Hi there, my name is Grant. I'm an amateur boat designer and
builder. Ha Ha.
I'm one of those guys that spends a lot of time in boats, looking at boats,
building boats and fixing boats.
It's not my job - it's just a hobby that I need help paying for.
I grew up in a small town near Vancouver, BC on the West coast of Canada.
My Dad is an avid fisherman and all of our family vacations and day trips seemed
to involve water and boats in some way. My introduction to boats came at a very
young age. My mom has a photo of me running Dad's old12-foot aluminum at full
throttle in rough water, wave top to wave top. By the look of the photo I can't
have been more than 8 or 9 years old. By the time I was 12, I had my own
8-foot sabot (a sailing pram) and a few years of sailing under my belt.
My grandfather (Papa) was a master craftsman. He supported his family as a
finish carpenter. Papa built the family home with lumber he milled from the
trees that were on the land. He also built fine furniture and several
traditional style boats and cedar canvas canoes over the years. One of my most
prized possessions is an amazing 1:10 scale replica of a double cockpit Chris
Craft boat. The seats are upholstered, the steering wheel turns the rudder, and
it even has a one-cylinder model airplane engine turning a miniature V-drive
and a scale brass propeller. The boat has stringers, bulkheads, and is planked
with scale-sized boards just like a real Chris Craft. All of the fittings and
hardware are hand made.
My personality is somewhere between Dad and Papa. I love the outdoors and the
water (especially fishing) and also love to build and repair things. I
inherited my grandfather's antique woodworking tools in 1997, and decided that
it would be a fitting tribute to my grandfather to use them to build the types
of things that he himself enjoyed building.
I messed around building furniture type stuff for the house, but in the summer
of 1998, after owning several fiberglass canoes 16 - 17 ft long, I came to the
realization that I needed another boat. I needed a boat that was light enough
for one person to carry up trails into remote lakes, would be large enough to
hold one person and overnight gear and would be stable for fishing. Due to my
financial situation at the time, it could not cost too much money - I would
build it myself.
I decided to build my first stitch and glue canoe, a craft based on a pirogue.
Although it is not a traditional design, the warmth of the wood has so much
character and the ease of building it make me think that the Cajuns who
originally developed this type of boat so many years ago would use the same
methods if they were here today.
My Grandfather was a practical man who made the most out of the talents that
were given him. He most certainly would have used the techniques shown on these
web pages had they been available to him.
The truth is that when I am building a boat using Papa's tools, I feel
a connection to
him that I never had when he was alive. I think of how his hand once held the
plane or coping saw that I am holding and it all seems somehow right.
I have now designed and built several different styles of boats, all out of
necessity.
All are designed to simply serve a different end use.
The basic idea always remains the same though - a well designed, cheap, easy to
build boat, finished as light as possible will always suit my needs best.
As a way of paying for my boat-building hobby, I am offering my original plans
to other low budget builders at a very reasonable cost.
After all, one of the main reasons I began to build boats in the first place
was because I couldn't afford to buy a factory made boat. I hope you as an
amateur boat-builder will find a design that works for your needs.
Have a look around and feel free to contact me if you have any questions about
the boats.
