We Need Your Help!

Even if you don’t live in Minnesota, we need you to sign this petition to show world-wide support for protecting America’s most-used, designated Wilderness Area. If you’re a blogger, I can get you in touch with Dave to get the code for pasting the petition and videos into your blog. Just leave a comment if you want to do that and I’ll pass on the info.

Please, sign the petition below.

Save the BWCA from Sulfide Mining

Boundary Waters guides, Dave and Amy Freeman, are teaming up with former state legislator and Grand Marais-area dogsled racer Frank Moe for an epic trip from Northern Minnesota to the State Capitol in St. Paul in early March. They are calling for the protection of the region’s natural heritage, including clean water and wilderness. Dave and Amy will be delivering petitions from Ely to Finland, Minnesota by dogsled. Frank will continue with those petitions and many more on to the State Capitol.

You have seen the lakes, rivers and forests of Northern Minnesota and the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness firsthand and understand how special this area is. Please join Dave, Amy, Frank and thousands of others by signing the petition that will be delivered to the State Capitol by dogsled.

Please, watch the videos below to learn more about the Sulfide Mining that is proposed near Ely and sign the petition below.

This article originally appeared on PaddlingLight.com. Leave a comment and an opinion by clicking through here: To Protect Minnesota’s Water and Natural Heritage

Currently, I ask for donations if you use the plans to build a boat, and many people send me those donations, but when I look at the number of downloads compared to the number of donations, it’s like 250:1. I know lots of these boats don’t get built after people look at the free plans, but some do. I also like giving these away. So, I’m torn. I’m trying to evaluate my options going forward with the plans as I get ready to release several of Chestnut Canoe Company’s models. The Chum with a modified sheerline and extra tumblehome for solo paddling appears above.

I feel that there are a few approaches:

• Continue what I’m doing: giving the canoe and kayak plans away for free while asking for a $30 donation, offering electronic files with all the stations drawn separately for $30 or printed plans for $100 to $110.
• Switching to a pay-what-you-can model similar to what I use on my solo canoe yoke plans. I ask for varying levels of support based on what you can afford. If you can’t afford even the lowest level, I ask that you write to me to receive the plans for free.
• Use a new payment system. I’ll give away 1/4- to 1/3-sized, low-quality plans for free, charge $30 for electronic full-sized plans, charge $50 for electronic individual stations and $100 to $110 for printed plans.

I’m leaning towards the last two. What I’m doing now doesn’t feel that fulfilling for me, which I think is important. The middle option makes sure that I get something out of the arrangement. At the very least, I know who wants to build one. The third option still gets the plans out for free and people could probably pretty easily enlarge the plans, but they might step up to the larger sizes if they really want to build. Obviously, someone could just ignore my plans go back to the original source and spend around 10 hours per boat modeling and drafting to get around the last two options, but I guess that’s not the point.

At any rate, I’m not sure if this post will receive many, if any, comments, but I’d like your opinion about this.

This article originally appeared on PaddlingLight.com. Leave a comment and an opinion by clicking through here: Free Canoe Plans and Free Kayak Plans Update

To buy the data storage, solar power, bike hub power device, satellite equipment, food and other logistic needs, he’ll need $7,770. To raise money, instead of turning to bunch of sponsors, although he has them, he turned to Kickstarter, a website devoted to funding projects such as this one. On Kickstater, Badenoch has set up different levels of support. At each level, you get something in return. For example, at the $25 level you get a HD documentary download w/ bonus footage. At the $50, he’ll answer questions, and so on.

In order to get the documentary made, Badenoch needs the fundraising on Kickstarter to succeed. In order for it to succeed, he needs your help. If you have a few bucks, consider pitching in to make this expedition happen. As of Monday, he had 76 backers that pledged $3,871 of the $7,770 goal. He had 17 days to go to fund the trip. If he doesn’t hit that goal, he doesn’t get any of the pledged cash.

