Show us your Guideboat...

Hey Rick, The strips are 3/4" wide x 3/16" thick by 16' long, When I built the boat I made them over hang both ends then trimmed them afterwards. All the strips have a bead on one edge and a cove on the opposite edge so the glue has a troth to set in while you are doing the glue ups and the strips can form themselves to the ribs better. If you go to my web site you can many pictures of the boat being built. adirondackbuilt,com
As long as you are not going to use the boat you intend to build in a rocky river or stream you should be OK without placing fiberglass on the out side of it. My guide boat is only used on lakes and deep water rivers. I had a blast with it in the adirondacks this past summer.

 

Chris, your guideboat web site is great. I've heard about Adirondack boats for many years but never really followed up to learn about them; your history was very interesting to read, as was the information about the construction details. My wife and I stayed at Saranac Lake while passing through a couple of years ago, but didn't have the time then to explore. Maybe we can get back there soon and try to get acquainted with some of the boats. Thanks for putting up the link to your site!

Cliff

 

Here in the Adirondacks, the cedar (Thuga occidentalis ''Northern White Cedar") doesn't grow straight and clear. Mostly it is swamp grown. with hollow centers and lots of dead loose knots. lots of twist and sweep.Finding highland grown clear cedar that provides boat material is a lot harder than it is along the northern border of Maine, NH, NY,Vt.,Michigan and Minn. and the southern border of Canada. Also a lot of that good straight cedar went into building the "Great Camps". That being said, a lot of boats were built from local cedar. However, they tended to break up and split under the heavy use that a working boat was sujected to. The weight difference between a cedar boat and a pine boat 16' in length, 1/4" thick planking, is only about 6-8 pounds.(65lbs for cedar vs 73lbs for pine). Now if you were using your boat to pack to a seculded pond to fish by yourself, you could get a small 12-13' cedar boat with 3/16" planking that weighed in around 35-40 pounds. However you couldn't load it heavy, and wouldn't use it for regular lake travel. The pine is much more durable than the cedar, easier to work with, and easier to obtain. Also the pine boats may be the ones that survived to this day so they are the ones we see. At this time I would estimate that there are 4 pine boats to every 1 cedar boats surviving.

 

Hey everyone, March 31st - April 1st at the Saratoga Hilton City Center in Saratoga Springs New York will be a great Woodworking show sponsored by The Northeast Woodworkers Association. The doors open at 10am and close at 5 each day. Here is a link to their website and one to the Shows site. My guide boat and John Michne's guide boat will be there on display. Please help support this great group of people and their non for profit woodworking group. Thanks, Lance
http://woodworker.org/index.php
http://www.nwawoodworkingshow.org/index.php

 

Here are a couple of pictures of a strip built version I built in 2007.

 

And here are some pictures of one I built with Mike Wison of Great Camp Sagamore built at the Boatshop there in 2005.

 

My first guide-boat, cedar strip epoxy, my own lines derived from pictures from a magazine

On the shore of Lake Lila



My second guide-boat, Grant "Virginia" laminated ribs, double planked white pine

on Rainbow Lake


My third guide-boat, cedar-strip epoxy over laminated ribs, my own design

On the Connecticut River

 

Very nice Boats To the both of you,canoeal & Lazyjack,. Thanks for Sharing.

 

Robert P. Ross
Ross Bros.
PO Box 60277
Florence, MA 01062
413-586-3875

Robert@RossBros.com

 

12 Foot guideboat build

 

Jhomer, Looking great. When do you think it will be completed by?

 

I think it will be a while. Been two years now in the making and had to move it once from out west
to virginia. Hopefully I can get it done before the 90 miler this September.

 

Keep us updated with the progress please. I am hoping to take my boat out this coming weekend if the weather is good.

 

Restored guideboat thought to be a Warren Cole pre 1905 when he went to plumb stems.

 

1904 Kerst Indian Lake NY.

Robert P. Ross

Ross Bros.

PO Box 60277

Florence, MA 01062

413-586-3875



Robert@RossBros.com