A few years ago, Joe Goudie and his son were paddling through rapids on the Churchill River. With water levels low and rapids raging, their canoe - loaded down with supplies - smashed against the rocks and tore apart.Luckily, Goudie and his son managed to make it safely to shore. Assessing the damage, they discovered the wood in the canoe had cracked to pieces but their supplies were still dry. The surprised paddlers inspected the wreckage.
“I couldn’t believe it,” Goudie recalls. “When we took a close look I realized the wood in the canoe was shattered but the canvas still held everything together.”
The canvas he refers to is actually canvas that Goudie stretches over his canoes (replacing the traditional birch bark covering) and then coats with a special linseed oil mixture. Goudie knew the technique gave his boats a tough shell but that day on the Churchill proved the method was better than he imagined.
From his experience, you’d expect Goudie - a native Labradorian - to have built boats since he was quite young. Not so. Goudie only started hand-crafting canoes when he retired in 1996.
Born and raised in Mud Lake, Goudie completed his education in Happy Valley-Goose Bay. He’s enjoyed a varied and colourful career. He served with the RCMP auxiliary, worked as a broadcaster with CBC, and was town clerk and town manager of Happy Valley-Goose Bay. In 1975, he was elected to Newfoundland and Labrador’s House of Assembly and held several ministerial posts.
After leaving politics in 1985, Goudie went to work with the Department of National Defence. Today, he is a consultant for Parks Canada and a community liaison officer for the potential establishment of Mealy Mountains as a National Park.
Creating the Grand River canoe
Goudie has always maintained a strong connection with the outdoors. As a First Nations person, he wanted to sustain the tradition of canoe building in Labrador.
When he began boat building in 1996, he already had a lot of common sense when it came to canoe design and construction. However, Goudie was eager to find an “expert” to teach him the modern interpretation of the traditional craft. “The only expert I could find was Jerry Stelmok in the United States,” he laughed.
In 1997, Goudie opened his own shop, the Grand River Canoe Company. Grand River was the name formerly used for the Churchill River. Today, he builds 16-foot canoes (for one person) and 18-foot canoes (for two people). The canoes can accommodate a motor.
While at the Wooden Boat Museum conference in October, Goudie described his Grand River boat-building method. Before he starts building a canoe, he carves a half model to make sure his design is just right.
Different types of wood are chosen to build each canoe. Goudie prefers to use cedar because it’s lighter than white spruce. He also uses white cedar but he’s heard the material is dangerous to work with because it’s hard on allergies. He uses a homemade kiln to dry the wood and to manage the moisture content. The steamed ribs are then bent over a solid building form creating the desired canoe shape.
Once the hull is shaped, Goudie covers it with a canvas. He mixes linseed oil and other materials, such as silica flour and “paints” the canvas with the concoction, filling in all the cracks. After several coatings, the canvas becomes smooth and tough.
“The technique is better than paint,” explained Goudie. “It also replaces having to do many, many coats of paint!” If his episode on the Churchill River is any indication, there’s no doubt Goudie is right.
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