next step: maintenance or restoration?

[canoista]

I posted few days ago asking for help identifying a Chestnut canoe, a Bob's special that I ended up purchasing. The canoe looks in good conditions to my eyes and I paddled it for a couple of hours with no leaks or other problems. I am very happy with it and I intend to use it for my paddling and fishing excursions on ponds and slower rivers in New England.
I have already purchased and looked through the books This Old Canoe and The Wood and Canvas Canoe, but as a beginner I am not sure about my next step with this canoe. I did not notice major issues with its planks or ribs, the bow and the stern seem OK, and the canvas has only a couple of areas of chipped paint; no dents, no cuts or scratches.
I am thinking about performing the following maintenance process:

• take the outwales off
• sand the canvas to the filler and if there is nothing wrong repaint it
• sand and re-varnish all the wooden parts (this may remove what's left of the Chestnut decal, but I can find a replacement for it)
• recane seats
• put outwales back on
• sand and polish stem band

The alternative would be to strip and varnish all wood (maybe replace the outwales too) and recanvas it.
I would follow this approach if I notice issues with the hull while I am sanding the canvas.

What do you think? What's best for the canoe? Is it in good enough shape for just some repainting and re varnishing? Or should I plan on restoring it?
Here are some pics of signs of wear and tear.

Thanks,

Pier

Bow and Stern:

Chipped Ribs:

Gunnels and canvas:

 

[mccloud]

You say you have paddled it for a couple hours with no leaks - to my mind that answers 90% of your dilemma. The canvas doesn't have to be replaced right away. If this canoe will be your 'daily driver', not a showboat, then do a good cleanup, take care of deferred maintenance, paddle it and enjoy it. From your photos, the decks, outwales & inwales could use a good sanding, oil and spar varnish. The inside of the hull looks to be in good shape - I would be inclined to do a light sanding and varnish it. Cleaning paint off the stembands could be a wintertime project. Whenever the time comes to replace canvas, that's when the cracked rib problem gets taken care of. I've got a Chestnut in the shop right now. Those outwale tips originally would have been cut on a taper with a saw, and would have been recessed a tiny bit behind the leading edge of the stemband. For the time being, just round them over so they look nice. If you find rot on the underside of the outwale, as I did with mine, then replacement in the future is called for. Good Luck, Tom McCloud