Good, day HAPPY NEW YEAR wanted to ask what foot bar brace was recommended in a shearwater canoe, I am open to buying or making my own. Main concern I have is riveting/drilling hull which is kevlar fusion. Adjustable slide would be nice, as well as being able to remove. Best to you and yours. Ravenwolf
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foot bar
- Thread starter Ravenwolf
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You first have to decide which of two types of foot brace you want: foot pedals or a foot bar.
Foot pedals are used in kayaks and in most short pack canoes. Your feet are limited to being located against the hull, but there is room between the pedals for gear.
Foot bars are used in most sit & switch marathon canoes. I chose the Wenonah black aluminum foot bar for my Hemlock SRT, which is mainly a kneeling canoe, because the bar can adjust to different lengths, it can be easily completely removed for gear or car topping, and I can put my feet anywhere along its length unlike a pedal brace. I also sometimes tie light gear to the foot bar and use it to rest my spare paddle. You can also put pipe insulation on it to make it softer on spare paddles or bare feet.
Both foot pedals and foot bars have tracks that you can glue in or rivet in. I chose to have my foot bar tracks screwed into pieces of ash, which were then epoxied onto the hull. It's lasted five years so far. I even keep screws, washers and nuts inside a small zip lock back inside the telescoping foot bar.
At least one person contact cemented a Wenonah track onto a sliver of minicell foam, which he then contact cemented onto the hull. I have no idea how long this would last, but it would be easy to shave off.
Foot pedals are used in kayaks and in most short pack canoes. Your feet are limited to being located against the hull, but there is room between the pedals for gear.
Foot bars are used in most sit & switch marathon canoes. I chose the Wenonah black aluminum foot bar for my Hemlock SRT, which is mainly a kneeling canoe, because the bar can adjust to different lengths, it can be easily completely removed for gear or car topping, and I can put my feet anywhere along its length unlike a pedal brace. I also sometimes tie light gear to the foot bar and use it to rest my spare paddle. You can also put pipe insulation on it to make it softer on spare paddles or bare feet.
Both foot pedals and foot bars have tracks that you can glue in or rivet in. I chose to have my foot bar tracks screwed into pieces of ash, which were then epoxied onto the hull. It's lasted five years so far. I even keep screws, washers and nuts inside a small zip lock back inside the telescoping foot bar.
At least one person contact cemented a Wenonah track onto a sliver of minicell foam, which he then contact cemented onto the hull. I have no idea how long this would last, but it would be easy to shave off.
I'm a fan of rivets. Never heard of a good reason to not use them other than aesthetics, and they don't bother me. Easy to install and easy to uninstall. I drilled the holes way too high in my kevlar Magic (first time I'd installed a footbar) and filling the extra set of holes was no big deal. Just a couple small patches of fiberglass and a little epoxy and they basically disappeared. If you search around I'm sure you can find black rivets if that makes you happier.
Alan
Alan
I'm a fan of the foot brace style. I kneel primarily and like having the open area between the braces. My preferred brand are the Sea Dog braces. I use screws with neo-washers and paint the screw heads to match the boat.
In a wider boat I do like the Wenonah bar though as I don't always want my feet that far apart when sitting. I haven't yet mounted braces in my Magic and may experiment with a setup I really like in my kayaks. Its a short Werner rail with modified Kajaksport flex braces.
I've always drilled the hull but may do the Magic up using an inside ash rail as Glen posted. I'm going to be installing a spray deck on this boat so the hull is going to get poked full of holes anyway
In a wider boat I do like the Wenonah bar though as I don't always want my feet that far apart when sitting. I haven't yet mounted braces in my Magic and may experiment with a setup I really like in my kayaks. Its a short Werner rail with modified Kajaksport flex braces.
I've always drilled the hull but may do the Magic up using an inside ash rail as Glen posted. I'm going to be installing a spray deck on this boat so the hull is going to get poked full of holes anyway
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There's no need to go through the hull. You can make triangular braces, one for each side, hung from the gunwales. One arm of each brace would be vertical, and the other arm angled between the bottom of the vertical piece and some point on the gunwale farther forward. Attach the foot brace to the bottom where they join. If you like this idea, I leave it to you to figure out how to make it adjustable.
G
Guest
Guest
I like the adjustable Wenonah bar in a canoe. Most of my open boats are too wide for me to comfortably brace my feet against the side of the hull as with pedals. If you are considering pedal style braces sit in the Shearwater and see if that leg and knee position feels like a comfortable brace point for you.
The fine adjustability of the Wenonah bar is beneficial when wearing different shoes or boots or barefoot; I can set the bar to the ideal length.
