Courses 2025
June: 24.06. - 01-07.2025
July: 04.07. - 11.07.2025
Two wooden canoe building courses will be held in Haltian Pappila, Luopioinen, Pälkäne in the summer of 2025. The eight-day course will include an instructor-led walk-through of the tools and their use, as well as a hands-on guide to building a Finnia canoe through all the steps: building the keel, joining the pre-milled boards, fixing the boards in place, and finishing and surface treatment of the canoe. The course is best suited to working in pairs, allowing even inexperienced builders to progress in their construction work.
We invite you to Luopioinen for a canoe building course. In addition to building a canoe, we offer participants the opportunity to get to know the people and environment of Luopioinen. With CNC milled parts, canoe building is possible even for less experienced craftsmen.
The course will be held in Haltian Pappila, Luopioinen.
The canoe will be built in eight days. The canoe is completed in a short course by a partner. As the canoe to be built is a two-seater, the course is suitable for mother/father and son/daughter, couples or even as a joint project with a good friend. Togetherness is again an important part of this course. This summer, all course participants can stay in the guest chambers of Haltian Parsonage - or spend the night in a caravan or tent in the parsonage yard.
If you are interested in building your own Finnia canoe during the course, please call Leena on 040 5454265 or send an email to leena [dot] ilmola [at] vendia [dot] fi (leena[dot]ilmola[at]vendia[dot]fi)
The canoe
The canoe we offer in the course is a new construction by our customer and partner Thomas Vochezer from the German region Allgäu. It is a two-seater that is ideal for water hiking. The canoe has been specially developed taking into account the material properties of our Vendia marine plywood. It is a clinker construction made of 5 and 6 mm thick boards. The clinker construction method makes it possible to build without the use of fibreglass mats.
The surface treatment will be done on site with a mixture of linseed oil, pine tar and wood turpentine, which makes it possible to finish the treatment within a short time and to use the canoe immediately afterwards. Of course, it would also be possible to give the finished canoe a varnish, but this cannot be done within a short time. Of course, we leave it up to each course participant to carry out the surface treatment according to his or her own taste.
Finnia - Clinker Canoe
Technical data:
- Length: 4,56m
- Width: 0,8m
- Weight: 30kg
- Seats: 2
- Payload: 200kg
- Material: Vendia Boatplanks
- Surface Treatment: Linseed oil - Tar - Terpentine mix
Varnishing the Canoe is a viable option, but it takes more time and is not possible to be finished during the Course.
Accommodation
On the shore of Haltian Bay in Lake Kukkiajärvi is the old parsonage of Luopioinen, built in the 1700s and 1800s. Course participants can stay in the main building of the rectory and canoes are built in the courtyard. The vicarage and its beach sauna provide an atmospheric holiday environment.
The main house has four 2-bed bedrooms and one single room. Guests also have access to a hall with a TV, a dining room and a kitchen. Two toilets, a shower and free use of the beach sauna. A rowing boat to row on the Kukkia or visit the centre of the church village. The room rate of 37 euros per person per night includes breakfast served by the hostess of the parsonage.
Haltian Pappila is located on the shore of Lake Kukkiajärvi, less than 3 km from the centre of the church village.
You can also rent a caravan or stay in a tent in the yard. If you prefer to live in your own cottage, we can help you find a cottage to rent.
Luopioinen
In the picture you can see Lake Kukkia. Characterised by many small islands, beautiful bays and countless places to linger, this lake offers a very beautiful paddling area. Due to the shallow depth and many dangerous stones, the lake is a difficult body of water for motor boaters, all the better for us paddlers! The region around Luopioinen is characterised by old forests and many small and medium-sized lakes. The village of Luopioinen is situated on the western shore of Lake Kukkia and offers many opportunities for visitors. Sports and cultural activities are varied during the summer months. At a distance of about 60 kilometres you will find the somewhat larger cities of Tampere and Hämeenlinna, which are certainly worth a trip
We can help you finding ways to travel to Finland.
Course content
The eight-day course is an instructor-led introduction to the necessary tools and their use, and provides hands-on instruction in the construction of a Finnia canoe through all stages: building the keel, joining the pre-milled boards, fixing the boards in place and finishing and surface treatment of the canoe. The course is best suited to working in pairs, allowing even inexperienced builders to progress in their construction work.
There will be two courses in the summer of 2025: course 1 (Tuesday-Tuesday) 23 June-1 July and course 2 (Saturday-Saturday) 4 July-12 July.
The course fee includes the necessary materials: boards, wood materials, glues, finishers and tools. Participants can also order ready-made paddles and floating pads for their canoe through Vendia.
Course price:
The course price per pair is EUR 2980 (incl. VAT 25,5%). When registering for the course, participants will be charged half of the course price as a pre-registration fee. If Vendia has to cancel the course for any reason, the course participant will receive a full refund of the advance payment. If a participant has to cancel before 1 April, the advance payment will be refunded in full; before 1 May, 50% of the advance payment will be refunded.
Articles about the course
YLE (fin)
Finnia Kanootti Valmis (fin)
Kanootin Veistoa tervaus istuimet (fin)
Canoe building blog post (eng)
