Different boats for different folks

Aug 05, 2010

Mike and Jocelyn Steeves in their hand made Greenland kayaks

As 20-year residents of Sharbot Lake, Mike and Jocelyn Steeves have owned many boats over the years and recently have been shying away from gas-powered engines. Four years ago, after coming across an article in a magazine, Mike decided to build two Greenland kayaks.

For thousands of years the Inuit around Greenland have been building kayaks for hunting and transporting goods from found driftwood they believed to be “bones of the giant fish”. Since trees do not exist on Greenland, driftwood would be gathered and split into the required number of pieces. Holes were drilled using a primitive tool, allowing the pieces to be lashed together with sinew, creating a skeletal, serpent-like frame. Lastly a sealskin covering would be tightly wrapped and sewn around the entire frame.

Mike Steeves made his first Greenland kayak following a plan from a book called Building a Greenland Kayak by Mark Starr. Mike pointed out that “The beauty of building these boats is that you can carry all of materials you need under two arms and you don't require any large woodworking machinery or previous experience in building….All you need is a hand saw, a plane, a chisel, and a drill.”

One kayak costs just a couple of hundred dollars in materials to make - the time to build them is another story, however. Mike spent the good part of a year building his first. He said, “The learning curve is very steep and it’s a slow job because there are all these techniques that you have to master. But it's fun and engaging work.”

The second kayak took him just three months.

He stressed the fact that there is no room for improvisation on the design since one small change can throw off the kayak’s overall performance. Mike knows this from experience. For his second boat, he made one of the long pieces ¼ inch wider than prescribed and the overall effect was an unstable boat that required 100 lbs of ballast to keep it from tipping over. He ended up taking it apart and redoing it.

The building process begins with two 19 foot planks of soft wood, preferably spruce, fir, pine or cedar tied together at the ends. Their undersides are cut or carved into a series of mortise and tenon slots. The two tied ends are separated by spacers so the shape comes to resemble a willow leaf. Mike built a steam box to steam the ash rib spacers and bent them with his hands into shape while they were still hot.

The bent ribs were then clicked into the joints on the underside of the long pieces, creating a rigid skeleton which resembles a basket that is so light it can be carried in one hand. Lastly the skin, in Mike's case a layer of polyester, (which could also be canvas or nylon) is draped over the frame and a seam is hand sewn tight along the top. Voila!

The Steeves’ boats are 22 inches wide and 19 feet long and weigh just 30 lbs each. They were stained a rich brown to resemble real skins.

Their paddles, known as Popsicle stick paddles, were made out of 2x4s and are typical paddles for these kayaks.

The boats appear to glide through the water almost effortlessly though Mike admits that they are tippier than your average kayak. “They are faster than most kayaks since they were built for speed, perhaps at the expense of a little extra tippiness. You almost wear these kayaks; slipping into them is like slipping into a pair of pants.”

The boats are conversation pieces and Mike says they are always being stopped when out on the water. The kayaks, however, are not the only boats in the Steeves’ fleet that garner attention.

“Longfellow”, a 30 foot war canoe that was likely made in Peterborough and can seat up to nine passengers, also attracts much attention on the lake. It is powered by an electric motor.

A ride in Longfellow is a memorable experience- quiet, close to the water, speedy and non-polluting.

In my first ride in Longfellow we followed a deer for a number of minutes that was grazing out on a peninsula, a most usual boat-side encounter.

The boat travels at 9.5 miles per hour and is fast for an electric boat. The batteries can last for several hours.

The motor was purchased from Monte Gisborne of Brechin, ON, an inventor related to Isaac Newton, best known for inventing Canada's one and only solar assisted pontoon boat called the Solar Loon, in which he has traveled up the Erie, Trent and Severn canals. Monte explained to Mike how to make the steering assembly for Longfellow's motor and Mike had to then fabricate some way to hold the motor onto the canoe. “That took months of trials and error.”

Longfellow is a pleasure cruiser, a boat equally as pleasing to onlookers as it is to its riders. Jocelyn recalled one notable comment from a fellow boater who passed them by on the lake and stopped to say, “That boat makes the lake look better.”

For Mike and Jocelyn boating remains one of the pastimes they enjoy most as lakeside residents and their fascination with boats and boat building does not end here. Currently Mike is involved in another green boating project that involves the construction of a Puddle duck or PD racer. But that is another boating story that will have to wait.