We are participating in the 22th Annual Haliburton County Studio Tour.
October 3rd and October 4th, 2009
October 10th and October 11th, 2009

To Contact Us

Wooden Boats

Why Wood?

Handmade Canoes
in
Cedar/Canvas

Cedarstrip
Lapstrake
Rowing Skiffs
Wooden Sailing Boats
Ultra-light Canoes
Silent Electric Water Craft
Wooden Inboards
Handmade Paddles
Building Supplies
Design  

Canoes

Cedar/Canvas
Our canoes are built of the finest materials. The ribs and planking are Ontario white cedar, the inwales are clear spruce or ash (your choice), gunwales are ash or cherry (your choice), decks are your choice of ash, cherry. birds-eye maple, or some nice piece of wood, that you might have. Seats are framed in cherry or ash, and can be your choice of woven cane (pretty), babiche (strong), or slats of wood (practical).
The canoe is varnished inside with as many coats as necessary to give a lustrous and long lasting finish. I also varnish the outside of the hull before putting the canvas on to protect it, and to keep it from gaining weight over time from water absorption. The standard canvas is #10, domestic grade cotton duck. This is filled with our own canvas filler and painted in your choice of colour. Hollow back brass stembands are used on the ends. All fittings and fastenings are either marine grade brass, bronze or stainless steel. A custom tilted carrying yoke is available at no cost with each canoe.



 
Water Lilly 12

 
Osprey II

 
Windy Ridge Batteau

 
Water Lily
Sailing Canoe

 
Otter 16


Bluebird Rowing Boat
 

 
Sweetpea

 
Cruiser 16

 


Merganser II
 

 

  
Canadian 15

 

 
Restored Greavette

 

 
Electric Boats

 

  
Water Lily 12

 

 
Acorn 10

 

  
Osprey

 
Construction

 

 
Milling Timber


WATER LILY 12
This is a really nice solo canoe, designed by me, for someone who likes to use a canoe for poking around and exploring. It has a shallow "V' bottom, no keel, and very sharp ends. All my Water Lily designs are characterized by their high ends and swoopy sheer line. This canoe has a capacity of about 259 lbs. and weighs between 35 and 45 honest pounds.

 

SOLO 12
This canoe is built on the same form as the Water Lily, so it has the same hull characteristics, but it has a lower sheerline and lighter construction. Weight is 28 to 35 lbs.

ARROW 12
This is a low volume high performance solo canoe for paddlers who weigh under about 155 lbs. or 70 kg. It was designed by Don Allman of Fine Line Canoes and has a modern asymmetrical hull shape. Protected weight is about 25 to 35 lbs. depending on trim, hull covering, and fittings.

WATER LILY 13-15
This canoe is designed as a light tripping, or cottage canoe. Tile beam is 33". Depending on whether weight, speed, roominess, or your storage area limitations are more important to you, choose the right length for you. These canoes are all made on the same form and have similar characteristics. The longer models have a finer entry and are slightly faster. Weight of this canoe is about 42 to 56 lbs. The shorter canoes are fine for small people. The 15 is an excellent all round tandem canoe, and has a hull shape very well suited for solo style paddling. Capacity is around 400 lbs.

OTTER 13-15
These canoe has most of the same characteristics of the above canoe, but a flatter sheerline and a slightly tower weight.

WATER LILY 16
This canoes is designed as a light tripping, or cottage canoe. The beam can be anywhere from 29 to 34", depending on whether speed, or stability, are more important to you. Weight of this canoe is about 62 lbs. Capacity is around 500 lbs.

OTTER 16
This canoe has most of the same characteristics of the above canoe, but a flatter sheerline and a slightly lower weight.

ARROW 17
This is another Don Allman designed asymmetrical canoe. It is a very fast and easy to paddle canoe with lots of stability and carrying capacity. For people who want to cover a lot of distance in a paddling day with a minimum of effort, but want the beauty of cedar /canvas. This is an ideal canoe. Weight is about 65 to 75 lbs.

