The yellow Cruiser is nearing completion. I had planned on doing the pinstripe as gold with a black border, but its looking pretty nice in black only. I am awaiting word from the client on his choice.

Final varnish in on all of the trim, the thwarts are ready to bolt in, the stem bands are on, and the seats are being caned. Almost done!

A yellow canoe is like a blast of sunshine in the shop on a cold January workday.

A close up of the Walnut trim on the Cruiser after first coat of varnish.

All of the thwarts and seats are made for the Cruiser in Walnut. Here they are with the first coat of varnish.

Some colour has come into the shop this week! The paint on the Boreal is all done, got her turned over and got the last two coats of varnish on the gunnels. On Monday I will bolt the thwarts back in and get the stm band prepared and installed. All that is left is to put the seat in and they are being caned while all the rest of the work is getting done.

If you squint you can see in the background (second photo) that the Cruiser has its outwales on, that they are sanded and have the first two coats of varnish on.

The trim is on the Boreal and the Cruiser has three coats of varish. The Cruiser is now faired and sanded on the exterior and is now ready for canvas. Its actaully already in canvas for a week now, but I'm behind in posting! I'll get two more coats of varnish on yet.

The new Cuiser was being planked up this last week. The first number of runs go pretty quickly, the three bilge planks take a little longer because each one requires some complex fitting.

But once the canoe comes off of the mold there is a lot of detail work required. The decks and cant ribs need to be made and fitted, The last three ribs at each end need to be tapered to allow for the outside gunnels to have a clean run to the stem, the ring nails holding the ribs to the gunnels all have to be set and the ribs ends need to be trimmed down, all the takcs need to be checked for tight clinching, etc, etc...

So now she's all planked up and ready for the interior to be sanded and cleaned up for varnishing.

But wait, I have the Boreal to canvas and fill...

Bob is learning by doing, that all of those ribs need some fairing before the planking can go on, and some linseed oil.

The Boreal has most of the bottom planking one and we're working around to the sides. The ends are left loose until its off of the mold.

The Cruiser with the ribs all faired and coated with linseed oil. She's ready for planking now, too.

The ribs on the two canoes. There is something about this stage of building that looks great.

The top canoe is the Cruiser. If it looks a little odd how the stem is sitting at the end, that's because this old mold doesn't conform to the shape of the stem that I use and needs a little jigging.