canoe building

Has anyone had experience in building the canoe Sweet Dream from 4mm plywood and experienced difficulties in bending the plywood without cracking.

not specifically. I've seen plywood bend but it was very gradual (over a day or so) and not as much as a canoe.

here are some ideas:

A lot will depend on the thickness and width of the plywood, so thin and narrow might help (the cedar I used during the course was 3-4 inches wide and 1/8 inch thick (I think)) Remember the thicker the wood, the heaver the portage

Try soaking first, throughly over a day or so (this may be bad for plywood as it might come apart)

Use lots of boiling water/steam if possible, bend into place, tack/staple/clamp then let stand and dry

Lee Valley has instructions and tools for steam bending wood including plans for a steam box, and neat jigs and pully systems to bend the wood.

I just finished stitching the Sweet Dream hull this week. There was a bit of cracking when stitching the upper stems together but the book said to expect that. I have very few cracks but the ones I do are in the outer layer only. I'm not too worried about the cracks. After I fair the hull I'm going to glass it. This is a deviation from the book, but recommended by Noah's. How bad is your cracking? Are you stitching slowly? Did you use 4mm okumme (sp?) marine plywood? If not the wood may not be flexible enough to bend. Alex