CEDAR STRIP
These canoes are built on the same forms as the cedar/canvas and are available in similar models, plus The Cruiser a flat sheer, decked model inspired by the "Sunnyside Cruiser"
The ribs in the cedarstrip canoes are Ontario white cedar, tile planking is continuous length, tapered, shiplap jointed, and perfectly fitted B.C. red cedar. These canoes are given multiple coats of spar vanish inside and out. It's beautiful to see the grain of the wood and thousands of brass nail heads when you look down the hull.
These canoes are fitted out in a similar manner to the cedar/canvas canoes, with the exception that they all have keels. These canoes are slightly heavier (5% to 10%).

SAILING CANOE

LOON
A wing in the water and a wing in the sky. 12' by 32" by about 60 pounds. This will be a fine little yacht for the person who wants to have something really special. It will be built of varnished shiplap red cedar on oak or white cedar ribs (your choice) with decks in your choice of wood, a foot controlled rudder, two sails, and a comfortable seal, tow in the hull for stability. Imagine yourself flying down the lake on a fine afternoon in this.

ROWING SKIFFS
Our rowing skills are built in a similar manner to the cedarstrip canoes, except that they have oak ribs. In the rowing skills a lot more of The details are custom made to the customer's wishes, The boats are round bottomed, and quite seaworthy, Copper and bronze fastenings are used, so they can be used in saltwater. These boats normally come with two sets of bronze oarlocks and one set of ash tipped, leathered spruce spoon oars. You can order them any way, within reason, that you want.

OSPREY
13' 8" by 44" by 14" This boat has a transom for a small motor it you should be so inclined. This boat might be nice with a leeboard and a sail.

OSPREY II
Double ended rowing skiff 16' 4" by 44" by 14". This boat can be rowed by one or two people. Again, depending on what you wanted, this boat could be fitted with a folding high back stern seat by a special passenger or some other interesting option. With it's extra length and double ended hull shape this boat is quite fast and easy to row.

MERGANSER
13' by 42" by 14". Transom ended skiff, similar to tile Osprey, but with a more plumb stem and a slightly narrower beam. This boat has similar accommodations to Osprey, just a shorter deck.

MERGANSER II
Double ended rowing skiff 15' by 42" by 14". Very similar to the Osprey II but with more plumb stems and shorter decks. Should be equally last because it has the same waterline length.

BUFFLEHEAD
10' by 44" by 13" by about 85 pounds. This boat has a wider transom than the other longer skiffs to give it added stability in a shorter length. This would be a nice boat for 2 or 3 adults or 4 children.

SWALLOW
8' by 44" by 13" by about 651075 pounds. This would be an ideal boat for 1 or 2 adults or a couple of children in quiet water. Because of it's shorter length it won't be is fast as the other boats, but It will feel fast, often a more important consideration for children. With a small sail this boat would make a great little trainer for the aspiring sailor.
Any of the above rowing skiffs have an easily powered hull shape and a good range of stability and could be built with an optional sailing rig.

SAILBOATS
We have a number of plans available for sailboats, from about 8 feet up to about 20 feet. Many of these are classics like fire Swampscott Dory, sailing sharpies, sailing canoes and canoe yawls, from days gone by. We also have a good collection of plans and plans catalogues. We also have the building jig for lain Oughtred's Acorn 10 Dinghy.

ACORN 10
10' 2" by 50" by 18" Lapstrake cedar oil oak ribs, copper and bronze fastened, bronze oar locks, ash or spruce oars, and a Dacron sail. Choose a 48 sq. ft. balance lug rig, which is extremely easy to handle and gives nice performance, or a 65 sq. ft. gunter Sloop for more lively. A large boat for its length, it is also very seaworthy and salty looking.

ULTRA-LIGIITS
This building process was pioneered by Platt Monifort, initially for ultra-light aircraft. It involves building a light skeletal framework of wood, and bracing it in a geodesic mariner, with Kevlar strand, before covering it with a skin of heat shrunk Dacron. This is the same material used as wing cloth for airplanes like the Piper Cub. This is pretty high tech stuff and very light.
These boats range from the 8 ft. Sweet Pea, at 8 lbs. to a 12 ft. model at about 15 lbs., to a l4 ft. at about 22 1bs. and a 16 ft. at about 32 lbs. They aren't as pretty as the other boats, but if you need light - these are as light as they get!

