What I did on my summer vacation

[MetroMPG]

A couple of summers back, when Nissan loaned me a Micra, I helped a friend harvest birch bark to make a canoe:



I helped him with a couple of other small tasks during construction:



Finally this weekend, we loaded the finished product on the Firefly, to take it down to the water for the first time:



Sea trials on the St Lawrence River!



You couldn't wipe the grin off my friend's face. He says he's wanted to make a canoe for 60 years, and he finally did it. Half a dozen people came over to talk to him about it when we were putting it in.

Other than needing a bit more waterproofing around the stern stitching, its first paddle was a success.

We collected enough bark for a second vessel. I may make something.

[cowmeat]

We collected enough bark for a second vessel. I may make something.

Birch bark boat tail?

My guess is that would be a first . . .

[MetroMPG]

It's certainly light enough!

But forget laminar flow... it's just too bumpy.

[Daox]

Very cool. I'm glad to see it finished and put to use.

[MetroMPG]

I'm not sure how much he's actually going to use it. I think the project was more about making it than using it. Maybe a few decades ago he would have been more into the idea of using it.

EDIT: he told me a great story of his first boat when he was a kid. He got two 1940's era car hoods, screwed them together, sealed the gap with tar and voila. Something like this style:




We launched the bark canoe at the same public park where he used to use his old "two hoods boat".

[jamesqf]

Originally Posted by MetroMPG

He got two 1940's era car hoods...

Hey, that's my old sled from when I was a kid!

[MetroMPG]

Ha, fun! But a b*T*H to get back up the hill?

And don't lick it.

[freebeard]

That's just right in so many ways.

I can't find an example online, but Gary Emory's Porsche Camp-out used to have a logo that was a side view of a Porsche 356 coupe with a canoe turned upside down on top, parked in front of a tepee.

[KuS]

Woah! Good work!!