New Custom Built 16' Wood And Canvas Canoe

Shown here is a Camp Nomininque canoe that was custom built for me in northern Quebec, Canada,in 1995. It was finished by me but it has not yet had her maiden voyage! It is 16' overall, 35" at the gunwales, 37" at tumblehome and weighs just 73 pounds. The ribs and planking are all Canadian white cedar; the gunwales , seat frames, and carrying thwart are all white ash; it is covered in traditional 8 oz. canvas. The interior is finished with five coats of tung oil and the exterior is finished with two coats of red poly enamel.

I sent the French-Canadian builders figured ash that they used for the bow and stern decks and they left the milling and attaching the keel, building the seats and interior and exterior finishing to me. I built the seats from white ash and the fancy cane work (daisy pattern) was done by Woodstrip Watercraft. At 73 pounds this canoe is remarkably light for a 16' wood / canvas canoe and easily carried by one person. The Camp Nomininque canoes have been built over the past 40 years during the winter months by master canoe builder Lucien Desroches and his son on a time tested mold that produces a canoe with the very best combination of stability, lightness and load carrying ability. These canoes have been used (and held up) for decades by hundreds of summer campers in over 15 summer camps in Quebec.

Although I always intended to launch and name the canoe, in recent years I've been building and rowing one person skiffs and realize that it is now time to find a new home for this beautiful one-of-a-kind canoe.