Escaping cold gray skies and soaking in the beaming rays of summer sunshine is borderline essential to human beings, especially when it can be done lakeside. The oft-overlooked Hemlock and Canadice Lakes of the Finger Lakes region offer a unique experience that the other lakes cannot: still waters and natural shorelines, thanks to their New York State-protected status. But while swimming is prohibited, other recreational activities — like canoeing — are fair game.
Sandwiched between Hemlock and Canadice Lakes is Hemlock Canoe, a company focused on crafting handmade canoes for over 50 years. The business, which has been under the new ownership of Matt and Samantha Cassavaugh since 2024, takes pride in the expertise and consideration that goes into each watercraft coming out of the shop.
“We’re shooting to get people in a boat that they feel comfortable in, that does what they want it to do and that they get to have forever,” said Matt Cassavaugh.
Cassavaugh grew an interest in the boatmaking process as a hobbyist canoe paddler and met former Hemlock Canoe owner Dave Curtis through the paddling community. Curtis — who founded Hemlock Canoe in 1974 — was ready to pass on the torch, and Cassavaugh took over the business last year. Turning a hobby into a career is nothing new for Cassavaugh, who is also the head winemaker at Mendon winery 20 Deep, which he cofounded with David Gascon in 2018.
The canoe building process all begins with a drawing. The designs (some of which are decades old) are then turned into wooden models to be tested in a body of water. When a final model is successfully achieved, that wooden boat is used to make a mold which is then used to create the final consumer product.
Each canoe model is tailored to a customer’s needs, taking into consideration the physical build of the paddler, style of paddling taking place and water type.
“If you’re trying to cruise across a nice flat lake, you want a different boat than if you’re trying to go down a gnarly, twisty-turny river,” said Cassavaugh.
The body of each canoe typically consists of materials like Kevlar and carbon fiber. These fabrics are chosen for their characteristic strengths, like the puncture resistance of Kevlar or the strength-to-weight ratio of carbon fiber.
“We use materials like Innegra (a high-performance polypropylene fiber) for abrasion resistance,” said Cassavaugh. “If you were to paddle into the shoreline and land on a sandy beach, the sand doesn’t act like sandpaper and wear out your boat.”
The fabrics are cut, layered into a mold and mixed with a resin composite. Once they’re placed, the craftsperson only has one to two hours to make adjustments before the material hardens.
Woodworking is the final part of the process before a canoe is considered finished and ready to take on the water. On average, a canoe (using an existing mold) can be completed in a week’s time. That timeline is a testament to the talent and expertise of the craftsperson like Jeff Wenzel, who has been doing the woodwork at Hemlock Canoe for over seven years.
“These boats deserve all of your attention and care for detail when you’re working on them,” said Wenzel.
The world of paddling — like many hobbies — can be “as simple or complex as you want it to be,” said Cassavaugh. Hemlock Canoe is an active contributor to the paddling community through events like “Night on the Lake” every Tuesday on Canadice Lake. The gathering welcomes everyone and includes a chance to try out canoe offerings.
“People that have bought canoes from us in the past — or even people that own other canoes by other brands — are just looking for somebody to hang out and paddle with,” said Cassavaugh. “There’s a lot of people out there looking for their community.”
Moving forward, Hemlock Canoe will continue to incorporate new materials and designs to build on their 50-year legacy of handcrafted boats.
“It’s really cool to build something that somebody’s gonna paddle for 30 years, take their kid out on and then their kid’s gonna be able to inherit that boat,” said Cassavaugh. “And all along the way, we get to paddle with those people.” hemlockcanoe.com
This article appears in Dec 1-31, 2024.
