So this weekend I arranged with a friend to take our canoe and new white and blue second-hand sail boat out for a trial run at the lake in Castlewellan Fores...

Two weekends ago I had a quick test to see if we could get the canoe onto the car. It just fits. It is a two-person job due to the awkward size of it. With...

Back from Dublin it was time to add the runners to the underside of the hull. The runners were attached to the hull with a layer of epoxy and with small scr...

Spring has arrived at last. It's Easter weekend and it's 21 degrees. Canoe building time! The job I've not been relishing -- fitting the outwales! One of t...

With the weather worsening, the wind blowing the canoe off its stand, the constant rains and temperature dropping i had to get one last feature done before i...

Last time I had fitted the inwales to help stiffen the rim of the hull and keep it's shape better. The internal seams had also been glass-taped to give the h...

All the seams on the exterior have been filled and I’ve now made a start on the walings as shown above. The inner walings are glued and nailed at 150mm cent...

Have at last filled all the cracks between planks, inside and out. It’s made quite a mess as you can see. I’m toying with the idea of varnishing versus paint...

Our homemade canoe has been progressing. Cutting the planks proved to be quite tricky and required the patience of an adult. All the planks have now been cut...