Welcome to Makeacanoe.com which takes the place of canoesandskiffs.com and concentrates purely on the ever growing Selway Fisher Design range of canoes and kayaks for the home boatbuilder. Our range of skiffs can still be seen along with all our other designs at www.selway-fisher.com.

Building a stitch and tape canoe is a quick and low cost way to get afloat which requires only basic woodworking skills. Ordinary Exterior (WBP) ply and exterior household paints and varnishes are often used and along with some simple DIY tools and a garage or temporary shelter to build in, a canoe can be put together in as little as 2 weekends and the intervening evenings.

So, the outlay in terms of cost, finding suitable materials and time is relatively small allowing the builder to be on the water quickly in a boat that he/she has made for themselves.

Alternatively, someone looking for a longer and more involved project for the winter evenings may consider building one of our beautiful Cedar Strip canoes. Still not requiring more than reasonable woodworking skills and tools, the builder ends up with a very attractive craft which will turn heads wherever it is used.

For both types of canoe enthusiast, Makeacanoe.com has been set up to provide an inspiring shop window and a place of information and support for all matters to do with home canoe and kayak building. We hope you enjoy Makeacanoe.com and welcome any comments and suggestions you may have to help us provide what you, the home canoe builder needs.

On this site you will find a wide range of over 55 canoes and kayaks including :-

• 9 Kayaks (including one built using the strip plank method).

• 17 ply open canoes up to 15'.

• 10 ply open canoes 15' to 17'.

• 10 ply canoes over 17'.

• 5 strip planked open canoes.

• 6 motor canoes.

• 5 sailing canoes (plus another 8 of our other open canoes which come with sail plans).

What is on this site? - this is quite a large site with details of all of our canoe and kayak designs plus descriptions of our design catalogues and construction manuals.
You will see at the top of this page - links to the various different pages describing the designs etc. A brief description of the design packages & services can be found below along with ordering information plus a list of site updates. Please read the ordering information carefully as there are now several ways in which you can place an order.

The Design Packages - all designs are complete for amateur DIY construction (unless otherwise stated) and have details, notes and a building procedure - please note that we also run a full back-up service allowing you to contact us by phone/fax, post or e-mail with any queries you may have before, during or after construction - we also have several Construction Manuals as an aid for those unfamiliar with modern boat-building or who want to keep up with the latest techniques.
The 2 main construction techniques used for these designs are:-

• Stitch & Tape plywood using computer generated hull panel shapes.

• Cedar Strip Plank using computer generated and faired mould shapes.

Using our YachtCAD system, we can change from one construction method to another in a design and we can often  offer details for clinker ply construction for any of our designs too.

CLICK ON THE LINKS BELOW TO VISIT EACH SECTION OF OUR CANOE & SKIFF PLAN RANGE 

The Designs
Kayaks	Open Ply Canoes up to15'
Open Ply Canoes 15' to 17'	Open Ply Canoes over 17'
Open Strip Plank Canoes	Motor Canoes
Sailing Canoes

Ordering Plans, Manuals & Catalogues - there are several ways in which you can place an order with us - these are separated into 2 mains methods :-

• Directly with your credit/debit card whilst you are on-line - we have added an Ordering Cart system which allows you to add the plans etc you wish to order to the Cart before going to the secure area to place your order. You will find a "Buy Plan Now" button under the description of each item.
  Please Note - for the moment, the On-Line Ordering Cart does not add the cost of Postage (Shipping) to your order - however postage & packing charges will be added - for a note of these P&P charges please go to the Postage (Shipping) Charges Table. All card transactions are in Sterling.

• By Post, Fax, E-mail or Phone - for those who do not wish to order on-line, we have retained our Order Form - go to our Post/Fax Order Form page (see also the Navigation bar at the top of this page for a link) and you will find an order form which you can print out, fill-in and send by post or fax with either your credit/debit card details or cheque/postal order.

• Note that there are 2 "Buy Plan Now" buttons for each set of plans - one for UK/EU customers which includes VAT and one for USA/Elsewhere customers which excludes VAT. Catalogues and Manuals do not incur VAT for UK/EU customers and these items therefore only have one "Buy Now Button".

• Please note that all credit/debit card transactions have to be done in Pounds Sterling - the US Dollar prices given in the price lists are estimated at an exchange rate of 1.6 USD = £1 Sterling and therefore our US clients may find the amount charged on their card statements will vary (up or down) from the US price given, if the exchange rate at the time is different - however, do remember that we are more than happy to accept payment by personal US Dollar cheque at the US Dollar price given in the price lists if you would prefer to order by Post - go to the  Post/Fax Order Form  page.