Here’s the link to his project: Fatbikerafting the Arctic

Here’s his film about the project:

This article originally appeared on PaddlingLight.com. Leave a comment and an opinion by clicking through here: Fatbikerafting the Arctic

Winter Kayaking Tips

“There is no bad weather, only the wrong gear.” -Minnesota Proverb The original winter kayaking tips article is about dressing for cold water and discusses some of the issues that you might run into, such as ice coating your kayak, shifting pack ice and more. Read it here: Winter Kayaking.

The Risks of Winter Kayaking

ACA Instructor Trainer Sam Crowley talks about the types of risks in winter kayak, and he give you winter kayaking tips that will help you see the dangers of paddling cold water and plan to minimize those risks. Read it here: The Risks of Winter Kayaking.

Wetsuit vs. Drysuit for Paddling

A discussion of the merits of a wetsuit vs. drysuit for paddling in the winter. With information about how your body responds to cold water immersion and tips about how to layer to stay warm when kayaking in winter. Also, rules of thumb for when a wetsuit works best and when a drysuit is the best option. Read it here: Wetsuit vs. Drysuit for Paddling.

The Best Winter Kayaking Gloves

When your hands stay warm, kayaking in winter is much more fun. This article singles out the warmest two gloves and one mitten for winter kayaking. It’s definitely worth investing in a pair of gloves and a pair of mittens, because both have their place depending on conditions. Read it here: The Best Winter Kayaking Gloves

Winter Kayaking Checklist

This checklist outlines gear needed to safely paddling in winter, plus it gives you good winter kayaking tips about skills and the dangers of cold water. All the equipment mentioned was tested in the dead of winter on Lake Superior. Read it here: Winter Kayaking Checklist.

Sea Ice Definitions

When you’re paddling on larger bodies of water during the winter, it’s nice to know the terms for the type of ice you’re kayaking around. Learn the meanings of pack ice, nilas, brash ice and more. Read it here: Sea Ice Definitions.

Important Note: Every year paddlers die when in winter, because they were unprepared. If you have a website or a blog, please, link back to one or more of these articles to help get the info out there. The more this info is passed around, the more kayakers will see it and, hopefully, we’ll make kayaking in winter safer for them. I appreciate any help you can give in getting this info out there. Thanks.

This article originally appeared on PaddlingLight.com. Leave a comment and an opinion by clicking through here: Winter Kayaking Tips and Resources

The canoe is a prototype that takes its inspiration from the popular Modern Malecite St. John River Canoe plans. I like the Modern Malecite, but I wanted something with more volume and efficiency for tripping. The canoe needed to turn easily for use on tight rivers, but it also needed to have enough directional stability to paddle across the flats. Additionally, it needed to perform well when heeled in Classic Solo Canoeing style. I wanted a classic look with a modern flare. I didn’t want high end that would catch the wind, but I needed a nice upsweep in the ends. I needed to balance all these considerations to arrive at a canoe that not only I would like, but other canoeists would enjoy, too.

If you’ve been following along on Facebook. You can see pictures from the entire building process. There’s nothing magical or all that hard — maybe sometimes frustrating though — about the process. If you have any do-it-yourself nature, a cedar strip canoe is easy to build and it’s a fun project. Something to consider. You can find lots of free canoe plans here. Eventually, the plans for the Ursa will become available. For this canoe, I used 3/16-inch strips on the bottom, 1/8-inch strips on the side, one layer of 6 oz. fiberglass on the outside, an extra layer of 3 oz. glass on the outside bottom, 6 oz. carbon fiber on the inside. The trim is ash. The decks are cedar and ash.

Launching the Ursa Canoe

We launched the new tandem canoe in the Grand Marais marina, and paddled it on a relatively calm Lake Superior for about 4 miles. It was a short paddle without a load, so although I do have initial impressions, they’re not enough to make any final decisions about changes. The one “big” change that was apparent is that we sort of got our seat placement wrong. We’re planning on using this canoe as a tripper and storing the heavy pack forward the yoke, which means that when unloaded, the bow rises up out of the water. I expected that, but I didn’t expect to get what I got. With another paddler of my same weight in the bow, it’d balance perfectly. In retrospect, I should have mounted the stern seat and the bow seat slightly forward of their current positions. (An argument for sliding bow seats). We also decided that we didn’t like the width of the outwales, which means that I have some hand planing ahead of me (this will also drop a few pounds in weight!). The hull is so stiff because of the carbon fiber, it doesn’t really need the outwales.

