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It’s no accident that Bear Mountain canoes and kayaks look as appropriate in an art gallery as they do in the water. For over three decades, we have worked hard to produce wooden watercraft that combine classic lines with the most advanced marine technologies. We firmly believe that anyone with basic woodworking tools and a desire to learn can create a Bear Mountain masterpiece. Our dedication to this ideal keeps us searching constantly for more effective teaching tools, simpler systems, user-friendly materials and creative new designs. We measure our success in the thousands of Bear Mountain canoes and kayaks that emerge from home workshops around the world each year.

We also take great pride in building National sprint racing canoes, prototypes for production designs, elegant one-off custom boats, and in restoring historically significant craft.

We first started building Bear Mountain canoes near Powassan, Ontario in 1977, in a log and stone workshop which we built ourselves on a high hill at the northwestern edge of Algonquin Park. We soon found that people were more interested in learning how to build their own canoes than buying a handcrafted one from us. Ted teamed up with neighbour and writer Merilyn Simonds (Mohr) to write CANOECRAFT which was released by Harrowsmith in 1983. Soon Canoecraft was purchased by Firefly Books and every year since then it has sold more than 10,000 copies all over the world thanks to Firefly - one of Canada's most successful publishers. Many people say Canoecraft is the best book on the subject.


You can also learn fine woodstrip/epoxy construction while building an elegant touring kayak or canoe with Ted Moores. Innovative boat builder, author and small craft historian, Ted operates the Bear Mountain Boat Shop in Peterborough with partner Joan Barrett. The company is well known for developing a user friendly system of woodstrip/epoxy construction. Ted’s books, CanoeCraft and KayakCraft, have led thousands of builders through the process of building their own craft and are considered to be the ‘bible’ of woodstrip construction.

Our building technique is approachable, deceptively simple as well as strong and beautiful. Most first time builders will find that they are familiar with many of the tools and techniques used in the class. Ted will show you how to put simple steps together in the most effective order and combine them with good materials to create a craft tha