The canoe building course

Learn to build your own wooden canoe with canoe builder Bart Deseyn during a 35 hour canoe building course. It’s a very rewarding experience and achievable to everyone, even to those with no prior experience with woodworking. During the canoe building workshop you work with the same simple hand tools you probably have in your tool box.

Canoe builder Bart wil guide you through the entire process of building a canoe. In simple steps you will see the genesis of a canoe. You will develop different skills during the course. Laminating with epoxy for instance. Bart will pass down his knowledge and will give you lots of boatbuilding tips & tricks.

Stitch and glue construction

Stitch and glue is a very simple boat building method which uses plywood panels stitched together with wire and glued together with thickened epoxy resin. Plywood panels are cut to shape and stitched together to form an accurate hull shape without the need for forms or special tools. The outside of the hull is laminated with glass fabric-epoxy. The inside of the hull gets a coating of epoxy. The entire boat is painted in 2-component epoxy paint in a color of your choice.

Stitch and glue construction is a very fun way to build your first canoe. It’s easy and moreover, it moves on very quickly. Within a couple of hours work the canoe is stitched together.

What to expect?

The canoe building course covers the entire process of building a stitch and glue canoe:

  • Making a simple form
  • Stitching the panels
  • Glueing the panels with thickened epoxy
  • Preparing the hull to be laminated
  • Laminating the outside with glass cloth and epoxy
  • Sanding the inside and outside of the hull
  • coating the inside of the hull with epoxy
  • Preparing and placing gunwales and decks
  • Making and placing the seats and yoke
  • Final sanding and painting the hull
  • Oiling the gunwales, decks and seats

You don’t need any gear to participate in the workshop. Everything you need to build the canoe wil be provided by Freeranger Canoe and is included in the price. We also provide personal protective equipment when needed.

Although wooden canoes are strong it’s inevitable they get scratched, or worse, damaged. Luckily a wooden canoe is very easy to repair. Bart will explain how to repair damages and how to repair seats and gunwales.

For more general info check our workshops page.

Registration

Canoe building course

€ 450 pp

In consultation we decide on a schedule to build your stitch and glue canoe. That will take up approximately 35 hours. We can build an evening or day each week or group the construction in one or more multi-day periods.

To book a canoe building workshop go fill in the registration form. We will get back to you to plan a schedule. Registration is complete once we receive your payment.

The workshop fee does not cover the acquisition of the canoe. After completion of the workshop the built canoe has to be purchased at € 1640.