Finally launched my skin-on-frame canoe Sunday afternoon (I built the frame back in September). Turned out to be a lot more tender than I had imagined trying to paddle while kneeling (and I knew it would be a handful!) but its manageable when sitting on the floor. Its quite a relaxing boat to paddle on calm water, but rapids and speed boat wakes will take more getting used to before I'm terribly comfortable in it. I didn't take a double paddle with me on Sunday, but a kayak paddle should make it a lot more swift and very entertaining in rapids.

The frame is western red cedar with oak ribs, and the completed canoe weighs 22 lbs. The skin is 8 oz. polyester coated with water-based polyurea (which seems to be working out very nicely so far). I tinted the polyurea with Transtint dye, and left the last four coats clear to help give it some UV/fade resistance, but I expect it to change color over time since the Transtint dye is not particularly fade resistant. The birch bark look was unintentional - I had intended to make it look like animal hide - but it seems fitting.