SILENT ELECTRIC BOATS
Imagine gilding across the lake in perfect silence. The only sound you hear is tile lapping of waves on the hull. You can approach wildlife without frightening them and you needn't yell to be heard above the noise of a motor, so your neighbours won't be able to hear every word of your conversation.
These boats are designed to look like the beautiful wooden boats from the twenties, thirties, and forties. They have, however, very efficient underbodies to take advantage of the lower power of electric motors. All have built in on board battery chargers, and will charge overnight. Depending on the model, they have a range of up to about 100 km. on a charge, at speeds of about 10 to 14 kin. per hour. On the largest model recharging costs about one dollar.
Imagine no pollution, it's easy if you try. By using solar chargers you can use a power boat that is pollution free. Even with using the power grid, your boat is very efficient and the pollution is much less than with a regular power boat
We are an authorized dealer for RAY ELECTRIC OUTBOARDS which are high thrust primary power electric outboards winch have proven themselves to be efficient and trouble free for over twenty years.

WOODEN INBOARDS
If a Classic Inboard is more your style, we have a number of plans for beautiful launches and runabouts. They can be powered by modern gasoline or diesel engines, or with rebuilt old engines if you prefer the sound and feel of old machinery. Hulls are built as per plans, usually of mahogany or cedar, and decks and trim are of similar woods. Dashboards can be bird's eye maple, or anything you would like. Hardware is all polished stainless steel or chrome plated brass.
If you are not aware, some marine engine companies are still building single cylinder engines, slowly improved over the years, but the same designs as they did eighty years ago. Imagine how neat it would be to have a new boat with new power built like they were eighty years ago, chugging along the lake at an engine speed of 300 RPM.

WOODEN OUTBOARDS
We will build outboard powered boats to designs similar to the Peterborough and Lakefield or other designs for fast small outboard powered boats similar to the Speedliner Torpedo. These boats range from sporty two seaters with speeds up to 80 kph. to family sized boats with two or three rows of seats.
We do; however recommend that with the number of excellent 4 stroke engines on the market now in most power ranges, that in the interest of our lakes, you choose one of them if you are powering the boat yourself. The only way you will get an outboard with an engine from us, is with a four stroke engine
We have repaired or restored a number of this type of old boat and are aware of the weak spots in the old boats and hopefully Can avoid some of the problems they had.

CUSTOM BUILDING
If you have a design or a set of plans for a boat which you would like to have built, we would be glad to have a look at them and if we feel that we can do the job, we will give you an estimate.

DESIGN
If you want to talk about a design for a small boat give us a call. Design talk can kind of drag on so if this Is what you want to talk about, please call on a week day evening between 8 p.m. and 11 p.m.

PADDLES
We can custom make canoe paddles for you. Normally these would be done in cherry, maple, ash, or birds eye maple. Our paddles are light, springy and varnished like silk with a hand rubbed oil and varnish treatment that is easy to touchup if it is scratched. They have a sensible blade size to be comfortable paddling.

CANOE BUILDING SUPPLIES
We carry some canoe building supplies, for example cedar, ash and cherry gunwales, yokes, seats, stembands, brass screws and tacks, and canvas. We are the area dealer for EPIFANES premium quality varnishes and yacht paints. I have a surplus of boat quality lumber. The same is true of fastenings, so call for a price list. With our portable bandsaw mill, we can mill lumber specifically to your needs at our shop or yours (subject to a minimum time charge).



 

Michael & Susan Butz
 3503 Glamorgan Rd
Haliburton, Ontario
K0M 1S0

705-457-1596

info@windyridgestudio.ca

 3503 Glamorgan Rd
Take Hwy. 118 East from Haliburton,south on Glamorgan Rd (Cty. Rd. 3), 4 km to #3503

Open year round by appointment.