	Paying with PayPal
PayPal is an increasingly popular way to pay for purchases on-line. For those who want to pay using their PayPal account, Selway Fisher Design/Makeacanoe now has it's own PayPal account which you can pay into. Unfortunately, due to the complexities of setting up an efficient system of paying for postage and packing with PayPal which does not over-charge the customer for multiple purchases, we have not been able to use PayPal's simple buy-now set-up. This means that to use your PayPal account you simply need to transfer the total amount of your order including Postage & Packing into our PayPal account using the PayPal transfer system on your account.
To pay using your PayPal account :- Calculate the total amount of your order including P&P (see the Postage table below) - or contact us (either ring +44 1225 705074 or e-mail us at paul@selway-fisher.com) when we can confirm the total cost for you and give you our PayPal account paying-in details. Go to your PayPal account and transfer the amount to our Paypal account. E-mail us at paul@selway-fisher.com telling us that you have made the transfer and giving us the order details plus the address to send the order to. Postage Rates Item UK Airmail Europe Airmail US/Elsewhere Full Plans Canoes £2.00 £4.00 £5.00 Manuals £3.00 £5.00 £7.00 Catalogue/CD's Go to SFDesign Catalogues & Manuals. DVD's £1.99 £2.99 £3.99

List of Latest Site Updates

• 08/05/13 - New photos of the Dart 14 and Esk 14 Kayaks and 15'8" Prospector open canoe added plus the first photos of a Marathon 18'6" open canoe.

• 26/03/13 - 3 new canoe designs, all of them based on our most popular canoe, the 15'7" Prospector. There is now a 14' Prospector using the same 5 planks per side as her bigger sister, a 15' version with 7 planks per side and finally a 15'6" version styled as a Viking Longboat with war-like bow and stern - our new Viking 16 canoe - go to Open canoes up to 15' and Open Canoes 15' to 17'.

• 01/02/13 - New photos added of the Little Kate Open Canoe, Esk 17 Kayak and 15' Outboard Motor Canoe added. Also, there are photos of several models of our canoe designs on the new www.makeamodelboat.com site and it's User Group at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/makeamodelboat/  . Plans for making models of several of our canoe designs are now available on the www.makeamodelboat.com site, so do visit it and the new User's Group.

• 09/12/12 - New photo of the Pete open canoe winning the Water Craft Makita Cordless canoe Challenge.

• 20/10/12 - New photos added for the 21' Adirondack, Little Kate and strip planked Prospector open canoes.

• 17/06/12 - New photos added for the Little Kate, 14' Peterborough, 15'8" Prospector and 18' Ralph open canoes.

• 17/06/12 - New photos of the 16' and 17' Prospector canoes added and Katie and Mike's Canoe Building page has now been included in a new section simply called the Canoe Building page which also has a series of photos showing Simon Hunt building and using his 17' Prospector.

• 14/06/12 - New design, the 15' Trican outboard motor canoe with floats for aluminium or stitch and tape plywood construction added to the motor canoes page.

• 24/12/11 - Details of Mark Aplin's canoe building courses based on the Fisher Prospector added - go to the useful Links page.

• 03/12/11 - New photos added for the ply and strip planked Prospector, Dart 14 and 16 and Esk 17 kayaks, Baby Wren and Asymmetric Baby Raven open canoes.

• 12/09/11 - A new design added - the 15' Huntsman open V bottomed single chine canoe plus additional photos of the Dart 16 kayak, 15' Outboard canoe and Explorer 15 strip planked canoe.

• 11/04/11 - nothing exciting but I'm afraid that we have had to increase postal prices to cover both the recent and former postal charge prices increases.

• 04/01/11 - New pictures of the Waterman 16 and the Fisher Prospector added.

• 05/08/10 - new photos of the Esk 14 and 17 kayaks plus some canoes for sale on the SFDesign Canoes for Sale page.

• 29/05/10 - new photos of the Hazelnut, Steve Cullis' Prospector, the Raven and Asymmetric Strip Planked Baby Raven added.

• 10/05/10 - Go to http://www.songofthepaddle.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?24223-Away-with-the-Wayfarers-Tenby-Canoe-Saing for pictures and a video of Steve Cullis' Prospector with floats, sail and cuddy.

• 30/04/10 - New pictures of the Waterman 16 (built in 2 halves), Prospector, Wren and 15' Outboard canoe.

• 25/02/10 - You may now pay by PayPal - go to the Ordering Plans, Catalogues & Manuals section on this page for details.

• 14/01/10 - New photos added for the Esk 14, Peterborough, Hazelnut, Prospector and 12' Motor canoes.

• 01/01/10 - The New version of the Plywood Canoe Construction Manual and the Canoe Catalogue on CD are now available - go to Canoe Catalogues & Manuals.