The original wood-reinforced fiberglass hull was developed by my grandfather L.H. Beach more than 53 years ago. He grew up in Maine and moved to Merrimack, NH where he started the company. When fiberglass started to be used in boat building, he didn't like the looks of the all fiberglass hulls. He came up with the idea of combining tradition with the new fiberglass technology. So he made a thin fiberglass hull and instead of reinforcing it with fiberglass he used wood ribs one-sixteenth inch thick. This gave the hull the stiffness it needed with less weight and great looks. This is where he came up with the slogan, "The fiberglass canoe that looks like a canoe."

In 1967, my Mom and Dad, Doris and Lem, took over the company and started building the canoes when Dad retired from the Navy. They built canoes in Merrimack until the fall of 1972 when we moved to Crossville, Tennessee -my Mom's parent's home town. My Mom became the main fiberglass expert and Dad the main wood worker, thats how my brothers and I learned to build canoes.

Although today we use modern composite materials for our hulls, we build Merrimack canoes basically the same way my grandfather did, and being a third generation Merrimack Craftsman, I'm very picky about the details. You won't find another canoe on the market with more craftsmanship and detail in its construction. We back all our canoes with a limited lifetime warranty to the original owner against defects in materials and workmanship.

Take a few minutes to browse through our site and be sure to let us know if you have any questions.

Randy Pew
Merrimack Master Canoe Builder