anyone know anything about fixing a canoe?

i have this old beater canoe that i want to get onto the water. it's fiberglass and it's got a couple of holes. that seems to be easy enough to fix. i googled that info up pretty easily. a little duct tape and some resin should do the trick.

it needs a new yoke and new gunwhales too. well, the yoke might be repairable...it's fiberglass, so i might be able to patch it up and put it back in.

i dont have any idea of where to even go to get new gunwhales though. and i dont have a lot of cash to put into it. i was almost thinking that i could make do with something else, like maybe those corner strips that they use to do drywalling? i dunno if that would provide enough support though. the origional gunwhales were wood, and they're just rotting right off the canoe.

 

Wood gunnels should be easy enough to make. They should be oak or ash, put pine or spruce will work for a beater. You could make a wood yoke as well. For patching holes, avoid the ducktape... fast and cheap would be to find that adhiesive drywall tape that has fiberglass in it, then work the resin over that.
g'luck

 

so, to make gunnels, what kind of tools would we need? my hubby has a few wood working tools, like a saw and a drawblade and some carving knives...would that be enough? oh, and i think he's got some weird tool that's supposed to cut thru anything. it looks like a drillbit but acts like a saw. and, um, what kind of wood? just a couple of one by ones? carve a groove into one side, soak em till they'll bend and then put them on? i've never done anythign like this before.

thx for the tip to use drywall tape with fiberglass in it.

 

Do you have a picture? I don't know how yours is put together, I've seen them done in different ways...

You might want to put a thin piece on the inside and the outside and screw them together through the fiberglass, like a sandwich
sort of like this......


If you do it that way, you could use molding , maybe 1/2" x 1 1/4" and it would be easier to bend.

Before you take the yoke out, measure the beam(width of the boat) at the widest part so you know hat it should be when you are trying to bend wood around it. you might want to make a brace to hold it to the right measurement while you fit the new pieces. Don't forget to subtract twice the thickness of the inner gunnels from the brace, if you use them.

 

LOL

molding definitely sounds a LOT easier than what i was picturing in my mind's eye.

the yoke's already out. we still have it though, so i guess we could still use it to get the measurements that we need. it's cracked in half

i'll get my hubby to read thru all of your suggestions when he gets home from work.

fun project! i cant wait to get this baby onto the water.

 

It shouldn't be too hard to do. Fiberglass is plenty strong, all you are doing is giving it some stiffness. Good Luck

7river and I in a canoe that I'm building for my niece, builders trial and all that

 

nice boat nirgal!

hopefully by the end of the weekend we'll have a floaty boaty pic to put up too.