A Trippers Canoe for Deep Trips into Back Country Lake Systems

The Tandem Trip is designed to carry a load, be highly efficient, and be light enough to ease the burden on long overland hauls. A careful examination of her cross sections will show a slight flare at her ends, meaning she’ll turn back spray in a chop. That said, she retains relatively low ends which means she’ll duck under a wind. You’ll also note that she has a central tumblehome, which makes for efficient paddler reach, and improved secondary stability. A lightweight build (see Weight Calculator) results in a boat of approximately 40lbs, and traditional build is closer to 55lbs. We’ll leave it up the the builder to make their own choices and compromises.

Fine Ends, Modest Rocker, Lean Lines

If she’s anything, the Tandem Trip is an efficient canoe. She comes up to speed quickly, has a long glide, and tracks well. Ashes designer, Trevor Paetkau, achieved this by using fine entry and exit lines, elliptical cross sections, and asymmetric rocker in the stern which keeps the boat pointed straight forward. This all adds up to a boat that requires less effort at the end of the day as the paddlers expend less effort keeping the canoe moving in a straight line, and less horsepower to get from dawn to dusk.

A Modern Classic

The Tandem Trip fits firmly within the mold of the modern asymmetric tripping canoe. Do your research, you’ll find a number of well drawn hulls, each with slightly different characteristics; some with more displacement, some more stable, or less; some with more freeboard, some with more rocker, some with less. The Ashes Tandem Trip fits tips the scales on the somewhat more lightweight-go-fast half of the scale, so if that’s what you’re after, there’s a good chance that she could be the boat for you.

Choose this Canoe if …

… you want to go fast and in a lightweight tripping canoe; if you’ll spend more time on inland lake systems than big water; and if it’s unlikely that you’ll encounter anything more than Class 1 water, or significant following seas.

The Tandem Trip can easily hold the amount of gear necessary for 10 days on the water. Her shallow-arch profile makes her a relatively stable craft  for her 33 inch beam, but keep in mind that her lines favour efficiency, not stability, so if you’re building a boat for fishing or lazy days on the water with your children and their dogs, you might be better off choosing the Anglers Trip or Anglers Day.

Click Drawings to Expand …
 

 Before You Get Started

Plans from Ashes come complete with all the details necessary to build a canoe but they do not include building instructions. If you are novice builder you will save many hours and benefit immeasurably from purchasing either of the following:

• For Stemless Construction, Building A Strip Canoe, by Gil Gilpatrick
• For Classic Cedar Strip Building,  Canoecraft, by Ted Moore

Materials

Start with 1/4 inch thick cedar strips. 3/4 of an inch is as good a width as any and full length clear stock will make stripping your canoe a whole lot easier. Her gunnels are either a hardwood, or if a builder wishes to reduce weight, laminated softwood strips (two outer and three inner) with an outer hardwood rail shaped to please the builder’s eye. Best results will be obtained if the builder can curtail the urge to use fancy marquetry, or exotic woods. A materials list is included with your plans, as are scaled drawings of the strong-back.

Stations

Unless marked otherwise stations are laid out with the centre station placed in the middle of strongback, and each one thereafter is spaced at 12 inches on centre from the previous. At Ashes we cut our stations from 3/4 MDF. The bow and stern stations are trimmed for stemless construction, an easy and elegant construction method that contributes to her minimalist lines. Plans have the outer stem profiles marked for those wishing to use hardwood stems.

The Tumblehome

Ashes’ tumblehome will cause some pause for thought for first time builders, however with a little patience she will go together with minimal fuss. Novice builders choosing to build the hard-chined versions included with some of our plans would be well advised to apply equal parts patience and good humour.

Building Light

A careful builder may wish to reduce the weight of their canoe by starting with 3/16 inch cedar strips. Be careful. The Tandem Trip has elliptical stations and the middle hull could “float” if the hull is built too light. If so, a shoe keel or short keel will mitigate the problem. Remember, too, that you’ll have less material to start with and without experience it’s easy to sand too far!

Other options for builders hoping to keep her light are to laminate the gunnels directly to the hull and use mechanical fasteners only in the ends and at the thwart. Likewise, seats can be attached to cleats glued and glassed to the inside of the hull, thus reducing the need for hangers and associated hardware.

For a precise estimate of your canoe’s final weight use  Ashes’ Weight Calculator which provide results based on materials choices and building decisions. You’ll need to enter the surface area of the hull to get an accurate estimation. In this case, the hull surface are is 50.13 sq feet.

Weight Calculator

Fiberglass

The industry standard calls for 6 oz cloth. Builders wishing to match our advertised weights will start with 4 oz glass inside and out with a reinforcing layer laid inside and out in her middle third (on the bias). Likewise, her ends are reinforced both inside and out with two extra layers of 4 oz glass, 6 inches wide and also laid on the bias.

Printing Your Plans