So you want to build a plywood canoe with the help of some canoe plans? Canoe is probably one of the easiest boat to build. With a simple canoe plan on hand, you can probably finish the project on one weekend.

However, as with all other boat building endeavors, you need to choose a canoe plan that suits your preference and skills. To determine which plan you can easily work with, you have to consider these things:

MATERIALS

Plywood canoe are the easiest to build. I would strongly suggest if you are a novice builder to get started with plywood canoe plans. A marine grade ply of 2 mm to 4 mm should do the job. Although I've used a 6 mm plywood before and it worked perfectly fine as well.

Of course, fiberglass would give you a sleeker canoe but it isn't as cost effective as wood and I would only suggest this material if you are building with pre-molded fiberglass pieces or you yourself have a mold and know how to handle one. Also, you need to put on some breathing filter as a safety precaution. Fibers are dangerous once it gets into your respiratory system.

VARIATION

So you now decide you are going to build your own canoe. Next question would be of what design?

There are basically many variations of canoe. There's the wood-canvas canoe, wood strip and birch bark canoe, to name a few.

All of these have certain advantages and drawbacks. A wood-canvas canoe for example, uses fasteners to connect parts of the boat like planks and ribs. Therefore making this boat design easy to repair. However, it isn't the easiest boat to build. It is quite challenging to build a form of this design to get the boat started.

For a novice builder, a wood strip canoe should be the easiest option. With some basic woodworking skills and as long as you go slow, all the while paying attention to details that comes with canoe plans, you should be alright even if you no experience building a boat before.

SKILL

As I've always emphasized, anyone with interest and basic woodworking skills can build a boat. And canoes are especially one of the easiest boats you can build. However, if you are a novice boat builder, you have to be more discerning of the available wooden canoe plans online. Not all are suitable for the first time builder.

If you have to scour the internet for some good canoe plans, I strongly suggest that you choose a plan with a step by step, easy to understand instruction and images that comes with it so you can do away with the confusion.