Re: half oval

Posted by terry on Dec 13, 2004

I have seen several canoes with the brass installed with spacing that appeared to be 4 or 5" or thereabouts. I've never discussed my penchant for 2" hole spacing with an engineer, or even a very experienced professional builder, due to my chronic and abject laziness. Sorry. My rationale, however (and it sure is hard to be rationale about anyting the day after a late, close, Eagles game here near Philly) is that the critical attacment is the thickened epoxy I apply on the rough-sanded keel and brass. The screws merely serve as clamps in this hard-to-clamp area until the epoxy cures. The screws are so short (so they don't pierce the hull completely) and made of very soft brass, that they just wouldn't hold the brass on for long anyway without the epoxy. The close spacing merely improves the clamping of the brass onto the boat.

Of all the boats I've installed the brass on, none, save for a MC 16.5, had a keel edge at the ends wide enough to eliminate a slight overhang of the brass edge on each side. Hasn't been a problem yet, and some of the brass has been on for four years and used in Maine and other strange places with granite that's harder than a pig's head and sharper than a kind barber's razor. I credit the epoxy for keeping the brass in place.

Generally, a canoe keel is wider to start with with a much larger radius in the curve of the keel up into the stem, so wider spacing of the screws may be all that's needed.

Anyhow, good luck, whatever method you choose to adopt.

Happy Holidays!

terry

In Response to: Re: half oval by RogerJ on Dec 11, 2004

Replies:

• Re: half oval by RogerJ on Dec 14, 2004