The whole family, or small group of friends, can come and stay in the grounds of Brooksby Station House and build your canoe under my personal supervision. The total price for the 2012 season is £899, which includes three options for accommodation ( see below).
| Canoe building course for the whole family or small group of friends building their own Birchcanoes Lakota or Birchcanoes Algonquin canoe together. This is all you need to pay for, unless you want one of the options below. | £899 per canoe | |
| If you want to bring a larger group, additional people are charged at just | £100 per person | |
| If you would like to attend a course on your own, to help with the process and learn the skills, but not take a canoe away at the end, you are welcome to come along. | £350 per person | |
| Paddle making. Opportunity to make your own spruce paddle during a canoe building course | £20 per paddle | |
| Outboard motor mounting . Opportunity to make a wooden mount which can be attached and detached to the side of the canoe to take a small outboard motor | £20 per mount | |
| You may wish to purchase an exclusive course, where your family or group would be the only people building a canoe and using the facilities. This option would suit groups of over 8 people, and would include the use of the flat, cabin and camping, and is available for groups of up to 15 people. | £1400 per course | |
| Canoe building templates. You may wish to purchase a set of full sized templates, so as to be able to build another canoe at home. These are made of plywood, and are hand made to order. They are marked with the location of drill holes for stitching and some explanations. These are ONLY available for personal pick-up, and the price includes the opportunity to have your questions answered about the process | £150 per set | |
| Gunwhale strips. Our canoes are unique in that the ash gunwhale strips stretch the full length of the canoe with no joins. If you have every looked to source ash this length you will know how tricky it is to locate. Pairs of ash gunwhales are available, measuring a generous 5 metres or more in length, and are 18mm x 18mm cross section. These are ONLY available for personal pick up, and the price includes the opportunity to have your questions answered about the process. | £100 per pair | |
| Other canoes. If you have full sized paper templates of another canoe design, and would like to come here and build the canoe with our materials and help, talk to us about the options. Prices start at £1000. | from £1000 | |
| Camping. Accommodation or camping during the course is free, but you may wish to prolong your holiday by camping a day or two before or after your course. The facilities are similar to a CL site, there is a toilet close to the camping field, which is near the river. There is a spot for camp fires. | £5 per person per night | |
| Electric hook-up. If you are bringing a camper or caravan for the course, you might want to avail yourself of a 240 volt electricity supply. | £5 per night | |
| Use of a large gas BBQ, big enough to cook for about 20 people at a time. | £5 per night | |
| Flat. Accommodation during the course is free, and if you are a couple you might opt for the flat. You may wish to prolong your holiday with additional nights before and after the course. | £40 per night | |
| Cabin. The wooden cabin in the garden sleeps up to 5, and if you opt for this, it is free during the course. You may wish to prolong your holiday with additional nights before and after the course | £40 per night | |
| Paddle making course. You may opt to build paddles as part of your course, when each paddle costs £20. However, you might prefer to come on a special Paddle making course. Each person makes their own paddle, using our materials, and with lots of help from us throughout the process. The course takes place over a day, but accommodation is offered at the prices above if you would like to stay over. Materials for making paddles includes hardwoods. | £100 per paddle/ person | |
| Wood for camp fire. This is available in plastic tubs, or you can hunt for your own under the trees. | £3 per tub | |
| Use of washing machine or tumble dryer. There is a utility room accessible throughout the course, with machine machine and commercial sized tumble dryer. Use of these machines is £2 each, please leave the money on the relevant machine after use. There is a sink with hot water for washing up, for use by campers. | £2 per load per machine | |
| Use of hot shower. | Free | |
| Ready built Lakota or Algonquin canoe. We make these specially to order, prices start at the same cost as the course. Delivery can be made at 50p per mile each way but we would prefer you to come here, try the canoe on the river here, so you know what you are buying before you take it away. | £899 per canoe | |
| Ready made paddles. Prices start at £20 for a spruce paddle. These are only available to pick up | from £20 |
We provide everything:
I have taught at an Agricultural College for 28 years, and have been building canoes since 1993. The canoe you will build here was designed specially for this purpose, it is a lovely craft which is easily paddled solo and is equally at home with the family on board. It is light enough so you can easily carry it alone, and will safely travel on the roofrack of your car. People will comment about it ( in a nice way) wherever you paddle, and you will be proud to use it for years to come.
So what is the course like ?
