One is sweet and the other is … a web developer

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Canoe!

[Update 29-May-10:
The canoe has been stolen from the garage at 1222 Constitution Ave NE! It has identifying marks, specifically a serial number 110726 and the name “J. Charette” carved into one of the timbers.]

This canoe is work of art and we bought it because it was so beautiful even though, at the time, we had no place to store it and we had to drive from Washington DC to eastern Tennessee to collect it! Sadly, almost 3 years later, we still have no place to store it so it's been in friends' garages ever since, first in North Carolina and then in southern Maryland. We live in a highrise apartment but thought we would have bought a house by now. We haven't, so perhaps it's time to move on and part with the canoe.

It's been used 6 times while we've owned it but I do not know how old it is or how many previous owners there were.

This model, the Feather, is still produced and as you can see on the American Trader web site, the quality and craftmanship is reflected in the price. The site also has additional information on construction details. As the name suggests, it is lightweight at 49 pounds and can be carried on the shoulders by an adult. It's also reasonably car-toppable – we've drove it back from Tennessee on top of our Ford Escort wagon as shown.

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Front seat (repaired – click to see full-size image and scroll down for details).

The original strapping was damaged so I cut it off but I found that repairing it was more difficult than I expected. The front seat is bigger than the rear so on my first attempt to replicate the pattern, I didn't have enough rawhide and the pattern was wrong. On the second attempt, I bought a longer roll of rawhide (22m/24yds instead of 15yds) but it was much thinner and it was hard to keep flat and untangled, especially once I had to thread it under and over but there were still yards and yards to handle. As you can see, I didn't pull it properly tight sometimes so you'd never confuse this with a professional job.

Ideally it should be done again, or simply replace the whole seat – I'd have done that but I couldn't get the bolts out as varnish has presumably got in the holes.

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Rear set (original)
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Short section of gunwale needs replacement
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The thwart, sculptured for carrying by one person.
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Bringing it home from Tennessee.