I recently completed an Adirondack Guideboat and have been enjoying rowing it on the lakes and rivers around Vermont.

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The boat is built to the lines of a Warren Cole guide-boat which is on exhibit at the Adirondack Museum in Blue Mountain Lake, N.Y. The outer hull shape is exactly the same as the original boat but the construction is modern cedar strip/ epoxy and there are no internal ribs at all. The boat weighs approximately 70 lbs. I made the oars out of white ash. The hardware is from Shaw and Tenny oar makers in Maine.

I modified the bow and stern profiles somewhat from the original design by cutting back the forefoot producing a stem that is not plumb as with most of these boats. The thought was to create a boat that would turn slightly easier for use on rivers and tight quarters.

Ongoing Development of the Guide-Boat

The Adirondack Guide-Boat has been in development for a relatively short time. Though the exact origin of the design is unknown and no single builder lays claim to having "invented" the guide-boat, we know that this type of boat did not appear in its present form until the latter half of the 19th century. Compared to the Native American canoe, which had been in development for possibly 6000 years prior to Europeans coming to America, the Guide-Boat is a newcomer.

It is remarkable that this type of boat evolved to such a high degree of perfection as quickly as it did. Credit to the traditional builders must be given along with an acknowedgement of their high level of skill and craftsmanship. Unfortunately, the development of the design was cut short at the beginning of the 20th century with the introduction of the gasoline engine and other factors that caused the Guide-Boat to decline in popularity. While some have said that the Adirondack Guide-Boat reached an apex of its development in the late 1800's, it is my contention that the type is still under development and that improvements are inevitable.

With recent public interest in easily portable human powered watercraft,as witnessed by the gain in popularity of canoeing and sea kayaking, the Adirondack Guide-Boat offers a attractive alternative. For recreational boaters, the Guide-Boat is similar in weight to a canoe but is more efficient in the water, being propelled by either oars or paddles. Unlike most canoes which require two people to paddle, it can be propelled by one person efficiently. Guide-Boats are easier to get in and out of than sea-kayaks and have a larger carrying capacity.

Technological improvements in materials have made possible construction methods that were not possible in the 19th century. It is generally acknowleged that the availability of modern thermosetting plastic resins and fibers have revolutionized the construction of boats and allowed the builder to produce stronger, lighter, and stiffer hulls. The particular suitability of epoxies with wood have also allowed the beauty of wood contruction to be retained while reducing the amount of maintenance previously necessary in the traditionally built boats.

Modern Developments

Originally, since there were few roads, the boats needed to be carried overland between lakes.The old Guide-Boats builders sought to reduce the weight of the boat to its minimum while retaining adequate strength and load carrying capacity. Their success at this is a remarkable achievement.

Today, the automobile allows access to nearly every body of water. The lightness of the Guide-Boat will be appreciated when taking the boat on and off the car. As in the past, lightweight remains a desirable feature in an Adirondack Guide-Boat. Modern builders have been able to continue in the direction of achieving lightweight without sacrificing strength by using modern materials that were previously unavailable to the builders of the past. The old Guide-Boats depended on numerous internal ribs to provide the necessary strength and rigidity to the hull. The ribs were cut from spruce stumps that were laboriously dug up and shaped by hand. In 1965, Lawrence Babcock of Vermont built the first laminated rib Guide-Boat using thinly cut pieces of Spruce glued with epoxy. Since then, builders have entirely eliminated all ribs and used a composite of epoxy, fiberglass and wood. The result it a ribless interior that is easier to keep clean while retaining the look of wood so much admired with these boats.

The Guide-Boats of the past were designed for a very specific use and locality. The relatively sheltered lakes of the Adirondacks allowed a low sided boat compared to a boat intended for use on larger open water where wind and waves might make the boat unusable. Though the boats performed quite adequately in choppy water owing to their "vee" bottomed hull form, they had the annoying habit of having water come over the bow when rowed into a steep chop. The very early Adirondack boats, from which the Guide-Boat was derived, had lap strake hull planking. This method produces a hull surface that has longitudinal ridges caused by one plank overlapping the one below it. The builders sought to reduce the amount of noise made by the hulls when moving through the water because the boats were used for hunting deer. The smooth hull of the later Guide-Boats produced a quieter hull but it also allowed water to come over the bow more easily when rowed into rough water. The solution was to make the ends of the boat higher. While this achieved the intended result, it also had a negative result by increasing the amount of windage. Wind would push the high ends around causing the boats to be harder to control in adverse conditions.

My proposal is to reduce the height of the bow and stern slightly in order to reduce windage. In order to achieve a dryer hull, less prone to water coming over the bow, an increased flaring of the shape of the hull just below the gunwale will direct water out and away from the interior of the boat. I first encountered this flaring on boats designed by L.F. Herreshoff who designed many sucessful and beautiful yachts. Several years ago I built a version of his "white water racing canoe" which shows this type of flare in the hull. Though this boat is much lower in profile than the guideboat, water has never come over the bow even in the most severe conditions. No doubt this characteristic is in part due to the fuller entry of the bow below the waterline which creates more bouyancy and allows the hull to ride over the wave. The Guide-Boat's narrower and less bouyant entry allows the bow to plunge somewhat more deeply than the Herrescoff canoe and I am not proposing to make any changes here as this would also slow the boat down. I believe that working a slight bit of flare into the hull just below the gunwale at the bow and slightly lowering the rise of the bow will have the desired effect of reducing windage and achieving a dryer hull.

The boat I am proposing will be of ribless cedar and epoxy construction. The composite strength has been proven to be adequate but some increase in flex at the center of the hull was noticed on a previous boat built using this method. The problem was addressed by adding supporting knees to the center seat. On the old boats, the seat was simply tied to seat risers attached to the ribs. Because the knees were fastened to the gunwale with bolts, adjustment of the seat was made dificult. Instead of bolting the seat to the gunwales through the knees as i previously did, I propose to use only one pair of knees that are tucked under a cleat at the inside of the gunwale. The seat will sit on risers as in the old boats. This will allow the seat to pivot for removal while providing increased stiffness when in the upright position. The cleat is also used for supporting a portaging yoke and were a normal part of the Guide-Boats of the past.