After having tried some PE canoes and finding them much too heavy, and near zero offerings of second hand tuff stuff or kevlar models we like or even could afford to splurge on we decided we might give a go of building our own in the garage out of kevlar and either vinylester or epoxy resin to result in a lightweight canoe I can haul around without putting too much strain on my (injured) back.
One model which grabs our attention is the Chestnut Canoe Company Pal - it seems by all accounts its hull would most suit our needs.
Nova Craft makes a fine Pal, but no distributors anywhere near we live and zero second hand market - seems we have no other option but to make our own.
I have found two companies offering reworked/modified Pal plans, but not the original plans ; does anyone have an idea where these may be found?
If buying a Nova Craft version is only off the table on account of not having a dealer nearby, I wouldn’t be surprised if you could get them to ship one to you by truck. Trucking adds expense of course, and a new boat won’t be cheap as it is, but the option of trucking might be there. Unless you are retired, the time spent making your own mold, laying up the hull and building gunwales surely has a very high dollar value too.
Also, I don’t recall the name of the outfit and wouldn’t know if it’s still in business, but there used to be a one-man transport company that would transport boats, on proper racks (not tossed in the back of a semi-), for a competitive rate. And more than a few boats have traveled hundreds of miles to a new home via relay shipping done by people on these message boards. I’ve taken part in three such shipments.
Sadly the truck would have to travel about 5500 miles, mostly across some wetted earth surface Guideboatguy
As for the time it would take to loft those plans and do all of the construction - god willing there is enough of that here; my wife has the career, I have the kid and two broken and sagged vertebrae which have pointed me towards a lightweight canoe ^^ I wrote Novacraft asking for some assistance in finding a Pal they layed up in our budget - shipping their annual spring sale items from the factory is out sadly, and the nearest dealer of them is about 700 miles away and the base price for the pal is almost twice the Canadian value - and as far as I know they will not ship here. No local sellers, no second hand market to speak of.
@RedPaddler said:
Sadly the truck would have to travel about 5500 miles, mostly across some wetted earth surface Guideboatguy
Oh yes, that does rather complicate the situation!
The very original plans were tweaked by Chestnut so often that there is no original plan. Chestnut was famous for fiddling plans to accommodate buyers whims.
Stewart River Boatworks has the closest as far as I know
http://www.stewartriver.com/canoes/pal.html
http://wcha.org/catalogs/plans.html
Ohhh, hey many thanks Kim, I’ve been looking for that shop but I just could not remember the name…
Yes I found out about Stewart River’s plans but also that they have been modified somewhat. Are there not even some lines plans to be had from Chestnut / Peterborough themselves I wonder?