As far as initial paddling impressions, the canoe feels stable enough (Ilena thinks less than the Freedom, but I think about the same). It feels more stable than some Prospectors that I’ve used. It turns easily, but isn’t a bear to keep going straight. We took it into some tight quarters in local rock gardens on Lake Superior with about a 1/2-foot or so of swell. We also paddled on some small breaking waves, into slots, etc… We took it where I normally sea kayak. It turned quickly in the tight areas. I feel like I got this right. The next step is to paddle it on windier day to see how it performs. Speed felt fine. I’m not sure it was as fast as my Freedom, but it feels faster than the Prospectors that I’ve paddled (the main competition for this boat). I need to get out the Freedom and paddle it side-by-side to compare the speed. I paddled it Canadian-style solo (I’m really rusty!), and it was super fun paddled that way.

Paddling the Ursa Video

Here’s a video of our first outing with the canoe. At 30 seconds, you can see the weight imbalance caused by the seat placement. When/if I release the plans to the public, I’ll move the seats forward to account for this.

The testing plan originally included paddling it on an October trip from International Falls, Minn. to Grand Portage, Minn., but one person backed out, so now we’re taking a solo canoe instead of this canoe, so it won’t get an overnight test paddle until November (if the weather holds). There’s still lots of work to complete on this boat, such as painting the bottom and varnishing the inside and outside. I need to oil the trim and fill a few fiberglassing bubbles.

It feels great to get it on the water!

This article originally appeared on PaddlingLight.com. Leave a comment and an opinion by clicking through here: Launching: New Tandem Canoe — the PaddlingLight Ursa Canoe

Pagami Creek Fire History

According to InciWeb, the website used by fire management to communicate information to the public, the Pagami Creek fire started from a lightning strike on Thursday August 18th, 2011. As part of the management plan in the Boundary Waters, the U.S. Forest Service allows wildland fires to burn unless they pose a significant threat to public safety, the area outside of the wilderness or structures. The original half-acre fire was allowed to burn to approximately 130 acres before the Forest Service decided to intervene. Instead of attacking the fire directly, they decided to burn more of the forest using a technique known as a “burn out.” The fire incident report describe a “burn out” as a tool “which will remove available fuel between the fire and the BWCAW boundary. Weather conditions must be ideal in order to conduct this operation so it is difficult to predict an exact day for the ignition.” In order to protect the portage between Lake One and Lake Two, two of the most popular lakes in the Boundary Waters, the U.S. Forest Service placed a sprinkler system along the portage.

On September 5, the Forest Service used three helicopters to ignite the “burn out.” The intervention grew the fire to approximately 2,000 acres. In normal circumstances this might have kept the fire inside the BWCA, but the area had suffered a particularly dry fall and fire danger was high. Ironically, the Inciweb report for September 6 noted “Everyone is encouraged to remember that this area is particularly dry and to be careful with fire.” Additionally, unseasonal air temperatures and high winds were predicted. Jim Sanders, Superior National Forest supervisor, later claimed that the “burn out” prevented the fire from moving into populated areas outside of the Boundary Waters northwest of the fire, and the Forest Service claimed that their computer models proved that the “burn out” didn’t lead to the coming firestorm.* An anonymous local fire official believes that the “burn out” did contribute to the increased fire behavior. Over the next few days, the fire grew to approximately 10,000 acres.

The storm front generated by the Pagami Creek fire rolls into Grand Marais, Minn.

When the storm generated by the Pagami Creek Fire rushed over Grand Marais, it looked like the coming of the four horsemen of the apocalypse. Smoke eventually reached Chicago, Ill. over 450 miles (724 km) away. The term plume-driven event was thrown around casually, but even the forest service spokesperson didn’t seem to know how to explain what was happening. An explanation comes from Forest fires: a reference handbook by Philip N. Omi:

Large fires that burn under the influence of a massive convection column are also called “plume dominated.” Generally, a billowing plume indicates simultaneous ignition of fuels covering a fairly large area. Well-formed convection columns develop under unstable atmospheric conditions, and they can dominate a fire’s behavior with updrafts and downdrafts (much like a thunder cell). A particularly dangerous situation arises when the plume collapses on account of gravity — the strong downdraft is capable of pushing a fire in any direction.

