I've been toying with an idea. Maybe somebody has tried it already. In any case, thoughts and ideas appreciated.
I design and sell canoe and kayak plans using the stitch and glue method of assembly. But I've always wanted to build canoes for retail sales. Not on the level of American Traders, but maybe 3-4 a year.
I'm pretty confident trying to sell a stitch-and-glue canoe, even if it's like 12 panels to make a mostly rounded hull, would not command a price tag of $1500+, which is the price point I'd like to be at.
So I've thought of building it wood-canvass style except no ribs and using the fiberglass instead of canvass. I really like the look of it and I think it would have some mass appeal.
To achieve the strength without ribs, I'd using 1/8" marine ply and multi layers of thin fiberglass inside and out. I have theoretical scantlings already calculated.
Determining of the 1/8" ply will conform to the hull shape will have to be an experiment. I figure I'll set up the forms and simply just have to try it. If it doesn't work, I'll strip-build over the forms instead. I've designed a simple trapper-style canoe for this experiment. I should know if it'll work with the first 6-8 planks or so.
The catch is the board lengths. If I'm using marine ply, longest board I can use is 96" (8'). Since the goal is no ribs, getting the boards to join ends with sufficient strength is ...well.... gonna be tough to do. In stitch and glue building, you use a butt block or fiberglass splice. But it would be near impossible to install these on the inside of a hull while its on forms.
So I got to thinking further, what if I used ribs except make them from 1/8" plywood and laminated 3 layers over the stations? A bit of extra work but it would eliminate the need for steaming and then I could glue (with thickened epoxy) the planks to the ribs. No nails or tack to clench and become loose one day.
Ok... yea....I know... sounds like trying to build a better mouse trap with the Rube Goldberg mentality. But it's just thinking out loud and it's something I need to either try or get out of my head.
So would you all join in with thoughts and ideas of how to make it possible? Just for fun.
I design and sell canoe and kayak plans using the stitch and glue method of assembly. But I've always wanted to build canoes for retail sales. Not on the level of American Traders, but maybe 3-4 a year.
I'm pretty confident trying to sell a stitch-and-glue canoe, even if it's like 12 panels to make a mostly rounded hull, would not command a price tag of $1500+, which is the price point I'd like to be at.
So I've thought of building it wood-canvass style except no ribs and using the fiberglass instead of canvass. I really like the look of it and I think it would have some mass appeal.
To achieve the strength without ribs, I'd using 1/8" marine ply and multi layers of thin fiberglass inside and out. I have theoretical scantlings already calculated.
Determining of the 1/8" ply will conform to the hull shape will have to be an experiment. I figure I'll set up the forms and simply just have to try it. If it doesn't work, I'll strip-build over the forms instead. I've designed a simple trapper-style canoe for this experiment. I should know if it'll work with the first 6-8 planks or so.
The catch is the board lengths. If I'm using marine ply, longest board I can use is 96" (8'). Since the goal is no ribs, getting the boards to join ends with sufficient strength is ...well.... gonna be tough to do. In stitch and glue building, you use a butt block or fiberglass splice. But it would be near impossible to install these on the inside of a hull while its on forms.
So I got to thinking further, what if I used ribs except make them from 1/8" plywood and laminated 3 layers over the stations? A bit of extra work but it would eliminate the need for steaming and then I could glue (with thickened epoxy) the planks to the ribs. No nails or tack to clench and become loose one day.
Ok... yea....I know... sounds like trying to build a better mouse trap with the Rube Goldberg mentality. But it's just thinking out loud and it's something I need to either try or get out of my head.
So would you all join in with thoughts and ideas of how to make it possible? Just for fun.
