You're currently on the Canadian/International site. US customers visit bearmountainboats.com 🇺🇸

Howard Shepherd's Y2K Canoe: A Bob's Special 21 Years in the Making

A woman sits by the shore sipping a drink, with a wooden canoe to her right

Some builders are eager to get started as soon as their kit arrives; others savour having a long-term project to chip away at. Sometimes life intervenes, and a canoe build has to be moved to the backburner for awhile. That was the case for Howard Shepherd, who ordered a kit in 2000. His Bob's Special was finished and launched 21 years later, completing a decades-long dream. The canoe was a continual source of inspiration, and we're grateful to Howard for sharing his story. Read on to hear it in his words. 


In the year 2000, I took the money I got from the settlement of my grandmother’s estate and bought a Bob Special canoe kit from you. At the time, I was a high school teacher and had only limited time to work on the project.

I had built the strongback and had bent the stems and laid out the sheer line when, in April of 2002, I broke my leg skiing.

A few years went by before I could get back to the canoe. Finally I did; I managed to get all of the cedar strips installed and the basic shell done - and a friend helped me fiberglass the outer hull. Then, in 2015, I broke the femur of my other leg (and two vertebrae) in a bicycling accident. The project languished.

In July of 2020, I retired as a teacher. Finally I had time to give my full attention to the boat. Last month, after 21 years, I finally finished it and put it in the water. She’s named Pearl, after my grandmother (Charlie Pearl Shepherd).

I wanted you to know how much this project meant to me, and how inspired I was by Ted’s book (and the YouTube videos that appeared in the 20 years since I started). Pearl tracks very well, and is a delight to be in on the water. I’ve only done calm lake canoeing so far because I’m still working on my water balance; but I hope to take her on the French Broad River here in Asheville sometime soon.

About ten or fifteen years ago, when the teaching gig was particularly tough, I taped a sign on my school computer that said “Build the Canoe.” That got me through some tough days. Thanks for giving me a project to focus on for two decades.

Howard Shepherd

Asheville, NC

A Bob's Special wooden canoe sits in a workshop

A Bob's Special wooden canoe seen in profile in front of an outbuilding

A Bob's Special wooden canoe on top of a white car

Deck detail on a Bob's Special wooden canoe

Related Posts

Crafting a Canoe From Firewood by Ken Briggs, Whitehorse, YK, Canada
Crafting a Canoe From Firewood by Ken Briggs, Whitehorse, YK, Canada
“Hold your finger right there, don’t move it.” We’d been rubbing our fingers over the smooth, silky hull and had felt...
Read More
Freedom 55 by Francois Vaillancourt, QC, Canada
Freedom 55 by Francois Vaillancourt, QC, Canada
By Francois Vaillancourt As a hobby cabinetmaker I have had the pleasure of building various projects from building ...
Read More
To Build The
To Build The "Waist Nought" Cedar-Strip Canoe by Bruce Kitchen, Lakefield, ON Canada
By Bruce Kitchen In about 2004 I was puttering around in a bookstore at an outlet mall when I saw a copy of Canoecra...
Read More