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By Michael Storer - Adelaide - Australia

Quick Canoe Electric

Length - 4.7m (15ft 6ins)

Beam – 1.05m (39ins)

Hull Weight - 26kg (60lbs) depending on timber choice

Draft - 0.100m, (4")

The idea was thought up by Dana Stovall.  He built the boat from cheap ply and most of the framing was from recycled shipping pallets - a cheap build - done nicely by the pics.

The boat is designed for small rivers and lakes as it has no built in buoyancy.  If being used on larger rivers I strongly recommend buoyancy be fitted as built in air tanks (a basic drawing is included and will require an extra sheet of ply) or as foam blocks in the ends and under the seats.

It can also take a very small outboard - maximum 2hp.  Putting more power on will be dangerous and uneconomical as the boat may flip if turned when planing.

A motorised fishing or travelling boat that can be easily cartopped and comes out of three sheets of ply.

I pushed the beam out much wider than the original Quick canoe - it is about 39" (just over a metre).  The boat will be paddleable but might tend to blow around in the wind.

This are Dana's comments about performance - he used to have the trolling motor on a dinghy.


I was very pleased with the way she sliced through the water. I have a 34 pound thrust Minn Kota trolling motor. 

A large deep cycle marine battery that weighs about 50lbs. I weigh about 165 my wife about 105, and my dog about 15 and an ice chest with two bags of ice.

 I estimate we were moving along at 5 to 7 knots on full power. 

A big difference from our other boat that crawled around 1.5 to 2.   We cruised about 3.5 miles down stream and back up with plenty of battery power left over. Mind you going down stream we didnt need power all the time, just for manuvering around obstacles and setting our course, then we used it for taking side trips up offshoots of the main stream.  Heading back up stream we used full power all the way against the current and still managed 4 to 5 knots.  We were trying to out run a storm that was brewing.

Best wishes
Michael

(more pictures from a Flickr album)

*****

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