Building the Yoke

 After the gunwales were smoothed down, the next step was to build the yoke. The yoke differs from a thwart in that the yoke is used to portage the canoe while the thwart is used mainly for a third seat. I wanted to add a yoke to my canoe because I thought it would serve a better purpose. Following the plans from Chris Glad's Yoke Design, I adapted them a bit to what I wanted. Cutting the drawn out design on a band saw, I then sanded them down on a horizontal orbital sander. Then after it was sanded I routed the edges so it would have curved edges, which won't hurt my neck when I portage it, as seen below. When the yoke was finished, the next step was install it and the seats.