While we offer a great selection of canoe gear, better than Cabela's or EMS. We are not box retail. We sell all the materials your need to build a cedar strip boat. We care about keeping you on the water and make time to answer your canoe building, repair and gear questions. Newsletters happen sporadically.

North Canoe

NorthWest Canoe builds canoes on spec. This summer we delivered a 24-foot North Canoe to the Mississippi National River Recreation Area.

This custom build combines traditional cedar strip building techniques with contemporary technologies, vacuum bagging Kevlar and structural foam components to the cedar hull. To see how we built it visit our North Canoe Page.

Available only as a custom build, a North Canoe gives paddlers a unique group experience. That makes a North Canoe perfect for nature centers, camps and outdoor education programs. Can we build one for your organization? Call 877 220 0192.

Canoe Building Open House

Ever carve a marshmallow stick? If you can handle that, you certainly can strip-up a canoe. Discover how basic whittling skills apply to canoe building at the NorthWest Canoe Open House Saturday, September 12th, 10 a.m. - 2 p.m.

Come scope-out our canoe building classes and we'll send you home with a free Granite Gear Toughsack (sorry, we ran out of flat panel TV's).

Count on a hands-on canoe building experience when you participate in a NWC class; we walk you through set-up, stripping, laminating and finishing. You and five other students build one class canoe. You go home with the materials and hands-on know-how to build your own handsome cedar strip canoe.

NWC canoe building classes aim to help you quit making excuses and start your canoe. We look forward to seeing you at the Open House on the Saturday following Labor Day. Enroll in a class at the event or call toll free 877.220.0192 (651.229.0192 local) to register anytime. You can also register on the NWC website.

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Canoe Cradles

Half way through building your canoe, you'll need a pair of sturdy canoe cradles. After laminating the exterior, the hull is stable. Remove the building forms and rest the canoe right side up in cradles to prep and laminate the interior.

We designed the cradles we use for classes and repairs. Any garage rat can knock a set together in an afternoon with three eight foot 2x6's and simple hand tools. View/save the PDF drawing.

Adjustability is key feature of our design. Turn the hull eye-to-the-sky or bottom's up. The rope 'n peg system lets you position the hull at a comfortable working height either way. Vary the width of the cross member and you can build cradles for a kayak or freighter canoe.

Many home builders scramble and make do by dressing up their sawhorses with a strip of carpet. We suggest you build cradles ahead of time. Making the project part of your set-up along with building your strongback.

Can I Re-gel Coat My Canoe?

Before we answer the question let's look at what gel coat is and why it's on your canoe in the first place. Gels are typically polyester resin based, containing pigments and additives to enhance the finish and protect the underlying structure.

Gel coat is not paint. Canoe builders started using gel coats about 30 years ago. Gel is ten times tougher than paint, a superior product for abrasion and UV protection. It accounts for 7-to-8 pounds of your tandem canoe's weight.

Gel coat also serves as a mold release agent. The first step in canoe building, spay gel coat into a female mold buffed and waxed to a mirror-like luster. The ultra smooth surface aids in releasing the boat from the mold. The backside of the gel has a slight texture. Resin, cloth and structural foam pieces are layered in on top of this surface that never sees the light of day.

Spray gel coat on the exterior of an existing hull and the textured side shows. While practical to spray and wet sand a spot repair, re-coating an entire canoe would be followed by countless hours of wet sanding to achieve a factory finish. A whole boat factory finish would cost the same wet sand time as went into the original mold.

So after a couple paddling trips your canoe's bottom shows more skids marks than the Christmas tree end of a Saturday night drag strip. Further insult, you have nicks and chips where the fabric shows through.

Here's what you can do. Repair small nicks with a NWC Gel Coat Repair Kit. The kit comes with catalyst, wet sand papers and instructions to help you make a quality repair. We offer popular colors: red, green and almond plus clear. Now, back to the light of day, specifically the ultra violet part of the spectrum, UV shifted the color of your boat since it left the factory. The color in our kits will be close, but don't expect a perfect match to your hull.

303 Protectant does a good job of preventing UV damage. Minimize scratches and oxidation with a marine buffing compound. We use products from 3M Marine in our repair shop and we'll be glad to give you a quote for cleaning up your boat.

The ultra light Wenonah pictured is a resin finish canoe. While some canoes sport a clear gel coat, most golden colored tandems weighing in around 40-pounds are likely resin finish hulls. Today's advanced resins and mold release systems allow canoe manufacturers to skip the gel coat. The super light trade-off means there's nothing to wet sand or polish. However, you should still use 303 Protectant on your resin finish canoe.

What's best for a severely scuffed resin finish canoe? The canoe pictured is receiving Composite Skid Plates bow and stern, plus a tough 2-part polyurethane marine varnish. Call NorthWest Canoe toll free 877 220 0192, (651 220 0192 local) for help in maintaining or repairing of your canoe or kayak.