Champlain 16

Product Description

The Champlain 16 is a general-purpose recreational canoe with a traditional style that evokes the classic canoes of old. This canoe is ideal for light touring, paddled tandem or solo. It paddles well in the heeled-over position.

The Champlain High-Ender was originally built in cedar/canvas by the Peterborough Canoe Company and was one of their most popular designs. It appeared in their final catalogue of 1961. The Champlain Low-Ender, with less height in the ends, was built on the same mould. This version, from Bear Mountain Boats, is built using lightweight wood-strip planking without internal frames.

Fans of traditional symmetrical canoes will be pleased by its appearance as well as its performance. It has a moderate displacement, soft bilge and a moderate rocker.

Ted Moores of Bear Mountain Boats is the author of Canoecraft, the standard reference book for wood-strip canoe building. The book is recommended to accompany the kit or plans. It is packed with tips and techniques and has inspired countless first-time canoe builders around the world.

Length

4.88 m (16′)

Maximum beam

825 mm (32½″)

Beam waterline

750 mm (29½″)

Beam gunwale

800 mm (31½″)

Bow height

660 mm (26″)

Centre depth

345 mm (13½″)

Displacement

147 kg (325 lb)

Optimum capacity

127-204 kg (280-450 lb)

Draught

102 mm (4″)

Wetted surface

2.28 m² (24.5 sq ft)

Weight to immerse

94 lb/in

Prismatic coefficient

0.557

Weight

20-25 kg (45-55 lb)

Keel

Keel-less or shoe keel

Watch us build a Bear Mountain canoe in this one-minute overview video:

Kit

We manufacture our kits to the highest standard using European-grown Paulownia for the planking strips. Uniquely, the strips in our Bear Mountain Boats kits have not only a bead-and-cove profile but also a pre-cut finger joint at each end, making the neat joining of strips even easier for builders at home.

The kit includes:

• Plans
• Instructions booklet
• CNC-cut building forms
• Paulownia strips with bead-and-cove edges and finger joints on both ends
• Ash blanks for decks
• Ash stem strips
• Ash gunwales (inwales and outwales) with scarf joints machined for joining
• Ash thwart
• Cane seats
• Waterproof glue for the strips
• Epoxy resin and activator
• Dispensing pumps
• Digital scales
• Epoxy fillers
• Woven glass fabric on a roll
• Free technical support from a competent builder

Please note that the kit does not include the box beam strongback for mounting the building forms on. You can either use a straight length of suitable timber or order the box-beam strongback we supply.

What else do I need?

Strongback

This strongback is made up of CNC-cut MDF panels that fit together to form a strong and stiff box beam measuring 200 mm × 200 mm and long enough to build the boat.

Plans and Instructions (not required by kit purchasers)

The plans contain sufficient information to make it possible to build the boat from scratch rather than a kit. The plans are printed in colour and include scale plans and full size drawings for all the forms.