Picked up an old, Old Town Camper a few weeks ago as a "winter project". Couldn't wait till winter so I pretty much started on it right away. It had / has some good points and some bad....
The good is that it's a royalex 16' Camper that i'll be able to solo instead of my big 17' OT Tripper. I bought it as a project canoe but in hindsight, likely paid a tad more than I should have, you win some and you loose some.....
The big gamble on this canoe was what was hiding beneath a previous repair. How bad could it be I thought
You win some...and sometimes you don't
I don't have any experience repairing holes in royalex canoes (or fiberglass for that matter) but I figured what the hell. The only thing I wasn't going to do is sink much more money into this project. Fortunately I had some left over epoxy, a littly bit of light fiberglass I used on paddle blades and a left over piece of Kevlar from making skid plates.
On the good end of the canoe I made a mold of the curve out of paper mache. I moved the mold to the damaged end and applied a few layers of fiberglass from the inside and the a couple more on the outside to try and rebuild the missing section. This actually worked out ok. I then covered the entire section with a skid plate. Looks like crap but it should hold.
I also picked up a couple 10' ash boards and made up some new gunwales.
The cain seats on this gem of a canoe were shot too.
The seats I fixed up by reversing the frames, drilled out holes and laced in nylon rope that I had on hand. The decks are made of butternut. I still have to make some grab handles and make a slight change to the deck but I'll get to those later along with cleaning up the hull a bit but otherwise it's ready for the water.
The good is that it's a royalex 16' Camper that i'll be able to solo instead of my big 17' OT Tripper. I bought it as a project canoe but in hindsight, likely paid a tad more than I should have, you win some and you loose some.....
The big gamble on this canoe was what was hiding beneath a previous repair. How bad could it be I thought
You win some...and sometimes you don't
I don't have any experience repairing holes in royalex canoes (or fiberglass for that matter) but I figured what the hell. The only thing I wasn't going to do is sink much more money into this project. Fortunately I had some left over epoxy, a littly bit of light fiberglass I used on paddle blades and a left over piece of Kevlar from making skid plates.
On the good end of the canoe I made a mold of the curve out of paper mache. I moved the mold to the damaged end and applied a few layers of fiberglass from the inside and the a couple more on the outside to try and rebuild the missing section. This actually worked out ok. I then covered the entire section with a skid plate. Looks like crap but it should hold.
I also picked up a couple 10' ash boards and made up some new gunwales.
The cain seats on this gem of a canoe were shot too.
The seats I fixed up by reversing the frames, drilled out holes and laced in nylon rope that I had on hand. The decks are made of butternut. I still have to make some grab handles and make a slight change to the deck but I'll get to those later along with cleaning up the hull a bit but otherwise it's ready for the water.
