Upgrade and repair

[ppine]

Leave the gelcoat, just rough it up for paint.
Painting a canoe is no big deal. No need to make a big thing out of it.

 

[ppine]

BWCA66,
goin old school. Two tone paint and patterns were all the rage in the Golden Age of canoeing.
The old time guides used to cover the bottom of their boats with shellac near the waterline. It sealed up the scratches from the rocky rivers and provided a reference line to trim the boat.

 

[ErktheRed]

So after much consideration. And many many nights scrolling through pages on here. I’ve finally decided to remove, but hang onto, the Aluminium gunwales and go wood. I’ve decided cherry for a few reasons. But just because I’ve never replaced or done anything gunwale. I’m hoping to get some feedback on my dimensions

Im getting my wood from a local lumber place here in N. MI. Versus paying a fortune to order specific pieces. The place I’m going through can’t cut me 18’ strips, so I need to cut them down to fit. Either

4 - 1”x3/4”x9’ (innerwale). 4 - 5/8”x3/4”x9’ (outerwale)

or

6 - 1”x3/4”x6’ (innerwale). 6 - 5/8”x3/4”x6’ (outerwale)

I’ll do a scarf cut to join these together and somehow come up with some scuppers or spacers to allow for drainage.

17 foot canoe with an upwards curvature in the bow and stern


also. Keeping the yellow. POSSIBLY adding a simple white pattern on the stern. Or just keeping it as is and doing minor repairs and add ons. And please excuse my ignorance on certain applications or terms. I never claimed to be smart. Lol

 

[Guest]

So after much consideration. And many many nights scrolling through pages on here. I’ve finally decided to remove, but hang onto, the Aluminium gunwales and go wood. I’ve decided cherry for a few reasons. But just because I’ve never replaced or done anything gunwale. I’m hoping to get some feedback on my dimensions

I have no feedback on dimensions; I have only regunwaled two canoes in wood, and used oversized “bullnosed” ash for inwales and outwales on both. Seriously oversized, 5/8” thick x almost 1” wide. One was a whitewater canoe, but that thick bullnose was mad overkill on a Mad River Independence. Still, both boats are going strong nearly 20 years later.

However, both of those boats had minimal sheerline rise at the stems. And I still needed a helper to hold/clamp the inwales/outwales in that minimal curve while I sank the next screw.

The classic recurved stems on your Hoefgen have a lot more sheerline rise at the stems, a lot of curve to accommodate in a short distance. Perhaps one of the builders here can address the bendability of Cherry for those curves, or suggest a wood (or dimensions) likely to accept those curves without resorting to steam bending.

Even if cherry will bend that much un-steamed you may need a helper, and some clamps adapted for inwale/outwale holding use; we had considerable finicky adjustment and re-adjustment getting the tops of the inwale and outwale flush and level even with a flatter sheerline, and flat faced clamps on rounded wales proved a nightmare to keep held in place.

I expect you will want to lose the aluminum thwarts with replacement wood gunwales, and maybe add a proper yoke at the balance point, so include those in your wood needs.

 

[ppine]

Mike I like your paint job on the Merrimac. Looks like 100 years ago. I bet it would look even better if you made an arc at the ends where the obtuse angle is in the cream colored paint. To me a canoe is a series of swooping curved lines which is what makes them so beautiful. Reflecting that in your paint lines would flow better. Just an idea.

I used to do native landscape designs. Curves were the norm. I avoided straight lines whenever possible. I even found a deck guy to build curved decks. Straight lines are rare in Nature.

 

[Guest]

Mike I like your paint job on the Merrimac. Looks like 100 years ago. I bet it would look even better if you made an arc at the ends where the obtuse angle is in the cream colored paint. To me a canoe is a series of swooping curved lines which is what makes them so beautiful. Reflecting that in your paint lines would flow better. Just an idea.

That is not mine, but BWCA66’s two-tone paint job on a Merrimack Osprey. On the two-tones I have painted I just taped off a straight waterline/scum line without any angles or curves.

When I have added curves to hull paint jobs the easiest way for me was to lay down a couple overlapping sections of wide painters tape, use a template to pencil mark the curve on that tape (reversing the template for the pencil mark the opposite side), then use a razor blade to cut the curve from the tape and peel off the unwanted tape area.

Straight lines are a lot easier, especially if you want/need to go back someday and retape/repaint.

With dark underlying colors you can see through some painter’s tapes, so you can lay tape over the curve and cut away at the visibly shaded area, ie the Duckhead logo shows through the painters tape here:

P6160002 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr