Dave Wermuth
Who hid my paddle?
This canoe belongs to member Emory Clark and I am restoring it for him. 60102 as I recall. It's a 15' 50 #. It was his father's canoe and the build record shows it was sent to William Clark in 1920. In the last 94 years some things are forgotten, lost to time. the fiberglass was applied quite well unfortunately and I'm working at getting it off. There appears to be evidence of a restore prior to the 'glassing. Two questions:
1) anyone ever see the decks and inwales tapered in thickness at the stem? I think that this taper, which is at both ends, must be from a prior repair, maybe to shave off some rot? But it may have been to shave off weight at the factory? Any ideas?
2) What is going on with the space between the tip of the deck/inwale and the tip of the stem, or where the stem should be? there is about an inch of space that was filled with what may have been drywall mud, or glazing. Is it possible the deck was moved rearward because the inwales were rotted? As in shorten the inwales by cutting off the rot? Should I splice the inwales and move the deck forward to meet the stem? the stem will need a splice too. I am inclined to think that I'll need to splice the inwales and move the deck to meet the stem.
Also, the planking is showing staples on both ends and going into the stems that I assume were added when the canoe was 'glassed.
1) anyone ever see the decks and inwales tapered in thickness at the stem? I think that this taper, which is at both ends, must be from a prior repair, maybe to shave off some rot? But it may have been to shave off weight at the factory? Any ideas?
2) What is going on with the space between the tip of the deck/inwale and the tip of the stem, or where the stem should be? there is about an inch of space that was filled with what may have been drywall mud, or glazing. Is it possible the deck was moved rearward because the inwales were rotted? As in shorten the inwales by cutting off the rot? Should I splice the inwales and move the deck forward to meet the stem? the stem will need a splice too. I am inclined to think that I'll need to splice the inwales and move the deck to meet the stem.
Also, the planking is showing staples on both ends and going into the stems that I assume were added when the canoe was 'glassed.