The Pack Canoe

Canoes, too, are unobtrusive; they don't storm the natural world or ride over it, but drift in upon it as a part of its own silence. As you either care about what the land is or not, so do you like or dislike quiet things--sailboats, or rainy green mornings in foreign places, or a grazing herd, or the ruins of old monasteries in the mountains. . . . Chances for being quiet nowadays are limited.     

John Graves

Paddling has become more and more of an interest, maybe even a lifestyle.  Not flashy, but as Graves points out, "unobtrusive."  Guess that quietness appeals more to me now than when I was younger, a product of the years moving faster and me wanting to be more deliberate, not to miss anything.

"Paddling a canoe is a source of enrichment and inner renewal." -Pierre Trudeau

I have spent far more hours in kayaks, both sea and whitewater boats than canoes, but paddling is paddling.  A friend told me years ago while cruising across a large lake, "now what can compare to this?"  A valid question and one I need not answer at the moment. Silently sliding across the water with only the dip of a paddle cutting through the surface is in itself that "inner renewal" I...we, so need.

 My only canoe, up to now, is a 30+ year old vintage royalex Old Town 174. A beast.  Almost indestructible, it shows it's age more from sitting for years in the sun cracking it's hull, than abuse from use.  I'd used it in my younger days for duck hunting and I wonder now how I ever manhandled it myself.  It's 85+ pounds and with duck gear it's no wonder I skip using it.  I've repaired it and just hold onto it for occasional use.

Another friend mentioned that his ideal canoe would be an Old Town Pack.  It's a 12', 33 pound solo boat.  Light and easy to maneuver-fun to just dump into a small lake or river.  Granted, this friend has made 2 cedar strip canoes, which are beauties, so him even mentioning this so called Pack model caught my interest.

As this story goes, I happened to recall my photographer friend Ras once mentioned something about that very boat.  It wouldn't hurt to inquire and in doing so, found out yes, he did have one-stowed under the back deck, dusty and dinged and what he called a "bear chew toy."  Hmmm, It needed some healthy repair and after a second of negotiation, I could have it, just use it again and give it a second life. Deal.

Now this little boat has some pedigree.  It had been oil-canned on the Boris Brule, abused and used and earned it's wounds from some of the best water around.  Up to the Huron Mountains, the Big Two Hearted River, The Fall, Whitefish, Wolf, Iron, White and Ontonogon Rivers.  That is some fine pedigree for any canoe.  Okay-worthy for some restorative work, or at least getting it floating again.  As it was at the moment, that wasn't realistic.

Off to Rhinelander last fall-a great excuse to visit Ras, be in the northwoods and pick up the boat.  It hadn't seen daylight for a while and when I dug her out from the underside of the deck, I could see why it was referred to as a chew toy!  It seems royalex must be tasty-at least to one bear, as the stern was pretty much chewed off (you'll see below).  The bow, not to be outdone, also had inherited a cold crack, from gunwale to keel.  A surprise injury Ras wasn't even aware of.  No matter, the price was right and I needed a winter basement project.   I'd never done this kind of repair, but it could be something fun along the way.

The cold crack

Chewey

 So this would be a learning experience for sure.  Lots of deep dives into canoe and kayak forums to figure out what to do. Royalex isn't made any longer and is basically a sandwich of a foam core between ABS plastic.  Strong and tough and it can take a lot of pounding.  Repairing it, well, there seemed to be a lot of opinions, but few exactly-the-problem-I-have solutions.  The cold crack should be straight forward. Clamp the split together after cleaning it out and use G-Flex epoxy.  The gaping hole, just might take more ingenuity...

Cold Crack

Drilled stop hole

Trimming the chew hole

Once some preliminary work was done, how to make as perfect a stern as I could.  One thought was fill the inside with spray foam, then trim it back with a file when dry.  Tried that, but I didn't want sheets of fiberglass over the intact hull, so I pulled the foam out.  Next option, make a paper mache mold of the bow, since they were the same shape, and then use it on the damaged end by fiberglassing into it. 

Paper mache mold

positioned mold on stern

Second attempt to get smoother fit over hole

Preliminary glassing

The stern hole was going pretty well.  I added more layers of fiberglass and G-Flex on the inside and just epoxy on the exterior. Sand, more epoxy, repeat.  I probably spent more time than needed getting it smooth, but I did want it to look good and float.  Not every imperfection was taken out, but it would be satisfactory after the first few scratches when used.

Bow deck removed

Cleaning up the crack

Beveled & ready for glue

Aliment and clamping

G-Flex epoxy fillet

 I altered between painting hunter green again or going crazy.  Painting royalex isn't easy and no one seemed to have an opinion on what would work. The ABS is already colored, so the original boat isn't painted, but exposed royalex needs something to protect it, so paint it would have to be.  I settled on Krylon Fusion spray paint-it's supposed to be more flexable on plastics, so because I needed a bunch of cans, I went with a wild scheme.  Having read lots of pacific WWII books in MS, I always loved the "dazzle" camoflage paint used by warships.  My plan was to base the paint pattern roughly on the USS Yorktown.  Of course they used grays and blues, and I wanted more camo-type colors, so I opted for green, brown, gray ivory and black.  This whole paint process took a long time, but it was at the start of the corvid 19 crisis (by crisis I mean by the time anything was being done about it....3 months late!) so I'd have time.  The only sketchy thing was going to Lowes to buy paint-at this time, I really didn't want to be wandering around in a big box store.

Taping the pattern was time consuming...I decided the best way was to paint a color on one side, let it dry and then do the opposite side.  Then go to the next color, the next side, and on and on.  Each color took about a day to prep, tape, paint and re-tape the adjacent blocks.  The Krylon worked well and I chose to use satin finish paint, which looks good.

The woven seat was rotted so I replaced that and the thwart and bought some Old Town decals to make it look official.

Laborious tape process

New hardware

Stickered up

Dazzle Camo

The final step was to add kevlar skid "plates" which are just kevlar cloth pieces epoxied on to the bow and stern.  I'm not sure I'll beat this boat up much, but they will help on rocks and other rough surfaces.  At this writing, the kevlar is curing and the "Chewy" will be ready to hit the water soon. ("Chewy"...really?  I guess a boat should have a name, and it fits even if a bit dorky)

 Fin