Free Plans: Long Nose Ojibway Canoe

In the Bark Canoes and Skin Boats of North America, Howard Chapelle tells us that the most common type of Ojibway canoe northwest and west of Lake Superior was the “long-nose” form. The form shows a straight sheer, only slight rocker near the stems and a steeply upturned sheer near the stems. The stems were rounded and full. Chapelle seems to think that the combination features resulted in a clumsy and unfair looking canoe. He notes that the appearance didn’t affect the seaworthiness or paddling qualities. Later, he writes that Adney, the person who collected the lines, thought the long-nose canoes originated with the Dakotas before the Cree and Ojibway pushed them further west. He thought that they adopted the Dakota long-nose models to their own building techniques.

I disagree with Chapelle. The lines don’t seem unfair to my eye and in the three-quarters view shown above, the sheerline looks striking. I think this model, which Adney notes is a rice harvesting canoe, would make a great cabin canoe or weekend tripper. Its flat bottom would make the canoe stable and the high sides would allow for a large load. The canoe makes me want to get a wild rice harvesting permit and head off into the Boundary Waters, the area it was originally used in, to harvest rice.

Specifications
Length: 16 feet
Width: 34 inches
Capacity: 300 to 620 lbs.

Free Canoe Plan Downloads and Package Downloads

Description

• Free Linseplans: The free linesplans are station and stem drawings overlaid on each other. They are drawn at full size.
• Drawing Package: The drawing package includes linesplans and each station and stem drawn separately on a PDF that prints full sized on when printed on the right paper size, usually ARCH D. You can cut these out and glue them to plywood to cut full-sized forms.

Recommended Canoe Building Books to Buy Before Building

The free canoe plans provided are the plan drawings of the canoe. If you want to build from the drawings, you will need instructions. The following books provide great instructions for building.

Canoecraft: An Illustrated Guide to Fine Woodstrip Construction The gold standard for cedar canoe builders. Use this book with the provided free plans and you’ll end up with a great canoe.

Building a Strip Canoe by Gil Gilpatrick A great cedar canoe building book that explains excellent shortcuts.

Strip Built Canoe: How to build a beautiful, lightweight, cedar strip canoe Well written and easy to follow. Every builder should own this.

Canoe Paddles: A Complete Guide to Making Your Own Paddle building techniques included with canoe and kayak building books are typically crude. Follow the directions in this book and end up with a beautiful and functional paddle to go along with your canoe or kayak.