The boreal forest casts reflections onto Lake Four. This area is now burnt and the beauty lost for the rest of most of my lifetime.

A typical campsite in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area - this is why canoeists journey from all over the world to visit Minnesota.

A moose in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness.

On September 18, InciWeb reported, “Aerial water scoopers dropped slightly more than 450,000 gallons of water on the fire yesterday, focusing on the northern and eastern perimeter.” The northern and eastern perimeters were nearer to the blowndown than other portions of the fire. Fox9 reported that so far $2.5 million was spent fighting the blaze. Ely businesses noticed a temporary increase in business from the 600 firefighters and equipment, but worried about their future. On Sunday, it rained all day and the fire calmed down. With rain in the forecast, the forest service stated that they expected limited to no growth over the next 5 to 6 days. More newspaper articles talked about the benefits of fire. Unfortunately, the articles didn’t talk about how invasive whitetail deer eat the white pine saplings, which makes it difficult for white pine to naturally repopulate.

By Wednesday, September 21, the fire reached 30% containment and according to InciWeb, the cold, wet weather caused the fire to lay down and just “creep and smolder.” Paul Danicic, Executive Director; Friends of the Boundary Waters Wilderness took the argument that “you shouldn’t criticize the policy while the soldiers fight the war” and applied it to the fire. Some reporters started to put a rosy spin on the fire: Oufitters say it’s business as usual in Boundary Waters area. More accurate GPS mapping changed the reported size of the fire down to a total of 93,669 acres. 9,274 acres were outside the wilderness and the rest were inside. Total personnel grew to about 800 people, and officials considered using explosives within the Boundary Waters to clear a fire line on the northern perimeter of the fire.

The Boundary Waters has a history of fires and fires consuming over 100,000 acres aren’t that rare. Historic data from sampling tree cores gives an accurate view of forest fires back to the 1700s. Based on that data, historically the Boundary Waters experiences a 100,000 acre fire every half-century. During the heavy logging years from 1850 to 1899 that changed and over 815,000 acres were burned; some of that burning is contributed to extreme drought conditions. If fire continues at the current pace, this half-century will exceed the number of acres burned from 1850 to 1899.

In the late 1800s and all of the 1900s, logging and the fire suppression efforts changed the natural progression of forest fires. Whereas in the past, larger fires varied the age of the forest and created a “patch turnover” of the forest, in the 1900s less than 80,000 acres burned. The combination of logging slash in the areas of the BWCA that were logged and dead trees in the forest understories built up high fuel loads. “These unnaturally high fuel loads increase the likelihood of super hot fires that scorch the thin topsoil of the boundary waters area, killing organic matter and the seeds of trees such as jack pine, black spruce, and red pine, which normally reestablish themselves rapidly after fires.”^* The lack of pines and spruce regeneration in the 2007 Ham Lake fire area, which burned through some of the blowdown near the end of the Gunflint Trail, illustrates the problem.

Burned husks of trees at sunset in the Ham Lake Fire area. Taken three years after the fire.

As the Pagami Creek Fire calmed down due to cold, wet weather, Forest Service officials had more time to respond to criticism. In light of what happened, they said that they’d do things differently, but it still probably wouldn’t change the policy of allowing fires to burn within the Boundary Waters. By September 28, the fire fighting effort had cost over $11 million dollars and was only 61% contained. At one point, almost 1,000 fire fighters were working on the effort to stop the fire from growing.

On Monday, October 3, the Type 1 management team turned over control to a Type 2 management team. The fire was 71% contained. To help with the containment the Forest Service used explosives within the wilderness to blast more than a mile of fire line. Although close to half the number of fire fighters at the maximum count remained significant resources remained on the ground. The resources included 530 personnel, 10 hotshot (Type 1) crews, 2 Type 2 crews, 3 engines, 4 dozers, 1 water tenders, 3 camp crews and other personnel. The following air resources were available: two Type 1 helicopters, three Type 3 helicopters, and three Beaver aircraft on floats. Anytime the fire flared up on the line, the air support quickly dosed it.

