Guidance Needed

[Chriscanoe]

So I have a Indian Girl canoe. Not sure if it is a Rushton, but it is an Indian Girl.
So far I have counted 32 broken ribs, at least 4 planks that need replacing, needs new stems, deckplates, seats, inwhales and canvasing. Right now I am thinking of oiling the wood and hanging her up to look at. I bought her with intentions of restoration, but I am kind of thinking that it might be to much for me, and not worth while. BTW, by experience with wood boats is building a couple of strippers. I am working on a mold for a wood and canvas pal, but no experience otherwise with w&c boats.
What are yall's thoughts on this?

 

[Dave Wermuth]

Are the inwales pocketed? Or is it open gunnel? I have an IG and am slowly replacing 16 ribs. I am bending three more ribs tomorrow. The last three I hope. Mostly in the forward half. Pocketed inwales make for a more challenging task. But it's doable and Rushton's have a certain wow factor. My inwlaes and outwales were bad so they need replacing. Pocketed inwales are also challenging. Finding full length cherry is also a challenge. I have the inwales clamped to the outside of the shear at the moment in order to get the ribs in. I am not pocketing the inwales. I am using a larger longer rebate that covers the space of the original rebate and rib pockets. I may or may not fill the spaces under the inwales in between the rib tops. Heresy, I suppose, but anyone who criticizes must first have made new inwales with pockets. My guess is that if you've built a couple strippers, you can do the IG.

 

[mccloud]

From your description, you've got a heap of hours of repair time ahead. WE had a canoe at the museum with 15 consecutive broken ribs, and it was pretty badly miss-shapen. It was a nondescript Old Town, nowhere near as special as a Rushton. The solution was to replace every third rib and backsplice the two cracked ribs in between. This assumes all the pieces of the rib are there, and it is a simple crack. It still took some straps, etc. to force it back into reasonable shape, but eventually became a very paddleable canoe.
Tom McCloud