JEM Watercraft

Hi All,

First of all an introduction, I am from Adelaide Australia and have a young family who love to get out on the water.

In my youth I used to build fibreglass Kayaks from pre-made moulds and had a ball paddling these around.

I now would like to build a canoe that is suitable to take my young son out paddling in protected costal waters and on the river / lakes. I would also like to be able to fish from it at times with a friend and maybe the odd camping trip. For a relative "newbie" coming accross this web site was a god send as the resources available here are unbelievable.

Now for the questions......

1) Based on what I want to use the canoe for what do you think the best one for me would be (considering I am 6ft'3 and "solid"). My initial thoughts were the Townsend but think I am now leaning towards the Pirouge 500.

2) Probably more for the Australian members - where did you source your materials from? Is it just a matter of heading down to your local hardware store (i.e. Mitre-10, Bunnings etc) and getting the correct thickness of plywood? Do you need specialised marine plywood? is "normal" structural ply ok? Where is the best place to source Resins, fibreglass etc from locally?

Any help would be greatly appreciated and hopefully I will be able to document my build on here.

Cheers

Brewes

G'Day Brewes,

1) i haven't had a look at

I'm in the outer south of Adelaide

Try again........(Yes it was me )

G'Day Brewes,

1) I haven't had a look at the open canoes much but am impressed with the Cape Fear as a potential fishing boat. If you have a look at the last page of Olsnappa's Cape Fear build log it shows a small seat in the front so this may be worth a look for your purposes.

2) Good ply is available in Adelaide but is up around $90 a sheet now. I contacted a wholesaler to get details of a cheaper external ply and then ordered it through a hardware store. It is OK but next time I will be making sure the plys are more even before buying. The external plys on mine are very thin so there is a risk of sanding through them. If money is not an issue then I would suggest the "proper" stuff will make a slightly better boat and be easier to work with.
I found a source of epoxy that is significantly cheaper than the name brands and did tests on a small quantity before buying several litres. Will send you a PM with details.

Good luck with it.

Townsend, Iroquois, Merrimac, all would make a fine choice.

Thanks for the responses and the epoxy details. If I am understanding you correctly I am able to just head to the local hardware store and buy my ply from there, it may not be the best you can get but it will still do the job (i.e. float!) and does not have to be any special "marine" ply (even though I assume the better the ply the better the boat).

Cheers

Brewes

Marine grade is preferred.

Exterior grades have been known to be used successfully.

G'day Brewes and welcome aboard mate.

Have a look at the Sasquatch 16.5 but I am biased in this regard. it truly is a magnificent design and an absolute delight to paddle. It will leave any store bought canadian canoe that is available here in its wake (and many plastic kayaks too)

Ply - Australian Wood Panels or Boat Craft Pacific. both compaines will ship at reasonable price. Bunnings and all other hardware stores that i have checked only stock rubbish.

Epoxy, ATL Composites sell West Systems which is by far superior (in my opinion) to all other epoxies available in this country. I only use West Systems, now. Specifically 105 resin and 207 Special Purpose hardener.

I will find some links for you tomorrow.

Hey Brewes,

If you have any panel suppliers over in SA try them. I'm in Melbourne and get mine from a place that supplies laminated board for kitchen cupboards and they do all sorts of paneling materials. The last lot I bought was this time last year at $40.

You've had the cape fear suggested and I'm building a southwind for similar conditions, may be it's my limited experience but I fancy decks when looking at coastal waters.

I used Bote Cote for the epoxy on my DK canoe which has a good long pot life, but I'm thinking of WEST next time (hoping I'm less sensitive to it )

Have fun and we look forward to the build whatever it might be.

Tor