Adirondack Guideboats were made for about a century without any epoxy at all - and still are built that way today.

But now one can build them in several ways. A strip built AG would be similar to a strip built canoe. You might ask on the Bear Mountain forum, where those are the specialty.

Good luck!

You may also check out the Adirondack Guide Boat website.  They're in Vermont, I think.  They sell different models of them in differnet materials and produce a beautiful kit.  Worth checking it out

 

gene 

check out this site http://www.adirondackgoodboat.com/ he has several boats here. the owner has a lot of knowledge on guid boats he is in Long Lake ,NY

I built an Aderondack Guide Boat several years ago.  I used forms provided by Newfound Boatworks, NH.  I used standard 3/4 inch, bead and cove, cedar strips with epoxy/glass inside and outside the hull. taking about 1.5 gallons of epoxy/hardner.  Building with ribs would eliminate the need to glass the inside of the hull.  However, you would have to laminate the ribs and seal all parts so you should end up using about  the  same. Building the guide boat the traditional way is a real challange.  The planks were about 3 inches wide and  individually fit to provide a water tight joint without glue or caulking.  They were nailed to the ribs. The hull has to be smooth like a canoe.  Though the boat looks right with the ribs at 4 inch spacing the modern copy with ribs a foot apart is not appealing.  The boat is more comfortable without ribs and does't need floor boards. Copy the design exactly.  It evolved over many years and is perfect.

there is a nice book on bldg a AGB out now you'd want that as it's all laid out . also the durant book guide boat section on ..larry ????????............some 1967 college kid form castleton vermont kid did great things on his own ..amazing ..he nailed with a braonze ring nail to the laminated ribs he made with old airplane(ie commercial aircraft making glue not toy kits !)

 

Durant, Kenneth; Durant, Helen van Dongen (1980). The Adirondack Guide-Boat. International Marine Publishing. ISBN 978-0-87742-125-2

here's few things :

1 you can't get that wood anymore it doesn't exist ..it was slow growth white pine or better yet really good boat cedar like ..rushton built with ..for most part on a sandy soil ..not like pine today ..in a near pure stand the tree would be protected not whioppe daround like a flyrod in exposed wind areas ..barring cutting clear 18-20 logs properly cut at mill . On pine ..pine has defects ..lack of pitch in it's rings ..some call it shake which is worst case ..hemlock is like this ..especially ..breaks apart liek an onion slice ..even the old boats 100 yrs old ..will have had repairs ..many times you see a brass strap ..and the strap lloks like apinking shear cut it ..and the tacks go thru revrse folded triangles back and forth both sides ..to make a patch having not a good glue to use then ..just to lend strnegth to the "patched area" .

ipne has to be ..generally quarted sawn ..or cedar and that was old growth they were talking about .

2. you can;t get the red spruce crooks either ..they were lating around form old growth spruce not today's stuff I believe the acid rain has an effect on spruce being red rot ..kinda like you see cut lettuce turn red ..the lignin rots ..and the croosk have to grow on a flat site .

the rib must follow the rib pattern nearly as identically as possible to get the ultimate strength out of the rib/grain pattern ..else if too many grain crosses ..it'd crack ..that was the ideer .

somehow adding epoxy here and there might make up for today wood inadequaies ..but I heard guys say ..pine'll rot liek nobody's business is you don't watch it ! HELLO CEDAR !!!!

3. guy said they were nailed on ..not what I remember . the plank is

carved in 3 dimenional space ..barring being spliced and cruved up as the placnk is laid on across the ribs curvign around the plack is hollowed .

4. joints and laps ..the grant jiont I think it was called ..first ..most folks aren;t used to sharpening chisels like the old guys ..razor sharp ..the guys had special tools ..round radiused planes ..who made them ?? ..also that grant lap plane cut about a 1/32" or 1/64th"tapered at a bevel and then another 1/32 or 1/64th at other end givign a closed joint when finally tacked . about 5000 tacks ..set in predrilled tiny holes .

5. ribs ..about 3000 brass screws and I think joints were set across ribs to be screwed thru givign double use to ribs abd watertightenting at same time .

6. when you make the ribs or how you do it ..the ribs are not finished because you laminat eand cut shapes ..they have to be mounted and a stick is used to fair so that the area of a rib is transferred thru the curve of the sanding stick onto it's neigbor for all the little math calculations you coulnd't even dream of ..so a sandign stick was used the basic cut to shape rib form was only half the battle .

that's the hump part .

strip planking looks like a blessing !

:)

d