Sassafras
Product Description
The Sassafras looks like a heavy clinker boat but is very light and easy to carry and paddle.
We are very pleased with the boat and had a great time on launch day.
B A.
There are two versions of the boat: one at 12 feet and one at 16 feet.
Sassafras 12
The Sassafras 12 is a boat so light that you can put it on your shoulder and stroll casually down paths to normally inaccessible water. The weight also makes it effortless to paddle. Although she can be carried and paddled by a child this canoe is capable of carrying 225 pounds of load. She tracks well, is easy to turn, and is stable enough for fishing. There are watertight floatation compartments in both the bow and the stern. This boat is usually paddled whilst sitting on the floor. The kit now contains the luxury tractor seat as standard. Single or double ended paddles can be used.
The Sassafras is a traditional canoe built using modern building methods: 4mm okoume and Lapstitch construction which makes her look like a clinker build boat. She is trimmed with sapele and mahogany. This kit can be assembled by a novice woodworker in approximately 50 hours.
The slightly rounded hull offers more speed and responsiveness than many of the plastic or 'glass boats you may have paddled. Her hull is slightly rockered — not for manoeuvring in whitewater, but rather to reduce wetted surface area — making her almost effortless to paddle. She has a smooth or ‘well dampened’ feel that is characteristic of good wooden canoes.
Sassafras 16
Like many traditional canoes, the Sassafras 16 has a symmetrical bow and stern. This allows a solo paddler to sit facing ‘backward‘ on the forward seat for better trim. She has a good initial stability and great secondary stability.
The building method allows this clinker syle canoe to be built by someone with no previous woodworking experience. All the planks and other parts are pre-cut. No moulds, frames, or steam bending are required; building her is basically a matter of gluing all the pre-cut parts together.
The hull is a full 6mm-thick okoume (African Mahogany) with glass fabric set in epoxy on the bottom. Watertight flotation compartments are fitted at the bow and stern. The kit features a kit to make webbing seats.
Kits Comprise:
- Pre-cut wooden panels with pre-cut joints
- Epoxy resin
- Epoxy activator
- Epoxy fillers
- Woven glass fabric
- Woven glass tape
- Ties
- Comprehensive building manual
- Set of Plans
- Free technical support from a competent builder
- Webbing seats (16′ version)
- Luxury Foam Seat and Backrest (12′ version)
Plans and Manual
This is intended for pre-build study or to help with the decision to purchase. Reading this manual will help you decide whether or not you can build the boat. These are the plans and manual that accompany the kit. They describe all of the techniques that will be used during the building and also a step by step guide to construction. Scale drawings are used throughout as well as photographs of critical jobs.
If, later, you decide to purchase the kit the cost of this will be deducted from the kit price.
These plans and manuals do not contain the cutting instructions so it is not possible to build the boat from scratch using only these.
