JEM Watercraft

Mornin';
Ga'Day Mate. Any friend of "My Brother from a Different Mother Down Under" , has gotta be OK. Welcome Aboard

Good morning my brother,

you're up early.

heya Karl,,

ya got hollidays due? If so why don't you come up for a few days and we'll slap one together We got plenty of room.

Hehe, I'm self employed mate, it's a great offer, and I have a mate in Hervey Bay that I can stay with anytime. I may take you up on that off early next year. I've gotta get some things done here in the next month, hoping to get my kayak fishing tours business started, and have a long way to go. How cool would it be to offer kayak tours in kayaks all hand made by yours truly!

Well, I hope there is room here for at least one more from Oz. (Originally from Ohio but somehow after 12 years in the USAF I ended up down here many years ago, and now consider myself as something between lord of the flies and king of the kangaroos.)

I did download the free plans offered by Matt, but feel it will probably be more appropriate for me to purchase the plans for the 15.5" Iroquois canoe and stick to that one. Being my first project I figured that having the detailed instructions supplied with it won't go astray. I rang Boatcraft Pacific in Brisbane, Australia and spoke with a fella that I thought was very helpful. A couple suggestions he made was to use the Pacific Maple ply and also said that using 100 gsm (3 oz) fibreglass cloth should be satisfactory enstead of using the 200 gsm (6 oz) cloth in order to cut down on weight.

My questions are this: Will using the lesser oz fibreglass cloth greatly affect the integrity of the craft? I don't want a heavy canoe if I can avoid it, but also don't want it falling apart on me while I'm using it. Also, for those in Australia that have already built a boat, is the Pacific Maple ply a good choice? (No one around here seems to have ever heard of Okoume ply.)

Cheers.

G'day Buckeye,

Welcome aboard mate.

I originally hail from Armidale but left there when I was little to move to God's Country - Queensland, with my parents.

Mate I don't know if you are aware of it or not but there are a lot of ex US Servicemen out here. Our women just seem to love em.

Re the ply, I would try Australian Wood Panels in Brisbane. I will try to find a link for you. I get all my ply from them and they are real good to deal with.

There is no need, IMHO, to go to the expensive marine ply but if you go that way, I would recommend Gaboon.

Where are you planning on paddling? How many people to you expect to take? You are pretty close to some spectacular places down that way.

Rethe glass, I use only 85 gram woven matt and it holds up just fine.

The 200 gram stuff is much harder to wet out, requires and awfull lot more resin and to be perfectly blunt, is a SPAM to work with. I used it on my Wadefish and will never use it again.

I get my woven matt from Whitworths on line and while I have heard good things about the Bote Coat epoxy, I have never used it.

I was using International HT9000 for a while (also available at Whitworths) with pretty good results (I think) but have found System 3 from ATL Composites to be superior in every way.

I'm not sure what they are referring to in "Pacific Maple" I think they probably mean cheap exterior grade bracing ply. That also works very well but is fairly heavy for its thickness.

Good luck mate, & Keep us posted.

Thanks for the welcome Mick,

Armidale is a lovely spot and only a little over an hours drive away from me. Gee, I never knew that Qld is God's country....I've always heard that it is NSW. And yes, there are a lot of us ex-serviceman that now call Australia home. I even have some old mates that live up your way.

I found the web site for the Australian Wood Panels in Coolangatta and will give them a call tomarrow. When I spoke with that other company earlier today I asked about Gaboon and was told that all the good stuff was bought up by China for their games and the stuff left over wasn't too good. That is why the guy recommended the Pacific Maple. He said it was a little heavier than Gaboon, but not by much. Oh yeah, after doing an on-line search I've learned that Gaboon is also known as Okoume. When I ring the Australian Wood Panels I'll get their advise on this as well. (My wife asked me why I need expensive exotic wood for this project......she said I should just buy "normal canoe wood" to build it with. Good grief! See what I'm up against.)

After reading your reply I feel better about the 100gram fibreglass cloth and will probably go with that. I've also bookmarked the site for ATL Composites.

I'm looking forward to building this canoe. But first I have to order the plans and get things ready. I'll also have to buy a heap more clamps. There are some large damns nearby for me to paddle and fish in, and if we ever get some more water in our streams I hope to do a river journey.

Cheers. Chuck

G'day Chuck,

I never knew that Qld is God's country....I've always heard that it is NSW.

Nah mate. The best thing to come out of New South Wales is the road to Queensland

The best thing about New South Wales is that it keeps Victoria further away

If you get the chance, drive down to Grafton and check out the fresh water reaches of the Clarence river - magnificent There is even some pretty good white water up near Dorrigo if you are that way inclined.

I forget the name of the river, but dounstream from the Dangerslie Falls just out of Armidale might be also worth a look.

Chuck,

I'm an ex US serviceman too; still stateside. Mick & I think a bit differently on wood for boats. I strongly prefer the Okuome because of the quality. It is of uniform thickness and ply (red NOT HOLLOW) all the way across. So, it bends and twists uniformly instead of bulging and bowing where you wish it didn't.

Since the primary job of a boat is to remain afloat, hull integrity are tow words that interest me.

Kayak Jack wrote:Chuck,

Since the primary job of a boat is to remain afloat, hull integrity are tow words that interest me.

The main difference between marine ply and normal ply is that normal ply has some voids in it where marine ply does not have the voids.

I use the normal wood and epoxy saturate it to fill any voids and protect the wood. The way I see it is the epoxy saturation cost less and fills the wood preserving it against any water damage if it is compromised (Damaged) when paddling.

It is nothing more then what a person wants to do or use for there boat, after all it is there boat and should be done the way they want it. The only limitations are the persons thoughts or imagination.

Chuck.