Darren's Photo Album:Canoe Repair
This album shows the before and after version of Matt's canoe (a NovaCraft Prospector 16'). This repair/restoration work was done in the fall of 2002 by Matt. I helped out a bit with some of the sanding and fibreglassing. The canoe was completely refinished, and extra fibreglass was added to the hull on the bow and stern. This was done as an alternative to kevlar skid plates, and provides a more efficient hull, as there are no external skid plates to increase drag.
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This is a picture of the canoe after 12 hours of sanding to take off most of the 4 coats of Gel Coat that was on it. When sanding I started with a 120 grit sandpaper and worked my way up to using a 220 grit, this gives you a smooth enough surface that your sanding scratches won't show through the gel coat. You can see where, at the closest end of the canoe, the Gel Coat was scraped away to show the Kevlar/Glass lay-up of the canoe.
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Oddly enough that spot that is scratched through to reveal the Kevlar/Glass is right under the stern seat in the canoe. Hmmmm... maybe I need to loose some weight??
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I made an attempt to save the old lettering on the side of the canoe by sanding around it. It turned out in the end it came off with a lot of patience. Darren and I spent almost 45 minutes trying to carefully peel away the old lettering with a sharpened steel putty knife.
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There were a few other places that the gel coat was cracked and separated from the Kevlar/Glass lay up. I had to totally sand away the cracked and separated gel coat so I could get a good bond and not have it flake off later on "down the stream"
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A bit of a fast track... This is the canoe back at home again and gel coat has been applied. I applied 2 coats, which nicely covered what I wanted it to. Between coats I lightly sanded out any air bubbles that appeared, and any imperfections. Shiny and almost like new.
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I took this picture after I got the canoe into the garage and ready to hang it up. Turning all the lights off allowed me to get a picture of limited light hitting the gloss on the bottom of the boat. You can see how glossy and new the bottom of the boat looks... not for long though!
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That old lettering came off... and look, the new stuff looks a lot better! When I went to Nova Craft to pick up the Gel Coat, I inquired about getting new lettering. I was just left to stand there for a few minutes and then the sales clerk reappeared with a new set of "Nova Craft Canoe" lettering. All I could think of was "YAY, my boat is gonna look that much newer."
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My new skid plates, they don't look appealing this close but they are hardly noticeable from a distance. I have been told that when you scrape against something that not as much gel coat is taken off with this idea.
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If you really wanted to I suppose you could fill in all the holes in the fiberglass with the resin, but it would take longer to dry, and I don't really enjoy the idea of adding more weight to the boat. The more weight you add to the canoe, just remember the more you have to carry. Also the holes should, being a rougher surface, act like the stone guarding paint on vehicles and hopefully preserve the finish longer.
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These may not look appealing up close like this, but let me tell you it is a lot better than those Kevlar strips that stand out like a sore thumb! I made my own skid plates for the bow and stern, they are made up of fiberglass mesh and fiberglass resin. I put 4 layers in the places that usually get scraped the most and feathered it out to 2 at the least scraped places.
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On the inside I made a few little changes. I added some fiberglass to the weaker areas and painted over it to blend it in. After adding the 'glass to the inside I then did the work on the outside.
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The only two places I added 'glass to was the stern and bow. In the stern there was a hairline crack in at least one layer that made a really weak spot, and that was right under the front of a kneeling pad. Also the two lowest points, at the bow and at the stern right near the float tanks, were wearing thin.
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A little bit closer view of the stern 'glass repair.
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At the back of the kneeling pad was where the weak spot was, so I took the 'glass up the side of the boat a bit to cover that and then ran a 4 inch wide strip down the keel on the inside.
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This is the 4 inch wide strip of glass that I put in the bow of the canoe. This was the other weak point.
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I decided to add these rope loops to the deck plates to allow us to do carry over portages easier without breaking our fingers just holding onto the gunwales.
In the spring I will add a new yoke to the canoe, and a set of kneeling pads to the bow. Also next fall I plan on putting new aluminum gunwales on the canoe. The total restoration took me just over 40 hours and it was well worth it. Now I can definitely say that I would be willing to take on a "scrapped" canoe and rebuild it. Some of the work is tedious and time consuming but the results are well worth it.
Matt Fallowfield
mattfally@icqmail.com