hou Canoes

https://www.houcanoes.com/

Canoe Weights.

At times we can all get very carried away with the weight of a particular canoe. You will see from your product pages that we quote the spec as “From” a certain weight. This its for several reasons. Since our canoes are hand built there will always be slight variations in the exact weight of the finished product. On top of this, due to the canoes being rotary moulded once again this production process has marginal variations. Lastly because we use wood products in the fitting of our canoes once again the weight of these components can vary (sometimes by over 1.5 Kgs per boat!) The exact weight of a canoe will depend on all of those variable factors. So when we quote a weight ”From”, it is because we are being honest.

Canoe sizes.

On the subject of variability, the exact size of your canoe will vary to a small amount too. This is a function of two main variables. Firstly the colour of your canoe, (yes, the colour!), generally speaking the more pigment there is in a plastic, the more it will shrink when it comes out of the mould. So the colour can affect the exact size of the canoe. In addition to this the ambient temperature on the day your canoe was moulded will affect how much it contracts by when it comes out of the mould. So a colour with lots of pigment moulded on a cold day will be a different size to a canoe with a lighter colour moulded on a hot day! 

Wood Care

All your wood components in hōu Canoes are hand made in the UK. We prefer to use oil on our wood rather than varnish, this is mainly because varnish has a habit of chipping and then needing sanding down and re-varnishing in the damaged are. With oiling the wood it doesn't chip but if you need to re-oil its a very easy job requiring only oil and a rag or brush.

We use a mixture of oils to provide the best finish possible. Over time the oil on your boat will need to be re-applied, the time scale on this depends on many variable factors such as frequency of use, storage location, and the wood itself. On occasion you may see black spots starting to appear in the wood, this is natural, its a micro biotic that is always present in the wood.  When it gets enough air it will multiply and get bigger so become more obvious. This does not affect the wood other than visually but the best way to keep it away is to re-oil your boat as this seals the wood from the air. If you have any questions about wood care within your boat then just drop us an email and we will answer you as soon as we can.

New Boat Bagging.

We strive to deliver your new canoes in the best possible way. This includes bagging the boat at the end of production which is to protect it in warehouse storage and also to keep it clean and unscratched when its delivered to you as we regularly deliver using open canoe trailers. It is a sad fact but the most cost effective bagging is polythene plastic.

After your first trip on the water, it's inevitable that your boat will end up with a few scratches and scrapes, which makes all that care to protect your boat from minor damage seem a bit worthless.  If you want to help us help the environment in a small but significant way, then please tell us at the time of order if you are happy for us to not bag your canoes.