Canuda Ply Design LOA 15’9”. beam 33". 14" high amidships 20" bow, weight 40 lb.

Drink Canada Dry. Think Canuda Ply. Canu for canoe, Ply for 2 sheets of plywood . The aim of this prototype is to show that a canoe can be made from flat plywood with great economy of wood and resin. Plywood compared to fiberglas laminates has cheap renewable fibers and because of the very high steam pressing pressures very low consumption of a cheap

thermosetting resin. The possibility exists of mass producing the halves of the canoe and bulk shipping them nested so that all the homebuilder has to do is join them along the keeline and stem and stern and finish the wood.

 Since plywood with scarf joints can be tortured into narrow kayaks, it was hoped that the hot rolling and broadseaming techniques pioneered by the Arrow would allow a round bilge plywood canoe. It did not prove possible to get a smooth joint with the large amount of broadseam required and a dart had to be introduced perpendicular to the seam. To ensure both the dart and the fore and aft seam was perfectly smooth, a female mold was made of the midships chine area on one side of a fiberglas canoe Each panel was placed on the mold to glass its chine dart closed on the outside with a ply bridging strip glued over it on the inside. The mold was also used to close and to glass- reinforce the spline joint between fore and aft panels on each side. Generally a female mold avoids any outside high spots which are impossible to fair without breaking through the outside veneer, and prioritises the outside fairness in contact with the the water.

 The undarted front of each panel then is the midsection shape angling toward the bow.  To

1) get a high overall prismatic fullness coefficient Cp more from the stern than the bow

2) to avoid solo sitting right at the center where the carrying yoke has to be

I widened the side stringers more at the stern than at the bow to get more U to the stern quarter sections. The V'd bow sections reject spray and allow a classic canoe bow radius and the bow to run up beaches, rocks, and flotsam rather than ploughing into them. The very small radius stern profile should be good for directional stability and hanging a rudder for sailing or trimming. If kayaks with no yaw from paddling have rudders for the wind, canoes have even more reason to have such trim tabs Aesthetically the stern from the side looks acceptably like a square stern canoe.

The low rocker helps with directional stability for lake canoeing. The flared quarter sections are good for rejecting spray and overtopping from lake waves, and give very good secondary stability in roll and pitch. The vertical sides and the inside gunnel amidships provide clearance for the hand closest to the blade in solo paddling as close to the centerline as possible. The knees can be braced against the chines so that switching paddling sides every few strokes or longer does not require shifting the stance if the waterline beam is about 30". The heeling of a narrow canoe in solo paddling generates a yaw torque that counters the one from the offcenter paddle. The power stance of bending the away leg at the knee with the foot forward requires even less beam than double kneeling. Hence the beam is 30” on the waterline and 34” max with the gunnel 13” high amidships rising to 20 ” at the bow. The canoe signature features of a sharp upturn in the sheer at the ends and recurve of the stem are no problem to incorporate. The upturn is as sharp as possible so as not to generate alot of windage and the gunnel transitions to mainly on the outside so as to help reject overtopping from oncoming waves

But at the stern with its no rocker U sections the sheer has been kept fairly low, and as amidhsips the gunnel is mainly on the inside These features will be necessary for a new rentry strategy based on the front seat being a very thick foam bulkhead. The plan is to swim the bow of the inverted swamped canoe downwind, force it under water, and have the wind help drain and blow the canoe vertical floating at the foam seat and then allow it to blow back upright quickly so only the bow compartment is flooded. Then swim around to the stern and hoist one self over it with ones legs intially dangling on the outside, with the flooded bow compartment counterbalancing one's weight. This stern reentry works on dinghies where side rentry is impossible. If successful here it will mean much less bailing than trying to bail out an entire canoe's volume of water against overtopping waves.