Maintenance and Storage

[enggass]

Hi all,
I just picked up a Wood/Canvas canoe yesterday that was built in 1995. Does not appear to have been used too much and was stored indoors. What can I do to help maintain it for another 17 years? Should I lightly sand and give it a couple of new coats of Spar Varnish on the interior? Should I repaint the hull?

As far as storage goes, will storing inside my garage be OK? Winters can be very dry and cold here in Maine - although I am sure that is better than warm and damp like a basement can be.

Any tips appreicated. I would like this canoe to last at least another 17 years. See pics.

 

[enggass]

Couple More Pics...

 

[Lazy Jack]

You could simply repeat the regimen from the previous 17 years: store it indoors and don't use it much

Alternatively

Use it lots, but keep it inverted off the ground on horses or a rack when not in use - better yet under some kind of roof or loose canvas tarp. It should do just fine over the winter stored in the garage/shed/barn/rafters. Don't worry about seasonal dryness - its not like a guitar. The canoe looks fine as is. Paint and varnish whenever/if ever you feel like it.

 

[Greg Nolan]

+1 to what Lazy Jack says.

Seasonal dryness is a problem for things made of wood -- pianos and other musical instruments, furniture, drawers, doors and door-frames -- primarily in heated spaces. The average relative humidity of outside air in a given area usually does not shift greatly, season to season, although it may drop or raise somewhat with the change of seasons. However, the actual amount of water vapor in the air will be less, often drastically less when the air is cold than when it is warm, even though the relative humidity remains more or less the same.

As a result, when outside winter air is warmed inside a house, the relative humidity plummets -- and it is this that causes wood to dry, shrink, and crack. Before the advent of central heating, cracked piano or harpsichord soundboards were not very common, and doors were no more, or no less, inclined to stick with the change of seasons.

If antique furniture has developed cracks in the wood, it is likely that the cracks are not antique, but modern. Antique furniture, even well-made furniture, was often not built to accommodate much movement of wood, because there was not much movement in houses heated only with a fire in a fireplace or even a stove -- only a very small part of a room was actually warm -- most of the house remained quite chilly, and therefore the chilly air remained relatively humid.

Storing a canoe out of the weather is good, no matter the season. Storing a canoe inside in heated space with very low relative humidity may not be so good. There is a reason why a canoe that has been hanging in barn rafters for 50 years or more may be in pretty good shape -- protected from the weather, but neither rotted from sitting on damp ground nor unduly dried out during the winter.

Generally, varnish and paint need to be redone only when they no longer provide protection to the wood and canvas -- sand and re-varnish if the varnish is worn and/or chipped, and same with the paint -- new paint if the current paint has become chipped, cracked, dull or chalky.

Of course, you don't have to wait until things have actually deteriorated to the point of being ratty, especially if you have a nice boat that you like to be able to show off. And of course, if you just want to change the aesthetics of the canoe -- new color, new design, glossier wood -- that's also a good reason for new paint or varnish.

 

[enggass]

Thanks - I have noticed with this new purchase that if I apply some pressure to the Red Cedar panels between the ribs I can hear a slight cracking sound as if dry - no visual cracking of the planks themselves however. I asked the seller and he told me that this canoe was used 1 time in the last 4 years. It was stored upside down off the ground in his garage that was kept heated during the winter at 50ºF except for when he was working outside in the winter when he would raise the heat some - but the back down to 50º. Obviously, no heat in the summer.

What might this slight cracking sound be? The varnish? the wood? It seems more like the varnish to me... I'm gonna get her in the water this weekend. Maybe she's just thirsty!

 

[Steve Ambrose]

If you're pushing outward on the planking between the ribs it's probably the varnish that got between the planking and ribs that you hear cracking. Don't fix it if it ain't broke (keep pushing and you might find yourself fixing - that planking is only a hair over 1/8" thick). Or, in other words, stop poking the old girl and start paddling

 

[kayamedic]

Tis the best time of the year. Put er in the water.

I live in Maine too. I have three wood/dacron canoes. They live in an unheated barn. I would say happily but until March there is usually an eight foot snowbank in front of their door and the lake is froze stiff and they are quite clamoring to be let out.

Just make sure your boat gets out during mud season as soon as possible and it too will be happy.

For now I am watching my neighbors 50 lb OT sit another year in the rafters of his garage. Don't do that to your boat.

 

[Greg Nolan]

It was stored upside down off the ground in his garage that was kept heated during the winter at 50ºF except for when he was working outside in the winter when he would raise the heat some - but the back down to 50º. Obviously, no heat in the summer.

It is highly unlikely that your canoe was harmed by this, even if it got dried out a bit more than if it had been kept in unheated storage. Wood/canvas canoes generally have no wide pieces of wood (such as a piano soundboard or a table top or a door panel) subject to cracking because of expansion/shrinking due to changes in moisture. The planks might have shrunk in width a tiny bit more than usual, leaving very slightly wider gaps between them, but by now they likely would have returned to normal width -- and putting the canoe into a river or lake and paddling it will restore whatever moisture has been lost.

Wood that has been kiln dried may loose some flexibility, but the temperatures you describe don't come close to kiln temperatures.

It is normal for wood to move with changes in moisture, and the usual construction of a wood/canvas canoe generally withstands this movement quite well.

Happy paddling!!

 

[Howard Caplan]

I haven't heard "cracking" sounds in mine since the first time I got in to paddle it after it was built. I wonder if this boat has ever been paddled?
Good luck - it's a nice looking canoe.

 

[Howard Caplan]

Oh yeah, I also heard a cracking sound the second time I paddled it when I found a hidden rock in the river.

 

[WoodNCanvas]

RE: Storage see http://canoeguybc.wordpress.com/2012/08/20/storing-a-wood-canvas-canoe-2/
canoeguybc.wordpress.com has many relevant articles...check out.

Also see http://users.vianet.ca/bearwood/pages/maintenance.html, http://www.canoeshop.ca/care.html, and good overview of rebuilding/restoration at http://www.oldtowncanoe.com/pdfs/Rebuilding_the_Wood_Canvas_Canoe.pdf