Martin Bernardin is the owner of Kisseynew Canoe Company. (Derek Cornet/larongeNOW Staff)

By Derek Cornet

Handcrafted Canoes

Air Ronge company producing canoes from aerospace materials

Apr 15, 2019 | 3:53 PM

Canadians from far and wide are lining up to get their hands on canoes produced by the Kisseynew Canoe Company, which uses some of the strongest materials known to make them.

The Air Ronge-based business is owned by Martin Bernardin who built his first canoe in 1999. It wasn’t until 2005, however, when he launched the company after building a 26-foot cedar-strip canoe which he used in the Saskatchewan Centennial Canoe Quest Race that same year. He and a friend built the canoe specifically for the race and were surprised by how well they did.

“We weren’t canoe racers at the time and our canoe was quite a bit faster than all the other canoes out there,” Bernardin said. “Out of 30 teams, we should have been in the bottom third of the competition. Because our canoe went through the water so well, we were pretty much consistently in the top 10.”

Just a few years later in 2008, Bernardin entered a team in the Yukon River Quest, which spans 715 kilometers from Whitehorse to Dawson City. It’s the world’s longest annual paddling race and that year Bernardin’s team finished in 39 hours and 32 minutes, a record that still stands to this day.

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After the short break, Bernardin returned to building canoes in 2013 and can produce 30 to 50 canoes per year with a three-man crew. He noted the company can manufacture two canoes per week that can be twice as light as other canoes made from fibre glass. Since the materials used are carbon fibre and Kevlar, the canoes they produce can weigh less than 40 pounds.

Mark Lafontaine sands a voyager canoe currently in production. (Derek Cornet/larongeNOW Staff)

“For a marathon racer, you want something very light but very stiff, so when you paddle the boat, you don’t want it flexing,” Bernardin said. “When we transitioned the company from building one-off type canoes to actually having moulds and production boats, we already had a lot of the technology there. We’re using these aerospace-type materials and it was just a matter of developing aerospace-type processes to go with them.”

Having his company located in the tri-communities has also proven to be beneficial when it comes to sales. He stated northern Saskatchewan is known for its rivers and waterways, which attracts paddlers from all over.

“This is the best paddling country in the world, so we’re able to build the canoes here and go right out the backdoor and test them,” Bernardin said. “A lot of our customers come paddling here in the summertime, so it’s a great place to meet them.”

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derek.cornet@jpbg.ca

Twitter: @saskjourno