Jim Allen says: Ray, I don’t know if I ever sent you a photo of my canoe in place in my new summer house.  Here it is.  It has been without a doubt the most commented, liked feature by everyone who has seen the house or seen photos of it.  It really makes the room That is the 6’ model I built from your kit.  The lake house is on Seneca Lake in western NY.  I embellished the kit ever so slightly by adding an extra red cedar strip near the sheer and making the thwarts out of ash – which is what I think a full sized canoe would use. 

Joe Klein from Hilton Head, SC sent me a finished picture of his 40″ lobster boat. Beautiful color combination. He is getting ready to do sea trials soon. Can’t wait to see the action! He has scratch built other RC boats as well and mentioned: Great kit!  Had a lot of fun building it.  Can’t wait to start sea trials….Joe Klein, HHI, SC Thanks for the photos Joe!

Allen Wood from San Fransisco, CA did an excellent job of finishing out the 42″ strip kayak kit, mounted on one the small wave stand. Allen has a long list of impressive credits to his name, as his website www.ultimatesportsmedicine.com shows. Now he can add another one. Thanks Allen for nice pictures and craftsmanship!

Brendan Sullivan did a nice job on finishing out a 72″ canoe kit. He also built a very nice 42″ strip kayak, shown lower down on this blog. Thanks for the pictures and nice work Brendan!

Brendan Sullivan finished his awesome 42″ strip kayak and is ready for the finish orders from his sister, since she is the lucky recipient of this beautiful hand crafted kayak. We’ll be looking forward to the final decision on the finish. Thanks for the photos Brendan, keep up the great work!

The Mahogany 10 panel stitch and glue canoe has gone through many changes since its first design a couple years ago. Originally it was meant to be an easy to build canoe kit for the customer, several pictures on this blog, but it was more than a handful for most first time builders, and I have found it is not easier than the strip canoe, in fact much more tedious. It is a very different canoe than the others. We had more demand for a large canoe that could be used as shelving over bars, or standing up in a boat house as bookshelf. Sold several as lights. The original design was the 82″ which had two piece panels that could be shipped inexpensively, but now with the larger CNC machine capable of cutting a full 96″ , we have settled on this size. It won’t be sold as a kit unless someone really wants to tackle it. It is a beautiful canoe when completed, much larger than all the others, beamier, deeper and heavier. This one I used heavy seat framing and large thwart, larger deck caps and toe rails. Going to Keven in Auburn Hills, Michigan in his beautiful lake side house.

Gary did an outstanding job of building the 54″ canoe and the 42″ kayak, coming up with some creative ways to make the seats and other parts. Looks great! Just in time for Christmas.

Hi Ray. Photos of my 2 projects from your book. Really enjoyed building them.   Gary from PA.  Merry Christmas!

Thanks Jack Simmons from Vancouver, Washington. He has built numerous beautiful boat models including several of our canoes. There’s a post I did on Jacks other kits further below. Nice work Jack.

Bob from Sheridan, WY did an outstanding job on the kayak, adding his own touches to the plaster seat. I asked him about the finish and he replied: Ray, Finish is 7 coats (sanding between every 2) of  Behr oil based spar urethane. Used it on my boats for years, works good, just needs time to sand and build coats. Did not epoxy hull. I did put deck on top of sheer clamp. That way it could hang over to be trimmed and shaped later. I also put extra decking panels (the wide ones) under the seat area to clean it up.

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