Wooden canoe at sunset on Esther Lake. Minnesota. Used with permission from Bryan Hansel Photography. Another picture from the same outing is used in our header.
Bryan built this canoe, a Freedom 17 designed by Steve Killing, in his second floor apartment while living in North Liberty, IA. It was too big to fit out the door, around the corner and down the apartment building’s stairs, so when he finished it went out the window. He sent his girlfriend to the parking lot and started to lower. Before it hit the ground, people ran to help. A business owner operating under Hansel’s apartment griped, “I wondered what all the banging was about.” Although I don’t know why you’d need a hammer to build a canoe there must have been a reason for the banging–maybe completely unrelated to building a canoe. Canoe builders do get all the chics. I bet the current tenants are still vacuuming up cedar dust.
Get It
For canoe builders, Bear Mountain Boat Shop sells plans, and for mere mortals, Bluewater Canoe makes the Freedom in 39-pound shoulder saving Kevlar. Bryan writes about making the photo on Paddlinglight.com. Order a print from Bryan on his website. The image number is 100718-104.