C-Forum

I picked up an old marathon OC1 race boat that is a wood stripper cheap (needed new gunnels), and as I know there are a number of folks that enjoy wood strip boats on this board I thought I'd share a few images. The "boat horses" are working well, and I look forward to using them with my whitewater boats too. The old gunnels were dry rotting off (chunks of rail were missing when I picked it up) but the boat itself appears solid still.

The new rails in the images are cherry:)






I'm replacing this mixed bag of screws with new brass ones, and will likely make new thwarts and perhaps deck plates from some ash I have left over from my workbench project (co-owning a bandsaw mill and having some trees to take down does have it's perks...even if it means less paddle time).

Cherry? Man, that's gonna be sweeeeet

Looks like you'll have it ready in time for this year's Clinton

Very nice looking boat! Take your time and hand work it with hardare and sanding... no power tools (voice of experience ).
That looks like it will be a very worth while project. Keep us posted on it! Paul C.

PS: Must be nice to have that much room in the work area. I'm likey I can get by the bikes right now in my garage! LOL

The lines of your boat look a bit like those of KERERU, my wood stripper canoe that I love to paddle so much. KERERU was built by Kanuga Canoes & Kayaks off the plan of the SDT of Bear Mountain Boats.
2005 I paddled KERERU on an eight week voyage down the River Danube from Bavaria to Bulgaria. 1200 miles and I loved every one of it.



From experience I can tell you that once you are out on the water it just feels so special to paddle such a beautiful wood stripper. People will love you just for seeing you out there.

Have fun working on it, have even more fun paddling it.

Nice boat Taniwha...and sounds like an even nicer trip!

I'm hoping to paddle a bit of the Northern Forest Canoe Trail this summer...we'll see how it goes once the rivers thaw out .

This evening I made new deck plates and thwarts, replacing the rotted pine with ash (stained "natural"). I'd forgotten how much I enjoyed woodworking . I also epoxied the parts of the boat that were delaminating (near the rails, mostly, and only on the outside). Tomorrow I hope to finish cleaning up the rail area, and perhaps start fitting the new rails in. I have most of the hardware, though I'll likely replace a few more of the longer brass screws (I'm already replacing all of the shorter ones).

Keep some pics coming of your progress, I'd like to see your boat evolving into a touring beauty.

Northern Forest Canoe Trail, hmmm, that's a thing I want to do myself some time.

I can't really decide whether Canoe tripping is first or very close second (after the thrill of whitewater) on my list of favourite pastimes. Lucky us who enjoy both...

Nice! Not all of us are allergic to flatwater!

Sounds like you're on your way, but in case you want to weigh in with some wood stripper heavyweights, the forum at www.bearmountainboats.com is as good as this forum is for cboating!

Good luck, I admire your ambition - i picked up a wood stripper (Peterborough Champlain a couple years ago, still working on it)

I don't know if you've done the deck plates, but consider west-coast tiger maple (or some other name?) It almost looks like brown marble! My bro did his boat with it, it's gorgeous!

Have fun.