Advice on Repair Route Canoe

Hey everyone,

New here and looking for some advice on how I should go about repair a recently acquired canoe that was giving to me, which by the looks of it have been repair before.

I basically want to bring it to a condition that I can use and bring my family out in for fishing. All help would be much appreciated.

The images that I will upload should give you an idea of what shape the canoe is in.

I will post pictures of the inside later after I get back from work. I would also like some advice on how I can make the inside smooth so that my kids can sit or lay around inside without getting fiberglass splinters.

 

Welcome to the forum.

I assume this is a solid fiberglass canoe.
First use epoxy as the resin.
Polyester is cheaper but it does not bond well to old polyester/fiberglass material.

Does the first picture show that the shape of the canoe has been "severly" distorted?
You may have to make something to hold the inside shape of the canoe in that area, so you can grind away most of the broken structure, leaving a nicely tapered edge to the original hull, then layup multiple layers to restore the structure. The hull has to be supported while you do this so that the hull is not bent out of shape when you finish.

Don't worry, there will be someone along with this exact kind of experience to make suggestions.

As far as smoothness on the inside, if you put a ply or plys on the inside, you will sand the edges of the patch to make a smooth ramp, then fill the glass with epoxy/ fillers to make the whole patch smooth. If you do this well enough there is no reason to expect "loose" fibers which would injure a child. Easy.

One clarification - don't use mat (random oriented short fibers) always use cloth (long fiber bundles woven over and under along the length and width). Sorry if that was too simplistic, but we never know the experience of a new member - and some old ones.

 

Yes! The first image shows that it has been distorted and looks as though its been painted before. Also, I should have mentioned I am green. This in fact is my first boat and definitely not my last haha.

Any ideas of what I can use to hold the structure of the hull? Or do you think I can get away with grinding down then patching over?

Also I was looking to add a little more rigidity to the canoe, is that a good idea seeing how it is shallow and the waterline is a bit high. Also what do you think the weight capacity of the canoe is?

Sorry for having a million questions

 

That canoe is in pretty rough shape, but you'll learn a bit by doing some repairs on it.

It's not going make much of a difference in what type of resin you use, both will do the job, epoxy is better, but 99.99% of repairs done on polyester boats are done with polyester resin and they hold up fine.

It looks like the gel coat was applied about 4X thicker than it should have been, that's the reason for all the cracking, it's normally a cosmetic issue that's not easily fixed. If you want "pretty", then you can fix the finish, if you just want it to float for now, don't worry about it.

Watch a couple of you tube videos on fiberglass repair, it will give you an idea of what needs to be done. You will have more questions after watching the videos.

 

Interior

Here are the additional photos of the interior as I stated. For the seats I would like to use hardwood from a friends wood pile from when they had a tree cut down in their yard.

 

Unless you are looking for a project, it would likely be cheaper and a lot easier to find something in better shape. Canoes aren't worth much these days.

 

Expense

Unless the expense to repair it is going to cost more then 400. The. It would not be cheaper. Canoes that need refurbishing are going for minimum of 400 in this area.

 

Guess the market is different up there, they seem to be $200-$400 for good condition ones here, or often even free if its sitting in someones yard. Kayaks and SUPs have taken over.

 

One could only wish the market was like that up here.

 

http://www.paddlealberta.org/paddling/used_sales.asp
This is a short list of sources that might sell a used canoe.
Kijiji had quite a few as well
Many companies that rent canoes often sell the old fleet out and deals can be had
Canadian tire has Pelican 15.5 on for about 679


If you fix up your old one, when you want to move to something newer, the old one will not be worth much.

 

Canoe looks quite repairable to me.

I just bought an aluminum canoe for $300 down here in Washington. Keel was a bit hoged and I used my handyman jack with my garage door upper frame (to push on) to straighten it out. Actually I added a bit of rocker. It is only 15' but has a keel about 3/4" deep. Paddled it in a 15mph wind a few days ago and was able to easily padle in all directions just fine w/o excessive effort. I'm very pleased.

You will probably be pleased w yours too if you do a good job w the repairs.
Keep your canoe light w lighter wood seats.
Sand or grind off all paint before applying FG or epoxy repairs.
The structual integrity of a canoe is largely in it's gunwales. Hence the ever present thwarts.