About Tim Fox

Tim began boat building with a strip cedar canoe in 1979. After its initial launch the desire to improve on the 1st canoe was so great that the following winter another was built. The first boat was such a success it never made it home after its maiden voyage.  Someone saw the beautiful boat and purchased it on the spot; thus began a career in boat building.

Armed with a BS in Mechanical Engineering and no hot job prospects after college Tim spent 20 months in a wooden boat building apprenticeship. Marriage and a real job ended the apprenticeship but not the love of building fine wood boats during the ensuing 5 years he completed 8 strip built canoes and 3 strip kayaks.

Tim took off for the Rocky Mountains in the mid-eighties to recover from a divorce. He found solace in work as a Fly Fishing Guide during the summers and he built Drift boats and strip canoes in the “off season” for the next three years.

In 1992 Tim came back to Rockford, Michigan and founded Michigan River Outfitters, a retail fly-fishing shop.  He was also blessed when he met his 2nd wife, Cheryl. They were married in 1993. He continued to build canoes and drift boats and offered them for sale during his off hours from the fly shop.

In 1994 the urge to return to the Rocky Mountains was as strong one and he sold the MRO fly shop. In Colorado he began to share his passion for boat building by teaching others the craft of building boats. He honed his skills at teaching, all the while continuing to build wood epoxy composite Kayaks, canoes, small sailing craft, drift boats and rowing boats.

In 2005 he and his family returned to Michigan where he formed C-Fox Wood Boats and C Fox Boat School. The boat school is at his home on Red Pine Drive in Kent City.  There is over 2000 square feet for the boat works with plenty of room for his custom projects as well as his students.

Boats & Classes

Tim will be building a limited number of his beautifully crafted custom boats and offer them for sale annually. He prefers to teach these days, focusing on passing on his passion for building Wood Epoxy Composite Boats. Take one of his classes
and you will enjoy an apprenticeship of your own and out of your labor of love will come the satisfaction of paddling, sailing or rowing a craft you built with your very own hands.