I have never had a problem with riveted foot braces, and the twist knob “locks” may actually help in that regard. I slammed an unseen rock dropping down a broken mill dam and the canoe came to an instantaneous stop. Instead of tearing the foot brace from the hull it just slid forward a few inches.
The fine adjustability of the Wenonah bar is beneficial when wearing different shoes or boots or barefoot; I can set the bar to the ideal length.
I have never had a problem with riveted foot braces, and the twist knob “locks” may actually help in that regard. I slammed an unseen rock dropping down a broken mill dam and the canoe came to an instantaneous stop. Instead of tearing the foot brace from the hull it just slid forward a few inches.
I just picked that picture off the internet. The guy said he used regular contact cement to glue the track to the foam sliver and the same thing to glue the foam sliver to the hull.
One thing about gluing or even riveting a track directly to the hull is that if the hull is very curved, and you thus have to bend and curve the track, the telescoping foot bar may not slide fore-aft very smoothly or at all, and the bar may even become stuck and unremovable. This is because the end widget of the sliding bar will jam in the curved track. A poster here or on Pnet reported that phenomenon.
With my track drilled into ash strip method -- which was actually Dave Curtis's idea and construction -- the track can remain on the flat side of the ash strip while the other side of the ash strip can be shaped to the curve of the hull. In this way, the telescoping foot bar slides fore-aft and removes very easily.
My experience with contact cement is it is water soluble. Eventually it will break down and let go with repeated wettings. If it were me, I would epoxy them in and not drill any holes in the hull.
G
Guest
Guest
If you opt for an epoxied in place solution Glenn’s suggestion of using a piece of ash to provide a flat surface for the slider rail is the way to go.
An adjustable foot bar needs a flat surface to provide a good bond for the epoxy, lest you have something like this |), which will not provide much contact area for the adhesive except at the very ends.
I install a set of metal track Werner foot braces on a kevlar Bluehole years ago using the ash backing piece method. After shaping the wood to conform to the curvature of the hull I countersunk bolts on the (curved) backside of the ash pieces instead of screwing the foot brace sliders into place.
The curvature on the back side of the ash piece was very close to matching the curve of the hull, but to provide the best adhesion surface I cut an ash-sized rectangle of kevlar felt, saturated it with epoxy and use that for the initial adhesion of the ash. That kevlar felt helped fill any imprecise curvature and when it had set I covered the outside of the ash piece with epoxy resin and cloth.
Would you happen to have some pictures of this design? I'd really like to see how this was done
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Sorry, can't show you. It's a design I saw once. The verticals dropped straight down from the gunwale and the long side of each triangle formed about a 30 degree angle with the gunwale. The foot brace was attached to the verticals.
G
Guest
Guest
The Hornbeck I used to have had footrest rails that were fastened with only 2 small screws per side. With the thin, lite layup, I was concerned about the durability of this setup. It proved bombproof and could be removed and the holes plugged with plastic screws when not needed. Sorry I don't recall what brand the footrests were.
Turtle
Turtle
I am pretty sure the Wehnonah foot brace is from Kevin Carr at Chosen Valley Canoe Accessories. I have found Kevin to be a very helpful resource about mounting alternatives. I have put his foot braces on many of my boats. These old, arthritic knees kneel only in an emergency these days, and the brace lets me feel more connected to my boat.
Pam
Pam
I have been looking for a Wenonah Canoe foot brace. Do they still have them, anyone know the length of the bar? Would like to find someone in Va that would help installing these. Just do not want to take a chance in doing it wrong. any info would be helpful
http://www.paddleva.com/
Yes on the footbar
https://www.wenonah.com/Items.aspx?id=29
It telescopes..Pick whether you need solo or tandem.. Its quite easy to install.
Yes on the footbar
https://www.wenonah.com/Items.aspx?id=29
It telescopes..Pick whether you need solo or tandem.. Its quite easy to install.
G
Guest
Guest
Those pop riveted Wenonah foot braces are very easy to install. Drill four holes, install four pop rivets, done. I have put them in dozens of canoes of different materials and construction and never had a problem using the wide flange head pop rivets that come with the foot brace.
Exactly where to position the foot brace and where to drill those holes in the side of the canoe is critical. Wenonah has a nicely detailed one page instructional for that task, which for some odd reason DOES NOT COME* with the foot brace. But Wenonah will send it to you on request.
*At least it has never been included with any foot brace I have purchased, including those bought directly from Wenonah. I have looked on the Wenonah website thinking they would have a PDF of that very helpful instruction page, but if it is there I haven’t found it.
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