After trying one of our canoes on the river so you know what you are going to build the course starts with about an hour and a half of hand sawing, which seems to find muscles you didn’t know you had, but at last it is all done and you can turn gratefully to the urn for a well deserved cup of tea. Astonishingly quickly, the shape of a canoe appears as the parts are sewn together with cable ties, and you almost imagine your canoe can be completed in a single day. You keep taking photos, and maybe Tweet your progress. The effect of fitting the ash gunwhales is astonishing, the canoe already looks "right". It is the end of the first day already, and you gather around a camp fire with the other canoe builders who turn out to be a lovely, fascinating group of people who share your love of the outdoors and of making things together.
The following day you settle into the work, preparing and fitting the various seats, yoke, decks etc to your canoe, which is really coming together. . After work you all wander down the road to the village pub in Hoby a mile away and have an enjoyable evening together.
You can’t believe it is the last day already, you are planing the outside of the canoe and smoothing it down ready for the resin and tape. The beauty of the okoume ply is really showing now that there is a coat of resin and varnish on the boat, and you can’t wait for your friends at home to see and admire your canoe. Depending partly on the weather, your canoe could well be ready for launching towards the middle of the afternoon, and you are almost tearful as you see the fruit of all your hard work sitting so naturally on the water, inviting you to take that incredible first paddle in your own canoe.
The sound of the boat on the water, the resonant feel of it as you tap the sides, and its grace and shape are all a delight. You are astonished too that you are able to carry your canoe on your shoulders, and put it on the roofrack with much less effort than you expected. You fill in an evaluation form, and maybe take a car sticker saying “I built my canoe at Birchcanoes.com" . The Guardian newspaper listed us as number 11 in their "One hundred flight free holidays".
We have run these courses for years and years, first for friends and family, and later, for paying guests. I can assure you, the feedback we get is very positive, and we take action on any suggestions people make, so that hopefully it is getting better all the time. Best of all, I enjoy canoe building myself, and you can be confident that your canoe will be a success, whatever your current level of woodworking.
What is the canoe like ?
The canoe you will build is called the Lakota, and is 15'6" long, weighs around 25 kg, and can be paddled equally well solo or by 2 or 3 adults. Ideal for camping, you can carry all your gear in it, and people will comment about it wherever you go ( in a nice way !). It has a lovely amount of tumblehome which means the upper part of the canoe slopes inwards, making the canoe much easier to paddle. It is the result of nearly 20 years of canoe building experience, and I am sure you will be delighted by the shape. It is modelled on the Native American/ First Nations Canadian canoes, for which I have great affection.
For the technically minded:
Length; 4700 mm
Beam: 910 mm
Width at yoke 785mm ( note tumblehome)
Width on water 590mm
Height at yoke 340mm
Height at prow/stern 500mm
Weight: typically 24kg
Building one of these canoes is the experience of a lifetime, and once you have built one, you will know exactly what to do if you ever want to build another.
What are the options for accommodation ?
There are three options for accommodation on site during the course: Large groups are able to camp in our grounds, near the river Wreake. Groups of up to 5 can opt to use the wooden cabin in the garden, and a couple ( with perhaps a small child) could opt to use theflat.
Small ground floor flat with its own front doors at the end of our Listed Victorian Railway Station home. It has king sized double bed, and ensuite shower and toilet and simple kitchen facilities (Kettle, microwave, toaster, fridge, slow cooker,) would suit a couple, possibly with a small child, bedding supplied.
A wooden cabin in the garden near the river, with simple kitchen facilities ( kettle, toaster, microwave, slow cooker, fridge), water and electricity, sleeps 4 ( or 5 at a push). Free hot shower.Bring sleeping bags
Camping in our riverside garden (bring your own tent, caravan or camper). Free hot shower, water, toilet and disposal point. For groups of 5 - 8 people. Electric hook up £5 per night.
We are in an Area of Particularly Attractive Countryside, the River Wreake is a pretty little river which meanders through the Leicestershire countryside before feeding into the Grand Union Canal a few miles downstream from us.
We have an interesting garden ( more than 2 acres) and keep goats, have a tree house. Ours is the sort of garden where you can have a camp fire, and we have no near neighbours, so you can have a sing-song round the fire without upsetting anyone. Lots of space for children to run around, and if you have a well behaved dog, you are welcome to bring him along too, provided you pick up after him..
More photos of this canoe are available on
http://picasaweb.google.com/jclohesy/LakotaCanoeNov2010#
https://picasaweb.google.com/111539692404542460258/Birchcanoes2011
John Clohesy
