A Skin-on-Frame Adirondack Guide Boat

 Cape Falcon Kayak described making Adirondack guide boats and reminded me of time I spent in the Adirondacks, hiking as a teenager and later canoeing there through a chain of lakes.

Skin-on-frame guide boats made by 

Brian Schulz at Cape Falcon Kayak

Before roads, wood planked versions of these boats were "pickup trucks" of the Adirondack region.

Fifty years ago I paddled a robust aluminum canoe many miles in both New York state and British Columbia, Canada. Though rugged and functional, this kind of canoe is awkward, loud and heavy. Searching for a lighter, quieter craft and that I could make myself, skin-on-frame canoes stood out. But rowing is more efficient and promotes fishing. Guide boats are essentially canoes that you row (or paddle). 

Building one involves making a bottom board, two stems and two gunwales with ribs between them to establish shape. Stringers on each side then support the nylon fabric stretched over the frame that is then coated to make the boat float. Tiny decks are added to the bow and stern for hand holds or for sitting on when launching and landing. Installing seats and making oars complete construction.

Dimensions in this 14 foot boat scaled the 16 foot 

data published in The Adirondack Guide-Boat 

by Kenneth and Helen Durant.

 Discarded redwood paneling (3/4x8 inches x 8 feet), 

painted white on one side provided the wood for 

the bottom, stems, ribs, gunwales, stringers and 

decks. Redwood is lightweight, rot resistant but 

not able to take very high forces.

A dead ash tree milled by volunteers from the Northeast 

Woodworkers Association provided wood for 

the seat frames and other high stress parts.

Joining then milling to half inch thickness, two 

redwood boards scarfed together make the 

bottom. Perpendicular grooves establish the 

27 rib locations.   

Plastic templates were made for the stem, above, 

and the ribs, then reproduced in redwood.

Eight thin slices of redwood were laminated 

together to make a double rib, that was split 

in half to make front and rear ribs.

There are ten different rib patterns. 

Each 3/4 inch wide rib was split in two to 

populate front and back halves of the boat.

The central nine ribs are identical: from five double 

ribs cut in half. To prevent the ribs from delaminating

 when bumping into rocks, they were wrapped with 

50 pound braided fishing line and then varnished.

Too thin for screws, lashing and adhesive 

connect ribs to the bottom board. 

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Most of the ribs in place.

Three sets of two eight foot boards were scarfed together 

to make gunwales, the long pieces that top the ribs and 

establish the shape. This process also made an extra set 

for another boat (to insure the assembly stays straight).

The fourteen foot gunwales needed a six inch 

chord to establish the proper curve.

Waiting for the glue to cure.

The actual chord dimension and also showing 

the three layers that make up the gunwales.

Length of three laminated boards, good for four gunwales.

Lashing a gunwale to ribs.

Both gunwales in place. Extra lengths 

of ribs were trimmed off.

Stringers that support the fabric were scarfed, glued, 

sanded and varnished before lashing them to the ribs 

evenly spaced between the gunwales and bottom board.

Showing a stringer connection to a stem, 

the curved boards at each end of the boat.

The completed frame.

To this point, work was done with the frame upright. 

In order to attach the skin, the frame needed 

to be upside down.

Nylon fabric was stretched both end to end and gunwale

 to gunwale.The 14 foot long edges were first stapled 

on each side, then sandwiched between redwood 

gunwale and an added ash outwale (for strength 

for bumping docks and to support oarlocks).

Hand stitching each end a bit to the side insured 

that the hem didn't interfere with the brass 

rub strip added after coating the fabric.

The wrinkly fabric was then soaked with hot water 

and drying stretched out the wrinkles.

A dark color acid dye was applied to make 

the boat a more appropriate color but it 

left splotches and streaks.

A different dark dye was mixed with four coats 

of two part polyurethane resin to hide stains 

of the previous effort.

At this point the boat weighs 34 pounds! 

Adding decks, oarlocks, brass rub strips

 and seats added six pounds.

On the day before our pond froze in December, 

we made sure the boat didn't leak!

But we had to paddle because there were 

no seats, oarlocks or oars yet!

Durants' book above has plans for each 

seat that include holes for caning.

Seat frames were made out of ash but without caning holes.

Woven continuous strips of wet rawhide 

populate frames instead of caning.

It takes only an hour to cut rawhide into 

strips, soak one and then weave it around 

each seat frame.

There are identical decks at each end that provide 

handholds to pick up and carry the boat.

Deck support structures are made from ash to 

withstand the forces involved in sitting 

on a deck or carrying a loaded boat.

Redwood planks finish the decks. This photo also shows an end 

of the brass rub strip that runs from around the bow stem, 

along the ash keel on the bottom and around the stern stem.

Outwales are trapezoidal in section so that oarlocks rotate 

perpendicular to the water. Since screws in the redwood

 gunwales to attach oarlocks would probably work loose

 over time, I used bolts with a backing plate against

 an ash wedge to present a parallel face.

The first set of oars were made 

from a dead white pine tree.

Oar shape and dimensions were from Durants' book.

A second oar copied the first.

Now complete with three seats mounted, 

two oars and two sets of oarlocks.

I plan to make a second guide boat that should be easier and take much less time (and I already have the gunwales!). It will have half the number of ribs, keeping them 3/4 of an inch wide so screws through the gunwales, stringers and bottom board will hold well. Rib and stem laminations will include ash to make them stronger without having to wrap them with fishing line. Nylon fabric will be extra heavy to make it more rugged. Stringers will be larger to better support the fabric between ribs that will be twice the distance apart. Weight will probably be under 50 pounds.