By the 22nd of October, the Forest Service stopped posting updates on InciWeb. The total cost of the fire was over $22.3 million. Follow up investigative reporting found that the Forest Service was way off on its fire predictions, which put people’s lives in jeopardy and caused the largest wildfire in Minnesota since 1918.

My Thoughts About Fire Management in the Boundary Waters

Canoeing into the Ham Lake Fire area three years after the fire.

1. It’s the most used Wilderness Area in the nation because of the scenic beauty. Campsites and the relatively untouched beauty of the area draw people from around the world. Over a quarter of a million people visit the wilderness each year.
2. It provides significant income to the surrounding communities, such as Grand Marais and Ely.
3. Fire keeps the forest healthy and creates habitat for creatures that are currently struggling due to climate change. We need fire.
4. Big fires can ruin (1) and (2).

In my opinion, the Forest Service needs to manage the fires in such a way that achieves forest restoration without harming tourism. It seemed like the Forest Service was trying to achieve that when they set fires to protect Lake One and Lake Two from the Pagami Creek lightning strike. Unfortunately, they attempted the prescribed burns during conditions that weren’t perfect and we suffered the consequences of their actions when their burns burst out of control. So, what went wrong? Who knows. I’m sure we’ll find out after the fire is out, but normally fire fighters carry out prescribed burns after lots of planning and weeks of monitoring the weather. They preform the burns under perfect conditions that mitigate the risk of one going out of control. In the past, the Forest Service has safely carried out many prescribed burns in the BWCA under the right conditions. In the Pagami Creek fire, they didn’t have the right conditions.

So what to do? My gut tells me that the Forest Service should put out natural fires, especially when fire conditions are high, and then later carry out prescribed burns when the conditions are right. They should use a controlled method that would mimic the natural progression of smaller fires while protecting the shoreline, portages, trails and campsites.

The main objection I can see people having is that because this is a designated wilderness area under U.S. law, it ought to be allowed to be wilderness and whatever wildernessy, such as forest fires, happens there happens there. That’s a nice thought, but the Wilderness Act of 1964 states its purpose as:

In order to assure that an increasing population, accompanied by expanding settlement and growing mechanization, does not occupy and modify all areas within the United States and its possessions, leaving no lands designated for preservation and protection in their natural condition, it is hereby declared to be the policy of the Congress to secure for the American people of present and future generations the benefits of an enduring resource of wilderness. For this purpose there is hereby established a National Wilderness Preservation System to be composed of federally owned areas designated by Congress as “wilderness areas”, and these shall be administered for the use and enjoyment of the American people in such manner as will leave them unimpaired for future use as wilderness, and so as to provide for the protection of these areas, the preservation of their wilderness character, and for the gathering and dissemination of information regarding their use and enjoyment as wilderness; and no Federal lands shall be designated as “wilderness areas” except as provided for in this Act or by a subsequent Act.

The rugged, untouched terrain of the Boundary Waters. Only a canoe can get you here.

When you read the great wilderness philosophers, such as Leopold, Muir, Olson, the wilderness character that they describe isn’t the devastation of a fire, but it is the natural preserved beauty of an untouched forest. Here’s how Boundary Waters hero Sigurd F. Olson described his vision of the expansive, now lost American wilderness in Reflections from the North Country:

…and pictured the land as it was at the time of discovery: beautiful, verdant, and untouched. Whales were spouting off Nantucket, the timber stood tall and dark along coastal flats. There were salmon and shad in rivers running clean and full to the sea.

We passed high over the blue misty ridges of the Appalachians, which pinned the first colonists to their beachheads. Deer and elk were everywhere then and clouds of wildfowl darkened the sky. We flew across the checkerboard pattern of farms over the valley of the Ohio, but all I saw was the old primeval forest of green extending unbroken to the Mississippi.

Beyond the great river were endless grassy plains where millions of buffalo roamed. Rising foothills appeared, then the snow-covered peaks of the Rockies, with the board expanse of the painted deserts beyond, and finally the ramparts of the coastal Sierras, the dark boarder of the sequoias, and the crashing of white surf of the blue Pacific.

