10'8" Stickleback Canoe
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Join to view PDF Purchase 10'8" Stickleback Canoe PlansNessmuk (pen name of George Washington Sears) wrote “the light, single canoe with double-bladed paddle is bound to soon become a leading, if not the leading, feature in summer recreation” in his 1888 classic camping tome Woodcraft. While diminutive canoes paddled in the manner of kayaks may not be the latest summer craze, their charm hasn’t waned. Iain Oughtred’s Stickleback is his version of the Nessmuk line of canoes built by the Rushton Canoe Company in 1880s. At 10'8" it is only 2" longer than its ancestor, but has the same beam (27") and roughly the same weight (20 lbs.). Particulars and drawings for half-decked version
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Although a short canoe is a great portaging canoe, I learned from racing canoes against Native Alaskans years ago that their lightly built “rat canoes” are faster because of their longer length and not so deep displacement.
Portly!
Wasn’t the original (admittedly, a bit shorter) shy of 11 pounds?
:~)
The original 9′ Sairy Gamp model built by Rushton weighed 10 1/2 lbs.
So basically, you eliminate the deck from a kayak, and it becomes a canoe. How stable is this design?
During my time aboard the Stickleback it had good stability. There isn’t an elevated seat so sitting directly on the floorboards kept my weight down low for the hull’s best stability.