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Curious about Wooden Canoes
I have seen a few posts from time to time about canoes built by Ébénisterie Alain Rhéaume of Grande Piles, Canada on here and as an owner of a 15'8" Huron cedar stripper made by this company I thought it might be of interest to others to learn that business is picking up for them, and from a rather interesting quarter. TVA Nouvelles of Montreal recently carried a piece announcing that Canots Rhéaume will be building on behalf of Old Town. Alain Rhéaume started out as a Cabinetmaker (that's the 'Ébénisterie' bit for non-French speakers) and in 1992 commenced making wooden canoes under his own name. Over the years he received contracts from Evergreen (defunct 2008) American Traders and Langfords (both of whom he continues to supply) to build cedar strippers on contract. However, business over the last 4 years has suffered with the downturn in the USA and recent figures indicate that he was building about 150 boats a year and employing 5 persons. The Old Town contract according to TVA is to initially make fibreglass models and hopefully also production of wooden boats will be added later on. Canots Rhéaume anticipates an increase in production to 400 boats per annum.
