Winter Canoe Build
2020-2021
Photo: Chris Battaglia
The winter workshed is up. Wood stove is fired up. and the strongback for the strongback stands, driven into the virgin forest floor, ready for something big.
That big thing is the 30’ canoe. The Village Canoe. Originally, the plan was to build a 30’ strip canoe, honoring the construction and vessel style of John Ruskey and the Quapaw Canoe Company in Clarksdale, Mississippi. But after reality set-in that if we wanted to portage this canoe around Maine rivers and tidal confluences and make it out to sea, we’d need something a little bit more versatile.
Enter Tim Barker. We met in 2018, and he helped advise and support the project’s early phase. Then at the Maine Sport Outfitters, currently at Hurricane Island Outward Bound School (HIOBS), he connected Village Canoe to a plethora of folks who are deep in the outdoor (and paddling, specifically) world, and one of those folks is Steve Helgeson, a former mentor of Tim’s. Helgeson and his team (and youth) at Alaska Crossings built The Patriot in the winter of 2014 in Wrangell, Alaska. Look at that beauty! During the pandemic year of 2020, with all programming halted, I phoned Steve to learn a bit more about the building process, when I felt like the weight of the strip canoe (~400 lbs empty) would be too cumbersome, the notion of a skin-on-frame canoe would allow our participants to more readily carry and portage a canoe.
When Steve and I spoke, he offered to send his plans for the Patriot, and would even shorten the length from his 40’ canoe to our intention of a 30’ canoe. With this great news in-tow, I alerted Tim to let him know that Steve was helping collaborate with the project, and that same night, Tim and his family offered the Village Canoe a temporary use of a small parcel of land in a cutout in their woods at their homestead in Belfast.
With that: we got to work. Check below for more detailed updates with plenty of photos, to boot.
Winter Canoe Build Updates:
Volunteer
We need all hands on deck for various projects throughout the winter. Want to help and do something in-person that connects you to a dynamics community project?
Support
Help us “keep the lights on” - although, don’t worry, our lights are LED, low-wattage, and this project is very frugal. We’ll be responsible stewards of any in-kind or monetary donations you may offer. Thanks for keeping us afloat.
The Village Canoe Shed. Belfast, ME. Photo: Chris Battaglia
WINTER SCHEDULE:
Soon, we’ll roll out some regular schedule that you can use to stop by the shed during “open studio” type hours. For now, follow along here and via the email newsletter for news and updates as they arise.
After leaving the shed one afternoon recently, Meg mentioned how cool it looked lit up in the woods, after dark.