Gunwale splice

[Howard Caplan]

Yesterday I brought my wood trimmed kevlar solo Merlin into the garage to assess the damage a birds nest between the deck and the floatation chamber caused.
The walnut deck is slightly damaged. It will need a piece attached to form the forward point.
But, the gunwale needs more attention. My rather elementary question: The top of the inwale is gone but there is solid material below. Is it better to keep what is solid and splice in the top piece which will then turn into the whole inwale to the nose of the canoe? Or would it be better to cut out and make a complete section of gunwale from the point of the break forward?
Howard

 

[Douglas Ingram]

Probably easiest to splice on the whole new section. Its the same amount of work to open up, prepare the splice, bond it, and finish it in with the old. Its amazing how far rot will go into wood.

 

[Howard Caplan]

Douglas,
Your comment about "rot" taught me more about wood working then anything else. You are correct, upon closer inspection of the frayed end of the gunwale, I saw there was much more damage then my original glance showed. Then I looked closer at the deck and began gently working it with a razor knife to learn there was too much rot on the deck to just splice the forward point onto it.
Lesson learned the easier way then I am used to.
Thanks,
Howard