Subject: My Stripper Project
Date: 3-12-03
To the Folks at Glenn-L boats,
It's been a long time since I sent in my project registry on the "Stripper" that I was building. Well since then I completed the canoe and it came out great for my first boat. I thought I would send you a photo of the finished boat.
I started the boat in March of 2000 and finished it in July 2002. It really only took about five months of work, but I had many other projects come up since I moved into a new home. I even had to build a workshop to build the boat in.
I built the boat with strips of local cypress and did the gunwales and thwart out of ash and dark walnut. The boat came out a little heavier at 70 lbs, but I think it is because of my epoxying experience and using some heavy wood. The next one I'm sure will come out lighter. Yes, there will be another one built. I enjoy paddling with friends and family. I also did the deck and bulkhead a little differently. I enlarged the deck and put in a vertical bulkheads with a six inch diameter access plate for some dry storage and flotation compartments for those time of unexpected rotations while canoeing.
Since the boat came out so good I wanted matching paddles. So
after doing a lot of research on the Internet and going to a wooden boat show
last fall in South Carolina I completed two paddles that complement the 
boat. I saw a real nice design that "Woodsong
Canoe" sells and tried one for myself. They also came out nice and my wife
lets me display them in the house when we are not on the water. I didn't
have any plans for the paddles, I just took measurements from some plastic
paddles that we used in the past. That worked out well for me. It only took one
and a half months to complete both, a very easy way to complement your
boat.
Thanks for the plans and form kit. They were and will be a great help in completing my first and future boats.
Chris Ward