Newfound Rendezvous

Come join us in 2025!

Welcome to the 13th Newfound Rendezvous! September 6th - 10 am to 5 pm, Sunday the 7th Paddle the day on Newfound Lake!

Looking for a place to visit with other Cedar Strip Boat enthusiasts? This is it!

Come spend a day with enthusiasts, dreamers, beginners and seasoned cedar strip boat builders!

See demonstrations of Cedar Strip Boatbuilding, and other facets of small wooden water crafts!

Bring your Newfound Woodworks Stripper!

This is a gathering of cedar strip canoe, kayak, and row boat enthusiasts, many bringing their Newfound Woodworks designed cedar strip boats, sponsored by Newfound Woodworks, Inc.

Many attendees have built their strippers from Newfound Woodworks' kits or plans and will have them there. Others will be there to learn low impact boating, which these strippers exemplify.  Attendees will discover how to build these boats, see the boats in action, research their next project, and learn safe use techniques.

Most of the people who have built these boats haven’t seen others, let alone a hundred or more examples of different designs, each with the builder’s own artistic flare incorporated into the process. This isn’t a beauty show; there aren’t judges or prizes for best-built canoe, kayak or rowing craft. On the other hand, there are some creations that stand out from the crowd.

A group of people standing around many small boats
A group of people standing around some boats.

 

Location:

Wellington State Park  (see below) on West Shore Road on the west side of Newfound Lake in the town of Bristol, NH.  The park has a huge sheltered beach, picnic tables, parking, and hiking trails.  Newfound Lake is clean and clear; you should be able to watch fish swimming when you practice your Eskimo rolls.

The size and layout of Wellington State Park will allow us to have building demonstrations under canopies that are erected  near the beach area and water activities right nearby.  This should make it easier for attendees to be able to take in as much as possible.

We are planning the Demonstrations, and will be adding regularly!

What we are doing:

FRIDAY: Feel free to stop in the shop for a visit 2pm to 5pm!

SATURDAY:  10 am to 5pm ~ Informative & Fun fill day...

9 am– 10 am – Check In & Boat lineup at the beach

10:15 – 12 pm – Form Set up (Canoe & Kayak) – Alan of Newfound Woodworks 

1 pm - Cedar Strip Construction – Rose of Newfound Woodworks

2 pm - Fiberglassing Demo – Rose of Newfound Woodworks

3 pm - Varnishing Demo – Talk with Jason of Epifanes, with Demo by Rose of Newfound Woodworks

3:30-5 pm - Safety Presentation by Michael, Mark & Paul:

  •      Construction & Outfitting tips for safer, more seaworthy boats.
  •      Resources to gather information about sea conditions and how we use them to plan for safe day paddles and longer trips.
  •      Items we pack in our boats and PFDs and why.
  •      What if someone tips over? Rescue techniques and rolls.

All day:

- Cedar Strip Boats "Strippers" will be lined up on the beach

- Stripbuilding information with Rose and Alan of Newfound Woodworks

- Epifanes Varnish information with Jason of Epifanes

- Paddles by Custom Paddle maker Ray Lesmerises of LTP

- Liz Sculling demonstration

And more!

Saturday 5Pm – Raffle Drawing

SUNDAY: Paddling/Rowing anyone??  Join us in a paddle/row around Newfound Lake!  Bring your stripper!!!  We will gather at 10 am for a paddle at Grey Rocks, on the northern side of Newfound Lake!

We plan to have the annual “Paddle”.  We hope to have a hundred boats in the water at once!

A group of people gathered under a blue tent.
A woman standing at a table with wood.
A group of people standing around boats on the beach.

Each attendee needs to register individually

Please,

PRE-REGISTER TO ASSIST US IN PLANNING

Registration Covers:

Attendance, All Demonstrations & Lunch

REGISTER HERE

Info about the Rendezvous will be sent containing detailed information. example: where to park, etc..

A map of the trail shows the location of the bridge.

Unload small portage boats at the little loupe with the red arrow (Unload only. Please, no parking)

Boat dock at the end (with parking) – Row/Paddle around tip to the designated Beach area

Parking at the white “X”s

We will be at the Ducks Nest at Wellington State Park located at 614 West Shore Road located on the west side of Newfound Lake at the northern-most point of the town of Bristol. The 1000 foot beach at Wellington faces north and is sheltered from weather by a peninsula and island on its east side. Belle Island is part of Wellington and the peninsula boasts a great nature trail. There is a boat launching area attached to Wellington that is open so the public can have access to the lake. There is also a marked hiking trail to the forested hilltops on the west side of Newfound Lake. There is a State Park entrance fee upon arrival.

