That's right, we are now committed to our three board canoes. We picked up the lumber today and have begun work on rescaling the plans. Capitol City Lumber was very generous and offered us the wood at their highest discount. We opted for Exterior A-C plywood because we feel that the extra cost does not outweigh the benefit for a canoe that we do not plan to mount a motor on. But mostly because marine plywood (Okume or the like) is simply out of our price range.We will use a shop-bot that we have access to at school to cut out our bulkheads and side panels. That should make quick and accurate work of the “curvy pieces” so that we can begin assembly. The shop-bot shown here is basically a 3-axis router that can cut 4x8 sheets of wood to exact shapes based on a CAD file. Here is a picture of one.
We plan to modify the deck to more fully enclose the canoe and allow for cockpits to be cut so that we can outfit the boat with spray-skirts. We will also be designing our mast step and outrigger crossbeam mounting cradles into the hull as well as all the necessary storage compartments, hatches and closed cell foam buoyancy compartments.
We hope to begin cutting, shaping, and assembling this weekend so stay tuned for pictures and information.
