Inspiration

We went out to the Lummi reservation and found these canoes that would inspire our canoe project. When Lewis and Clark arrived on the Northwest Coast, near present-day Astoria on the Columbia River, they were so taken aback by the canoe-building skills of the Clatsop and Chinook tribes. William Clark, on October 23rd, 1805, wrote:

“I observed on the beach near the Indian Lodges two Canoes butifull of different Shape & Size to what we had Seen above wide in the midde and tapering to each end, on the bow curious figures were Cut in the wood &c. Capt. Lewis went up to the Lodges to See those Canoes and exchanged our Smallest Canoe for one of them by giveing a Hatchet & few trinkets to the owner who informed that he purchased it of a white man below for a horse, these Canoes are neeter made than any I have ever Seen and Calculated to ride the waves, and carry emence burthens, they are dug thin and are suported by cross pieces of about 1 inch diamuter tied with Strong bark thro holes in the Sides.”

Bill Kindler, our friend and mentor in this project, has made the point that in making canoes: Perfection is driven by fear, but beauty is inspired by love. Looking at other wooden boats and seeing the love put into them, we have been inspired.

Getting Our Wood

We went out to the vampire town of Forks (of Twilight fame), where they get some 120 inches of rain every year, to go get boards of beautiful fallen and recovered Old Growth Western Red and Yellow Cedar. The boards were clear of knots and our friend Bill estimated them to be some 400 years old.

Tracing the Plans

To make the forms, you have to trace the plans into poster board and then cut the forms from plywood. Because of my drawing skills, this is a part of the project I am glad that I didn't take part in.

Before and After: Cedar Boards

The cedar boards we acquired go through the long process of beading and coving, making the grooves in the wood that will eventually hold the strips together. Ripping the boards to size and making the beads and coves was a process that took 2 long days with a table saw and a router, courtesy of our friend Bill.

Making hundreds of dollars of sawdust

It’s funny the things we do now like boat making or fishing that our ancestors used to do just to make life easier, and when we do them now they don’t exactly make our lives easier or less expensive. (We probably could by a canoe for a quarter the cost of the building materials and tools or buy a salmon for a small fraction of the price that we pay for fishing gear, fly tying materials and everything else associated with the religion of fly fishing.) But these are the things we do to make our lives more fulfilling, and our forebears fought so hard so that we wouldn’t have to struggle in the arduous task of making a canoe. And yet here we are in the age of convenience struggling to make canoes, for no other reason other than pure pleasure.

With the amount of wood it would take to make one Native American dugout canoe of the type that the Salish coast tribes used to make, you could make six strip canoes.

Making stems

Here you can see the stages of making the stems. With all the clamps, the forms with the inside and outside stems looks like a Medieval torture device. You can also see the stems (which are made from very thin strips of cedar and sapele wood cured in an expoxy solution) before and after the sanding.

Loaded Truck

The first stage of our project is done. With the cedar boards ripped, beaded and coved, we head back to Bellingham with our truck loaded down also with a strongback (upon which we mount the stems and forms to put on the beaded and coved strips).

Healing Waters Boat

Our friend, Bill, led a group of the Olympic Peninsula Fly Fishers Club in the building of this beautiful Rangeley boat for Project Healing Waters, an organization dedicated to the physical and emotional rehabilitation of disabled active military service personnel and veterans through fly fishing and fly tying education and outings. I love this insignia on the bow.

Something to aspire to...

Without a doubt, the prettiest boat we saw at the Wooden Boat Festival in Port Townsend was Joe Greenley's kayak. We watched Joe give a demonstration of how to build a strip kayak (in the same style as our canoe) and he made it look so doable. You can see him seated by this beautiful boat.

Wooden Boat Festival. Port Townsend, WA