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canvas damage and repairs needed

lowangle al

lowangle al

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Anchorage Alaska / Pocono Mts.
I am looking at a canoe on CL in East Hampton, Ct. that has cracking and chipping of the paint/canvas at the gunnel and was wondering if anyone can tell from these pics how extensive it is and weather or not it can be repaired or if the canvas needs to be replaced. The seller e-mailed me these photos, I hope the link works. Thanks
From Subject Received Size
craigslist 6687811914 Re: canvas repair Sun 1:46 PM 3 MB
 
Here are the additional photos. The seller said the canvas is aged and cracked for a couple of feet at the gunnel. The rest of it seems to be good, he said.
 

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We had a boat recently with the same shrinkage issue at the gunwales and the previous owner or someone before them had bonded a strip of glass to the canvas and up under the gunwales. I'm sure it worked fine until I had to remove it.
 
I recently came across a Prospecter that had a narrow strip of cedar planking tacked under the gunnel for the same purpose. Painted the same color as the canvas it was not very noticable. If applied with bedding compound it would probably last for some time.
Dave
 
I am guessing that is the original canvas on the canoe and it is probably time for a new canvas job. Canvas and filler are easily done. I had some help over the weekend and we canvassed and filled an 18 foot Old Town in less than 4 hours including setting up, coffee break, and mixing the filler (takes a while). In my opinion, the Guide is a great boat for large lakes.
 
The second photo looks pretty bad yeah. Like karin said though, it you dont care how it looks you can glass it until you are ready to deal with it. And that means recanvas. For those of us with experience and tools and a space to work no problem. Others, well its a challenge. And way to pricey to have someone else do it usually.

Glass er and paddle er.

Christine
 
1500 for a boat that needs recanvassing is a bit dear also.
 
My old Seliga,needs a new canvas job, I am wondering what a professional would charge. I am pretty sure that I would have to take it a long ways out of Alaska to find someone that knows what they are doing, to get it done right. I had the canoe stashed back in the boonies at a secret fishing hole that also was the site of my moose camp. Not so secret as I had thought, someone found and used my canoe, but didn't put it back in it's spot, up off the ground covered with the brown tarp. They left it upside down on the ground, the canvas rotted on tips at both ends. I paddled her home, with duct tape patches, She's safe, but not so sound, hanging in my horse shed out back now.
 
Thanks for the responses, it confirms what I thought , there is no way to fix it without recanvasing. Fitz, it is a great boat, I already have one, most pleasurable boat I've paddled. Christine the seller said he is willing to accept an offer and I'd only be only willing to pay about half of what he is asking.

Boreal, that's a shame about your boat. Did you leave it out there over the winter?
 
lowangle al....
I have left it out there many winters. I had built a nice stage in a thick tangle of spruce, well back from the lake. Covered it with a brown tarp and made a steep A-frame tarp over that to shed snow load. I have the same set-up at a friends place in MN for a plastic canoe that I stash there.
I didn't care that the people used my canoe, but that they were too lazy to put it back like they found it. I should be glad that they were too lazy to steal it. Since Joe Seliga died, his canoes have sky rocketed in price, there aren't that many of them ever built. I love that canoe, so I should have been a better care taker.
Fitz.....
Thank you for the WCHA link.
 
Robin said:
I had an 18' Old Town Guide, it was a great solo canoe with a big load. Here's a video of a trip I took with my wall tent and hunting gear in NY ADK's. It glides like non other.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MwA1BmBrc6U&t=49s
Click to expand...

I bet you paddled from the bow seat, like most of us would. It's too bad because I think the guy on our logo got it right. I haven't paddled them all but it does glide like no other boat I've paddled. They could have named it the Old Town Glide.

Robin, I think I remember you had a 20' OT guide. If so and you got to paddle it how would it compare to the 18 footer?
 
Boreal Birch said:
lowangle al....
I have left it out there many winters. I had built a nice stage in a thick tangle of spruce, well back from the lake. Covered it with a brown tarp and made a steep A-frame tarp over that to shed snow load. I have the same set-up at a friends place in MN for a plastic canoe that I stash there.
I didn't care that the people used my canoe, but that they were too lazy to put it back like they found it. I should be glad that they were too lazy to steal it. Since Joe Seliga died, his canoes have sky rocketed in price, there aren't that many of them ever built. I love that canoe, so I should have been a better care taker.
Fitz.....
Thank you for the WCHA link.
Click to expand...

I always admired the lines on Northstar Saliga trippers but didn't know much about Joe, so I checked him out and he only made 621 boats. I saw that there were recently 2 offered for sale asking 7 grand each. There is a nice 18' Old Town w/c boat for sale for 3,000.00 in the Valley, you should get it and stash it in the woods and protect that Saliga at home. I'm just kidding, but that boat sounds too valuable for that.

Maybe those long cold interior winters help preserve those old boats like it does with a hunk of moose meat.
 
Joe made me promise to use his canoe like it was designed to be used. He told me that he didn't like it when people that bought his canoes then hung it up in their living room as fine art (which they are). When I bought mine it didn't cost that much, just a couple hundred down to get on the list, then five years of waiting. When it was finished it was in the middle of the winter, I wondered how I would get it up to interior Alaska. I subscribed to Boundary Waters Journal in those days, I read that the editor was coming to Fairbanks to race his sled dogs in March. I called him to see if he would haul my new Seliga up here. I talked to his lovely wife, she said sure, no problem. They hauled my canoe to my home, they would not except payment, but did take us up on our offer of a place to stay while Stu raced their dogs.
One of the big reasons that I wanted a Seliga canoe (other than they are great canoes) is that the first time I can remember talking to my wife was in a Seliga canoe at a Youth Conservation Corps Camp on Lydic Lake, in the middle of the Chippewa National Forest. One of the speakers at the camp told me I could use his canoe anytime I wanted as I had never paddled a wood & canvas canoe before. Some how I talked one of the pretty girl Forest Service YCC work leaders into a evening canoe paddle around the lake. That night was the beginning two of my lifelong loves.
I kept that canoe stashed out in the woods until June on one of the Anniversaries of our first dates.
 
Iskweo said:
The second photo looks pretty bad yeah. Like karin said though, it you dont care how it looks you can glass it until you are ready to deal with it. And that means recanvas. For those of us with experience and tools and a space to work no problem. Others, well its a challenge. And way to pricey to have someone else do it usually.

Glass er and paddle er.

Christine
Click to expand...
No, not good advice, maybe if it were a no name unknown, glass would ok. It can create more problems than it can solve not to mention the additional weight.

Glassing w/c canoes is actually more difficult than doing canvas.
 
Last edited:
DeniseO30 said:
No, not good advice, maybe if it were a no name unknown, glass would ok. It can create more problems than it can solve not to mention the additional weight.

Glassing w/c canoes is actually more difficult than doing canvas.
Click to expand...

I did not suggest glassing the entire canoe. I was saying we had one with the strip of glass to fix canvas that was shrinking. We always restore with canvas after removing fibreglass
 
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