THE RED DEVIL STORY

 2nd. September 2022

THE RED DEVIL CANOE STORY by TW Kang

                      The Red Devil Canoe

Three boats/canoes were manufactured from the workshop at 12, Kee Ann Road, Malacca in 1970s by the Kang brothers.

The first canoe has a waterproof canvas wrapped over a wooden frame. A shark face was painted on the front of this first canoe. 

During sea trials at Klebang Besar beach, it did not balance well but slided to her side because her center of gravity was not correct. So, our first canvas canoe was a failure.

The second was a flat bottom row boat constructed from plywood. Sea tested and it can carry at least 4 persons. This boat was carried out to the beach by 4 persons and was named “HMS Tenderfoot”.

The Red Devil Canoe was the third boat constructed from the  wood workingworkshop at 12, Kee Ann Road, Malacca in December 1975. 

It was originally designed as a single seat canoe. Later, we modified it to a canoe with a black sail and a foot guided rudder system. It was seaworthy as a canoe and a sailing boat which was commissioned at the Straits of Malacca in Klebang.

Her Construction

The plan of the canoe was taken from a woodworking magazine named Practical Woodworking from UK. The body structures were drawn to scale onto sheets of brown paper.

They were drawn onto the thick plywoods and cut accordingly. Using brass screws the wooden sides were screwed onto the frame as shown below.

The canoe wooden skeleton was completed before waterproof marine plywood were screwed onto the bottom and sides.

Lastly, the whole boat was sanded down before a coat of undercoat was painted. The last red paint was finally painted on.

Sea trials 

To transport this canoe from Malacca town to the Klebang beach, we mounted it on a roof rack on our old faithful green Morris wagon. Then, it was driven to our destinations.