Cedar Stip Repair Advice Sought

[alsg]

I finally got a chance to inspect A Slow Boat to Nowhere. I knew my mishap on the Penobscot River had put a good scratch on the outside near the bow but there was no interior damage there.

However, I did find two spots near the stern on the inside where the glass delaminaed and cracked. I see no exterior damage at these spots to the glass or the wood.

Seeking advice on the best technique to repair this damage.

 

[DeniseO30]

The most difficult part of repairing strip canoes is getting the varnish off. If you sand it with a power sander you will have yellow dust when you finally get into the epoxy & glass dust will be grayish be white.

You can also use a heat gun and scraper but most people don't choose to go that route

River Running strip canoes get real ugly real quick! My prospector was split down the middle, once and cracked a few times.

After you are sure you have the varnish removed, you can fill the cracks re-align the strips as necessary.

You probably know this, but much the strength of a composite, comes from the inner layers of fiberglass. So you may want to rethink / glass the whole inside bottom or just use cloth and overlay the broken areas. she probably won't look like fine furniture anymore, but she will be stronger for the next "incident"

 

[alsg]

Thanks DeniseO30.

There's already 1.5 layers of 6 oz S-glass inside and out. The extra half layer inside and out covers the "football" up to about the usual water line. These cracks are just above the usual water line.

Of course, when my canoe filled with water and went down the rapids like a submarine, the water line ended up at about the gunnels.

I will see if other advice is forthcoming. Otherwise, I think I will cut out as much bad fiberglass as I can with a knife, sand the area smooth and lay in some patches after making sure the wood is still sound.

 

[DeniseO30]

Of course I don't have personal knowledge about how your boat was built or how many layers of glass it has. this is just my own experience talking.

They make great bath tubs don't they?

It was always a big personal argument I had when we were building these things; More glass, less glass, more weight less weight, lol.

Many people will argue it's the skill or lack of skill in the paddler rather than the damage caused by rocks and other things in the river but that is largely untrue because things happen .

Good luck on your repairs!

 

[Jim Dodd]

Flotation, may have helped ?

If you build them, you can fix them !

Me ? I'd take down to the bare wood a few, or more inches around the crack, and lay in two layers of glass, (you should have some scrap left over !). Fill the weave, SCRAPE , and varnish.

Then paddle !

Good Luck !


Jim

 

[alsg]

What’s your recommended method to get to bare wood?

 

[Jim Dodd]

What’s your recommended method to get to bare wood?

Scraping, in my opinion is always preferable to sanding, but as long as you get the dust blown off the hull, you shouldn't see any white spots (Fish eyes) in the patch job.
Scraping produces less dust, than sanding, generally.

Jim.

 

[Mihun09]

We did a stripper earlier this year with serious delamination and rot. For the bad glass I just used a utility knife and cut it out, replaced the wood then glassed again after feathering the old edge.

That was in a thread called Rosy Dawn.

http://www.canoetripping.net/forums/forum/general-paddling-discussions/diy/74940-rosy-dawn

Karin

 

[memaquay]

Do you want to repair it to look good, or do you just want to repair it? My canoes frequently have this kind of damage, I just sand it down till there is no lose glass then slap a couple of patches over it, first one that covers the area of damage, then a bigger one. I'll usually sand the entire canoe then and redo the varnish to make the patch sort of disappear, but my canoes are for using, so I don't care much about aesthetics.