STRIP-BUILT CANOES

"There once was a group of retirees, Sitting around in old dungarees, What were the old fogies to do? Why, build three wood-strip canoes, So they all simply rolled up their sleeves. The plans were surely ancient enough, '56 Popular Mechanics stuff..." so begins the limerick sent by Marsha Napier with the news that she and Kris Ellingson, along with three neighbors (Mark Foster and Sandy and John Hansen), built three canoes from October 1, 2008 to March 1, 2009 in John's shop. None of them had any boat-building experience but they tucked in to building their boats from a 1956 issue of Popular Mechanics and the results look great. All three boats were built on the same mold and are 16'4." The first boat is redwood, the second is Western red cedar, and the third is mostly Alaskan yellow cedar. By the way, the backdrop for their photos is the 14,162' Mt. Shasta.