Me the dog and the canoe

The canoe did get lost in the process, however I have managed to keep track of the dog.
We have had it in a local lake a few times now and it must be quite a sight even from far off as we get quite a few folks staring and taking pictures.
It takes about an hour or so to get a good workout, so we take a break and play ball and swim a bit.
I need to get the trailor in better shape, bearings, seals, caps and perhaps even make the lights work. Then I have to start in on the other cat I got with this one and see if I can't make a sail boat out of it, I think I have enough sail boat parts to make one complete.
Thanks for the complements, it has been a fun project, but it sure gets a lot more attention than I had hoped for, folks on jet ski's taking our pictures and all.

 

Most folk with "iconic" home' built boats like yours run into the same problem.

Even my fairly ordinary plywood canoe is unusual enough that it gets me into conversations that eat into my exercise time! It's what's called a Lost Pond boat, basically a small canoe used with a kayak-style double-bladed paddle. people ignore molded plastic canoes and kayaks mine catches attention. The only thing is to get it into the water as fast as possible and paddle madly away from shore before the gawkers have had time to gather . . .

 

The first boat I ever built as an adult was a Caddo Lake bataeu, inspired by an article in Woodenboat magazine. It was a double-ended, flat-bottomed canoe with a fish well in the center. The first thing I did was lose the fish well, and add a pivoting centerboard. Then I lapstraked another six inches onto it, and added a mainsail....

Eventually I had two masts and three sails (boomed jib, gaff main, and a spritsail mizzen). The kick-up rudder had a yolk, controlled by lines leading amidships and ending in a big knot that I hung onto, while I stood on the gunwales trying to keep her right side up as she whistled across the water....

By the time I got done with her, she was probably the most extreme sailing canoe in the country. I used to go screaming across Southern California lakes standing on the gunwale, leaning out with the rudder lines in my hand. Of course, I learned to bring a big fuzzy towel and change of clothes, because inevitably the stiff breeze I'd been leaning into would take a break and leave me nothing to lean against.

Unfortunately, I lent her to one of my more reality-challenged brothers, and she magically transformed herself into several bottles of whiskey and a spare tire for his van.....

The only point of all that wallowing around in the past is to mention a week I spent on Lake Mojave, with the canoe crammed with camping gear, fishing gear, and a dry washer for gold prospecting. I hadn't gotten around to the yolk tiller yet; I was still steering her with a paddle over the side (did the modification on the beach my second day out). And with my Golden Retriever/Lab mix sitting in the bow, I guess I was a colorful sight.

Or so one gal on a fairly generic outboard boat seemed to think... she spent almost an hour videotaping me one afternoon. Wherever I went, her boat went. Her brother/boyfriend/husband/significant other/casual acquaintance/family member/whatever kept her boat side by side with mine for the whole time she was videotapeing me. In my opinion, the polite thing for her to do would have been to hail me and get my address, so she could at least share the videos with me.

But I guess that never occurred to her.

 

Looks nice, and about twice the size of a regular paddle boat.

I hope the dog helps with the paddling.

 

I am about twice the size of a normal paddle boater, or perhaps four times.


A friend has said a time or two than a hampster wheel built sized for the dog with a cat, ball, or some such attractant would be a good thing to try, we will see.

I would think someone filming you for an hour might offer to share a copy but we all tend to get caught up in what we want and tend to forget about others from time to time.

Me and the dog were out on the bike yesterday and were chased down by a self proclaimed photojournalist wanting to put us in a motorcycle magazine, he didn't offer a copy and he plans to make a buck on our pics.
What the hell, must be the price for not having the ability or interest in finding a box to think inside of.