Now all of that was changed…

Wilderness preservation under law doesn’t need to mean that we let fires burn out-of-control just because that’s what would have happened if humans weren’t here — doing so means that we risk a larger fire such as the Pagami Creek Fire — It means that we preserve the best of wilderness, the beauty invoked by our great wilderness philosophers, for the enjoyment of the American people in a way that keeps the environment healthy. Something like this costs money but so does fighting out-of-control wildfires, and many of our current politicians including Cravaack, who represents the area, lack the vision and foresight to spend money for the preservation of American wilderness as opposed to spending in reaction to an emergency.

The wilderness defined Americans as a people; it was that untouched wilderness that drove the expansion of the country, created a wealth of American dreams and defined American rugged individualism. Without the original wilderness, Americans wouldn’t define freedom the way we do. So little of wilderness is left that it needs to be kept in a state that preserves the natural beauty. In the BWCA, that means NOT letting fires consume it.

This article originally appeared on PaddlingLight.com. Leave a comment and an opinion by clicking through here: Fire Management in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness after the Pagami Creek Fire

The inaugural weekend for this new event called the Gales Storm Gathering occurs in Marquette, Michigan on October 8th through the 11th. This isn’t a typical first year event with no-name coaches, because it features world-class instructors. Shawna Franklin and Leon Somme of Body Boat Blade fame — you may recall seeing them in the excellent This is the Sea #4 video and others in the series — headline the event. Other coaches include Wikle himself, Sam Crowley, who paddles in scary crazy conditions, Kelly Blades and others. Basically, the event features top notch instructors with plenty of rough water experience. Not to mention a surprisingly high number of American Canoe Association “Levels” and British Canoe Union “Stars” attached to their names.

The course offerings happen based on the conditions with some sea kayaking courses occurring on the Menominee River to take advantage of the holes, waves and current. If the surf is up, the weekend offers courses in surfing small boats and real boats sea kayaks. There are rock gardening courses, rough water rescues and incident management courses. Plus several courses on navigation. As a participant, you won’t get bored, but you will get wet. The venue, Presque Isle Park, is one of the most stunning locations on Lake Superior’s south shore. A picture of mine from there graces the cover of Ocean Paddler issue number 27. Future events are planned for Wawa in 2012 and Duluth in 2013.

Unfortunately, I won’t be able to make this event, because I’m gearing up for a 21-day canoe expedition, but you should go, take pictures and then rub it in about how fun it was. Cost ranges from $120 to $330 depending on the number of days you want to have fun. That price includes lunch. Lodging at Harlow Lake ranges from $20 to $60 based on the number of days you stay.

Register online at the Gales Storm Gathering registration page.

This article originally appeared on PaddlingLight.com. Leave a comment and an opinion by clicking through here: Get Your Kayak Wet at the Gales Storm Gathering

For a chance to win the paddle, just surf over to Sanborn’s website and fill out the giveaway form.

Enter to Win a Gunflint Canoe Paddle

Good luck!

This article originally appeared on PaddlingLight.com. Leave a comment and an opinion by clicking through here: Win a Paddle from Sanborn Canoe Co.

The process for modeling one of these boats is lengthy. I put in a couple of hours on each boat with some taking longer than others — surprisingly, because the canoes are symmetrical, they take more work. After I’m finished with the project on April 1st, I’ll have around 200 hours into it. I hope that the plans result in some of the boats getting built. For more, check out my canoe and kayak building books review.

I also hope that if you find these plans useful, you send me cash to compensate my time. By releasing the plans for free and asking for a donation, I’m running a little experiment. When these boats get built if you like how it paddles, I ask for $30. Prior to the Free Canoe and Kayak Plan Project, I offered seven plans on the website. Four styles got built. The Siskiwit Bay and Iggy being the most popular. For the most part, builders sent me cash. I hope that trend keeps up, because these plans do have value. It will help decide if I continue to release my personal designs for free or if I have to set up some type of optional payment system upfront before I release the plans. That’ll mean changing from a donation after getting the plans to a pay-what-you-want before you get the plans system. Other Indie designers have had success with the later system.

