down a big long hill loaded with 4 dozen decoys gun, ammo, lunch, camo and coffee.  It was probably more that a 1/4 mile from my van to the water.  The trip down the hill in the morning was a breeze with the canoe carrier wheels I fashioned from a deer hauler cart (quickly convertible back to the deer carrier cart).  The trip back up the hill was a little more strenuous but manageable.  With the gear I carried and the extra weight of a layout boat that typically weigh in at about 110 pounds I don't think this would have been very doable for one person.  I have been to the wade and shoot area at Fountain Grove that requires a long walk down a level levy.  This boat would be a breeze to roll down these levies.  This boat paddles easily with a kayak paddle and it feels comfortably stable with one person and all the duck hunting gear you want to pile in.  Is this boat better that a canoe?  That would be a tough debate.  Most 15 foot canoes are rated higher in weight capacity than I would rate this boat.  So you could accommodate a second person a little easier.  Aluminum canoes are a lot more noisy that this boat.  I made this boat a lot cheaper than I could have bought even a used canoe and I had a lot of fun doing it.  It is wood and home made and that makes me feel like I have some connection to old time duck hunters in the days of wood decoys, pipe smoke and skies dark with ducks.

All in all this was a great project and it is a handy little boat.  I am glad I made it and I am looking forward to making another one.  I added a U bolt through the rub rail in the front and back to allow you to put a pole through and anchor to the swamp.  The poles then also make a good stabilizer and something to  tie a rope to as a blind frame.

Tom Morrow

SOLD See new design here
CALL ME AT 660-341-0527 or email at tommorrow@sbcglobal.net

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