The bottom board of a guideboat really is the backbone of the whole boat. Ribs are fixed to it, and you both walk and run aground on it, often at the same time! So this is a piece of wood upon which everything else is attached. Not really a board you would want to scrimp on.
A traditional guideboat would have quatersawn white pine 5/8”-3/4” thick, 12” wide, and 15ish feet long, with tight grain and free of knots. Not exactly something that you can go pick up at Lowes… that would be NUTS!!!… right…? Let’s dig in!
I sourced my wood as part of a kit offered by Newfound Woodworks in Enfield, NH. I had my design, and I opted to just buy the cedar strips and bottom board material from someone, rather than figure out how to make it all myself. Maybe next time. At some point I’ll write a post about milling up a white pine.
We’re gonna need a bigger bench
It’s one thing to build a box, or a desk. It’s another animal trying to glue together three 16 ft long cedar boards when your work bench is only 7ft long. It’s woodworking on a whole different level. How do I glue boards straight and level without bowing, cupping or twist? My basement floor isn’t even that level!
To cut to the chase, I bought a strong back off of a friend who built it to build a cedar strip canoe. This saved me a considerable amount of time in that I could screw together an 17ft long platform that is perfectly straight, shim it to be level, epoxy it to the floor, and then work off of that. About as cost effective as it gets for a 17ft long work bench. Don’t start your 16ft long woodworking project without one!
Bottom Board Glue Up… Part 1 of 2
In mid November 2022, I made the 2 hour drive up to NH to pick up the lumber for the boat. I opted for white Atlantic cedar strips for the planking, and the stock available for the bottom boards was Western Red Cedar. The 3 boards I got were nice tight grained quartersawn boards, and I was very happy I had solved that problem.
I put the wood aside into storage for a couple months, and once I was about done with the ribs, it came time to turn my attention to making the bottom board. I pulled the wood out and then came to the late realization that this wood was 3/8” thick, roughly half the thickness I needed it to be for a traditional guideboat… Big problem!
My problem stems from the fact that I had bought wood for a fiberglassed cedar strip Guideboat, whereas I was going a traditional route. A fiberglass and epoxy shell over wood is more than strong enough with a thin bottom board, but not for a design that is relying on wood alone. This wood came as the guideboat kit was designed, no complaints and I would 100% buy from Newfound again if/when I build a canoe in the future, but I unfortunately didn’t even think about what complications might arise as a result. Dumb, I know.
So what to do? Start from scratch?? Quartersawn wood is not something you can just pick up from the store. Hell, a 16ft board isn’t something you just pick up from the store, much less one without knots. I decided to keep the cedar and laminate a second layer of pine to the bottom board. This would stiffen the bottom board and give something for the ribs to hold onto.
Next post I’ll glue up the cedar board, then laminate a pine board to it for a bottom board double layer cake. I’m sure worse things have happened in boat building history…