Sturgeon Nose Canoe

K

kayakster

Guest
In 2010 I was contacted by Harry W., a member of the Sinixt people who was interested in commissioning a traditional Sinixt canoe which, as it turns out, is a Sturgeon Nosed canoe.

Today it was delivered to the very happy new owner. He is probably the first person in his family to paddle such a canoe in 100 years or so. Follow the link for pics & more info.

http://paddleandoar.com/notebook/snc/index.html

sn-canoe080911.jpg
 
Interesting piece of work; thank you for sharing this! We do like pictures.

How is the fabric secured to the frame, and what makes it watertight?
 
Here are a couple photos of sturgeon nose canoes that I took in the Museum of Anthropology in Vancouver. The canoes were made for more than 10,000 years by the peoples of what is now British Columbia.
 

Attachments

  • IMG_1091.jpg
    IMG_1091.jpg
    236 KB · Views: 782
  • IMG_1092.jpg
    IMG_1092.jpg
    278.1 KB · Views: 870
Thanks for the comments all.

pklonowski - The fabric is untreated ballistic nylon. It has 5 coats of oil based polyurethane spar varnish which fills the weave. The ends are sewn and the varnish fills the needle holes. The fabric around the gunwales is held by pressing the rub strip to the gunwales.

normsims - Thanks for those great pics. Since I started researching for this project I have put together a collection of links, images, and books. I may have to put together a page just for those links! Thanks again.
 
Although I built this boat, I am wondering (in Canoe-speak) what the lengthwise slats are called. Stringers? Lathe? Just curious.

-----

BTW, I wanted to use my real name instead of kayakster, but didn't know how to change it, so I just started a new account. Hope it doesn't confuse things.

Cheers,

Paul M
 
Adney called them battens. In one instance, he calls them "sheathing battens," but this is only to distinguish them from the battens that were used to close in the bow and stern seams. He acknowledges that they don't constitute sheathing in the normally accepted sense, but that they did serve a comparable purpose.
 
Back
Top