Here’s the info on the free canoe and kayak plans released so far:

Free Kayak Plans

• U.S. Coast Guard Museum Greenland Kayak — Length: 16 feet 4 inches Width: 20-3/4 inches
• 1883 Southwestern Greenland Kayak — Length: 16 feet, 6 inches Beam: 20 inches Depth: 6-7/8 inches
• Walrus Kayak — Length: 17 feet Beam: 22 inches
• MacMillan Kayak — Length: 17 feet 3/8 inch Width: 19-5/8 inches
• 1921 Southwest Greenland Kayak — Length: 17 feet, 1 inch Beam: 19-1/4 inches Depth: 6-3/8 inches
• Fram Museum 1888 West Greenland Kayak — Length: 17 feet 10 inches Width: 20-7/16 inches
• Peabody Essex Museum Labrador Kayak 1867 — Length: 18 feet 4-1/2 inches Width: 19 5/8 inches
• North Greenland Kayak — Length: 19 feet Width: 21-3/4 inches
• South Greenland Kayak, Fig. 208 — Length: 19 feet 6 inches Width: 20-1/4 inches

Canoes Plans

• Têtes de Boule Hunter’s Canoe — Length: 9 feet 8 inches Width: 26 1/2 inches
• 1865 St. Francis Canoe — Length: 14 feet 3 inches Width: 31.2 inches Depth: 13.8 inches
• Hudson’s Bay Company North Canoe — Length: 29 feet 11 inches Width: 59 inches Depth: 26 inches

Here are other free plans that aren’t part of the project:

Free Kayak Plans

• Siskiwit Bay — Length: 17 feet Width: 21 inches – Great modern British-style sea kayak. Built many times.
• The Iggy — Length: 16.543 ft Design beam: 1.745 ft – Greenland-style sea kayak with a modern deck. Built many times.
• Goodnow Kayak — Length: 16.679 ft Beam: 1.478 ft – Built a couple of times.
• Siskiwit Bay Multi-Chined Kayak — Length: 17 ft Beam: 1.757 ft

Free Canoe Plans

• 1898 Passamaquoddy Ocean Canoe — Length over all: 17ft 4in Beam: 36in
• Modern Malecite — Length: 17 feet Width: 36 inches – Rave reviews from builders.

Happy New Year! I hope your paddling dreams come true this year.

This article originally appeared on PaddlingLight.com. Leave a comment and an opinion by clicking through here: Free Canoe and Kayak Plan Project

The first two ultralites weigh in at 45 lbs and 43lbs for the Explorer 16 KX Ultralite and the Malecite KX Ultralite, respectively. They range in price from $2,749 to $3,089 depending on the options, like wood gunwales. Both feature resin-infusion w/ something called custom MRC core system. If the MRC core system features a molded-in bunny, like shown in the picture, we hope it doesn’t make it into production boats. Resin-infusion results in a layup with a high fiber/resin ration, which means lighter and stronger. It’s also healthier for the canoe builders. The builders seal the laminate in a vacuum bag and pull the vacuum. Then the resin comes in via feeder tubes and runners. It evenly impregnates the laminate delivering a controlled amount of resin.

Jim Henry designed two triple layer plastic canoes for Mad River. The new Journey 158 and 169 models will put you on the water in something backbreaking for under $950. If that’s all you can afford, then these look like good options.

For canoeists looking for something longer, the Expedition 176 looks promising. When compared to the BWCA standards, like the We-no-nah Minnesota II, the Bell Canoe Works Northwind and the Souris River Quetico II, it’s a bit weighty at 57 lbs. But for the extra weight you get curvy seats, a shaped yoke (hopefully, yoke pads will work on it), and a molded in Mad River rabbit on the floor. I love the Bell-like shouldered tumblehome.

More info on the Confluence Watersports OR Blog.

The Explorer Ultralight looks to be a nice BWCA canoe.

This article originally appeared on PaddlingLight.com. Leave a comment and an opinion by clicking through here: New 2011 Mad River Canoe Models