Red Lake Canoe - Canoe Construction
Start with the best guys in the business.
So, how do you make a lightweight, extremely stiff, beautifully finished canoe? Well, our approach was to start with the best guys in the business. We went to the expert boat builders of Nova Scotia.
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These are the guys who construct multimillion dollar yachts and the renowned Nova Scotian “Cape Island” fishing boats. They knew exactly what to do and set out to make a wooden plug to the exact shape that we specified. This means laying down individual strips of wood and making a 16 foot Prospector for us by hand with a tremendous amount of care and effort. |
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Next they glass this with special resin made for molds and polish and buff until they achieve a Class 1 finish that you can see yourself in.
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Even though this may look like the finished product, this is only the beginning. From this beautifully finished plug, a mold is made that has a finish just like this one. And it is from the mold that we pop out our Red Lake Canoes. The quality finish that we achieve is 100% a product of the quality finish of these plugs and molds. Without the years of experience of Mike LeBlanc of Southwest Fiberglass Products Ltd, we could never have achieved the high quality finish that can be seen throughout our products. |
RESIN INJECTION
Every Red Lake Canoe is laid up by hand. First, a layer of gelcoat is put into our mold. This provides the outer finish on the canoe. Because the laminate is started from the outside, the outside layer goes first. Then fiberglass and Kevlar are laid into the mold, followed by the foam core and finally the inside layers of fiberglass are added. The picture below shows a dry lay-up of one of our prototype canoes. At this point the resin has not been added to the system.
Once the dry lay-up is finished, the entire inside of the canoe is sealed in a plastic bag against the mold. Locations are selected for infusing the resin and feed strips and vacuum lines are inserted into the bag. Then the air is evacuated from the system forming a perfect vacuum.
Next, the VinylEster Resin is infused into the system and we stand around and watch as the resin wets out the layers of cloth. This procedure allows a safe working environment where the fumes are evacuated outside the room and everything is sealed from human contamination. As you can see from the guys in shirtsleeves, no gloves or protective equipment is required since the whole system is sealed and resin never comes into contact with anything but the cloth.
One thing that is critical in achieving strength in a composite lay-up is to keep the ratio of resin volume to cloth volume at an optimal value. Typically, optimal strength is achieved with a volume ratio of about 0.50 (equal volumes of resin and cloth). The vacuum has a tendency to “squeeze out” any extra resin and results in a volume ratio very close to the optimal. If this were done by hand, the laminate has a tendency to be resin rich which increases weight and decreases strength. Using resin injection with a vacuum to push out any extra resin results in optimal volume ratios and is a significant advantage when trying to achieve a lightweight product.
Once the resin is cured, the canoe is removed from the mold, the vacuum materials are stripped from it and above is the end result. This picture was taken within minutes of removal from the mold. Note the shiny finish which is a product of the quality of the mold itself.
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