Deformed hull

[DaveC]

Hello All,

It was a disappointment to take down and unwrap the easily restoreable 16' Chestnut Boone. When put away over 20 years ago with the other wc project canoes the hull was perfectly fair. For a reason I don't recall now, the damaged front seat was removed and discarded and the canoe put away without any cross members between the centre thwart and the bow deck to maintain beam width. It has spread considerably from the centre forward. I have measured widths at several places at the gunnel from the centre thwart back and pulled in and temporarily fastened the forward half to match. The gunnel line from a top view looks good now.

But, the turned over canoe, from the centre forward, shows the bottom is now bulged outward, possibly up to an inch. This canoe is back in storage and I'm wonder if it is feasible to weight that section of the upside down hull to bend it back into shape, over time. The Boone is a heavily ribbed canoe, in fact there isn't much plank showing on the inside.

Thanks for any suggestions. Dave in Saskatchewan

 

[yelnif]

Hello Dave, sorry to hear about the keel bulge. If you just put weight on the turned over hull- it might go back, say in about another 20 yrs. You might try using wet steam inside the overturned hull and a 2x4 clamped down on the keel line to fair it. Take the steam away after the hull is fair and leave the 2x4 clamped down until the hull is completely dry- maybe a week? What you will be basically doing is steaming the hull so that it will 'flex' and take the proper 'set' to make the hull/ keel line fair once again. I hope this makes sense. good luck, lee

 

[DaveC]

Thank for the reply Yelnif. I knew that not everyone was stumped by the question.

That sounds like a reasonable method. I'm guessing that the time involved to try it compared to the total time to restore the entire canoe is not so much. I will go that route. It is in fine condition otherwise. Thankyou!

 

[Jan Bloom]

Dumping gallons of boiling water over the bulge inside and out may achieve the same. Might be easier than generating sufficient steam to be effective. Chris Pearson has some experience with the use of boiling water to reshape hull bulges.