Re: HELP! Fitting canoe s

Posted by Nathan on Jul 5, 2006

Hi Guys, sorry its been a few days to make this reply, but here goes!

Lazlo, thanks for your input. Ive a couple of comments for you, the first is:

You said: "The Mystery Object is your rudder control. It attaches to those wooden blocks on the floor in the front of the cockpits"

Ok the foot-rudder control is accepted and understood.

However...those two little blocks you see, are apparently for something else. When I got the boat, apart from a load of junk in the hull, there was a long strip of ply, about 7 ft, by 8inches wide. It has two small 'cut-outs', the same size and shape as those blocks, and the man selling it said this was the 'floor'. Now it seems to make sense and it definetly fits snugly over those two blocks, (see cockpit shots again:

http://www.potentialtechnology.com/project/canoe.htm)

the blocks in turn have a swivel 'bolt' or whatever you call it.. that turns either direction to keep the floor locked in place. Now I dont know if this is original or not, coz it doesnt seem to fit so well between the strips on the hull flooring. Could that be right though? That the extra strip of ply is a removable floor? I may just take some more snaps to show this feature....

YOU said: "The seat is in fact the canoe seat. You set it on the bottom of the canoe (probably on the long strips of wood) and your weight keeps it in place".

Ok that also makes sense. But If I just do fiberglass patching to the 'current' damaged arears, will that canoe take my 16 stone weight once in the water? Or will I be better off glassing the entire hull for added strenght? Id prefer to just patch, but Im concerned that it may not be enough...any ideas on that please? And should I glass inside where Ive glassed outside?

You said: " If it seems mostly OK, sand off the paint and varnish from the outside. Look for rot indications again".

Ok well I had planned to sand off the paint, patch and repair with fiberglass instead of wood, as Im a lousy woodworker anyway, then re-paint the exterior hull in a nice dark british-racing-green color. The top I will varnish as I believe it will come up lovely. The reason I wanted to paint the hull rather than varnish, is that paint will cover the noticeable repairs wont it? varnish will dry clear and the repaired-cracks will be visible wont they?

But if a wood filler/plastic padding is used under the fiber glass, will that hide the repair instead? Does any filler dry and look like wood? If so, which?

Finally, If I do paint it, any suggestions on good marine paint? And if any canoe lover here 'seethes' at the thought of a 'painted over' wooden hull, Id be interested why thats so...as like I say, Im new to all this!

BTW, Chris said the decal looks like the buy scout logo in the USA, well Im in the UK, and our scouts have a similar decal!

Thanks again guys, looking forward to your tips! nathan

In Response to: Re: HELP! Fitting canoe s by Laszlo on Jun 28, 2006

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