State Park Rules: PFD’s Must Be Worn. Sorry, absolutely NO DOGS OR OTHER PETS are allowed at the beach area or in the park. Please visit nhstateparks.org for more information.

A brown and white logo for new hampshire state parks.

Accommodations:

You can find a list of campgrounds, inns, motels, bed & breakfasts, and rentals that may be available for the event. You will want to make firm reservations at one of these places right away or if you know of a place to stay in the area you will want to make contact soon. It is up to you to find a place to stay; we will provide the venue, organize the event. We have other events competing for facilities on that weekend: Wait till these people see all the strippers infiltrating the area!

CONTACT INFORMATION:

Newfound Woodworks

67 Danforth Brook Rd.

Bristol, NH 03222

603-744-6872

info@newfound.com

Note: We will be posting more information on Demonstrations and activities, so check back every so often.

A beer mug sitting on top of a wooden barrel.

On Display: EXCURSION Kayak ~  Best in Show winner at the WoodenBoat Show's Concourse d'Elegance 2023 ~  Professional Build Built by Newfound Woodworks 

 

About Our Shop

We at the Newfound Woodworks are dedicated to providing the highest quality materials to make what we consider to be the most beautiful boat designs available. We prefer strip building, so even though we now produce stitch and glue plywood kayaks, we really like our Hybrid construction method.

Your purchase of our products is only the beginning of our relationship. We have produced two videos in DVD format to provide a wealth of information. We are happy to answer questions by e-mail and telephone. Since we also build boats, we know how to get you through the process.

Our goal is to help you achieve a successful boat building endeavor no matter which construction method you choose.

Strip-build, cedar-strip, cedar strip/epoxy, or wood strip all refer to the same technique for building a boat. This method lends itself readily to canoes, kayaks, and small rowing boats. Thin strips of wood are edge-glued together around temporary forms, faired, and covered inside and out with epoxy and fiberglass cloth.

These are really wood cored fiberglass boats; the epoxy and fiberglass are the strength and protection, and the wood core is the shape and beauty. Cedar strip/epoxy boats require much less maintenance than traditional wood boats; a new coat of varnish for UV protection every couple of years will keep your canoe or kayak looking like new.


The Stitch and Glue boat construction method uses panels of marine plywood temporarily held together (stitched) with copper wire, glued with epoxy and fiberglassed to achieve various hull shapes. This type of construction has been used to build the simplest dinghies to large cabin cruisers. The shape of the panels of plywood determines the eventual shape of the boat. Marine CAD programs have allowed designers to produce efficient, beautiful kayaks using 4 MM okoume marine plywood to achieve amazing hull shapes. We are currently using this construction technique to provide kayak kits.


We really like strip building, the appearance of strips, and the level of creativity that you can achieve when using strips. On the other hand, we can see how plywood has its place. When plywood is used, a boat can be assembled quicker with fewer parts and therefore is less costly to produce and less time-consuming to create. So, we are now producing stitch and glue plywood kayak kits, but we have gone further: We now produce Hybrid Kayak Kits. These combine the utility of a plywood hull with the beauty of a cedar strip deck. We think this construction method combines the best attributes of both stitch and glue and strip building construction. Fewer parts and pieces mean less cost to the customer and faster building time while retaining the beauty and creativity of a cedar strip deck.

A "kit" is simply a collection of parts and pieces pre-milled to help you get through the boatbuilding process faster. You can certainly purchase a set of plans and a book and build a boat simply by reading and doing. You may save some money by finding all of the materials, milling your own strips, and making your own mold forms. If you purchase a kit from us, you will save time and frustration and gain quality. We build many of the designs we sell as kits, so we know what you will need to end up with a high-quality canoe or kayak. We are constantly updating our kits as we work out better methods or research new materials. If you are new to strip building and/or boatbuilding, we urge you to read a couple of books and view our Fiberglassing Video. The Pre-Kit Package has been created so that you can review the plans, book, and video before you commit to the process. Reviewing these materials may help you decide how to proceed.


We will customize your kit to fit your needs and abilities. Sometimes customers want to make some items themselves and purchase others.

We have several rowboat designs. We based our Rangeley Boat on the John Gardner version in Building Classic Small Craft. Our Adirondack Guideboat design is derived from the Cole's Guideboat, 16'2" long with a 38" beam. The Lawton Tender also came from a John Gardner book. We have a traditional Whitehall design. Ken Bassett designed a sliding-seat rowboat called the "Liz" that we converted from lapstrake to cedar strip.

We are a distributor for MAS Epoxies and SystemThree SilverTip Epoxy. We use these two systems because they are non-blushing epoxy, low viscosity, and slow curing. A very important property of both of these epoxy systems is that they are very clear and won't fog.