Fig. 441.
An excellent way to make a canvas-covered canoe is shown in Fig. 441. The essential principle of this consists in having a stiff gunwale, stiff keelson (inside the ribs), and ribs stout and numerous enough to ensure a permanently strong and stiff framework without the assistance of the lengthways ribbands. The outside is then sheathed with very thin strips of basswood, pine, or any reasonably strong and light wood (perhaps 3/16" thick and 2" or 3" wide), fitting them carefully to the shape, but without any attempt to make water-tight joints. If this boat, which is complete in all respects except that of being water-tight, is then covered with canvas as already described, the result will be a strong, smooth boat, without the irregularities of surface which are a necessary feature of the unsheathed form.
This method is adopted in making canvas-covered canoes after the model of the birch-bark canoe, and the result is an admirable boat, which, while perhaps hardly equal to a genuine "birch" of Indian manufacture, is certainly the next thing to it for an open paddling canoe. Of course, if you can work up your design after the model of a real birch, you will have accomplished as much as you could wish in this line—but to design and construct a good canoe upon the birch model is not an easy thing for the beginner to do, and had best not be attempted until after considerable experience in simpler and less graceful forms. This mode of construction can well be applied, however, to a canoe of almost any type. The sheathing can be painted and the canvas laid on the fresh paint.
Another form of construction is to omit the keelson and fasten the frames and ribs directly to the top of the keel, having previously cut a rabbet for the canvas (as in case of the stem-and stern-posts) on each side of the keel at the top; the canvas by this arrangement being put on in two parts, one on each side of the keel.
It is, of course, possible to construct a canoe with nothing but two gunwale-strips, stem-and stern-posts, a strip for a keelson, and a number of barrel-hoops for ribs; and such affairs are quite often put together by boys, but they are apt to be of light and flimsy construction and to lack sufficient stiffness to keep their shape after being used for a while. A certain degree of flexibility and lack of rigidity is desirable in a canvas-covered boat, and, in fact, it is to this quality that it owes much of its merit; but it should have enough stiffness to hold its general shape permanently.
An extremely simple method is to omit the stem-pieces and simply bend the keelson up at each end to meet the gunwales at bow and stern, where all the lengthways pieces can be fastened to a block, canvas being stretched over the whole as already described. A canoe which turns up so excessively on the bottom at bow and stern has some disadvantages, but still a useful and cheap boat can readily be made in this way. It should have a quite flat cross-section in the middle.
Most canoes can be sailed on the wind, often very successfully, by having a deep keel—which can be rockered or increased in depth towards the middle—or by adding a centre-board. But the latter is quite a nice operation, particularly so in case of making your first boat (see page 330).
The holes and the steps for the masts should be arranged before the canvas is put on, fitting extra thwarts across if needed, and it is a good plan to fit tubes for the masts. In case of sailing, the steering can be done with the paddle, or a rudder can be used (in which case a straight stern-post should be put in, for which a knee is good) and lines be led forward to the well-hole from a yoke at the top of the rudder. Many arrangements have been devised for steering sailing-canoes, but these details, as well as those for the rigging, can be found in any good book on the subject. If you are a novice, begin with a simple leg-of-mutton sail (Fig. 448).