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Gunwales & decks

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Dec 17, 2014
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Location
Pickwick, MN
So I have 4 strip type hulls in my shop, 3 cedar and 1 redwood, that need to be finished. Thinking of going without scuppers on the gunwales and designing the decks so water can drain when flipped. Most strip
 
A Weep hole at the point of the deck, works great for me.

In fact it can be entertaining at times .

While at a wood canvas canoe seminar at Mid West MTN's Spring event. The presenter told of how the old Wood Canvas canoes always rotted in the stem first. Water wasn't able to drain, and the stem would rot. Probably where the term " Planned Obsolescence" came from !

I've seen several builders bevel the bottom side of the inwhale, so there wasn't a ledge for the water to sit on.. I think it would be an effective method.

I know Scuppers are a lot of work, but I like having them. They serve several purposes, that I'm sure you are aware of .

Pic time

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Jim
 
A Weep hole at the point of the deck, works great for me.


I have weep holes in the deck plates on every canoe, mostly drilled holes in vinyl deck plates. Big drilled holes, some a full inch wide. I’ve seen some folks who drilled little ittybitty 1/8” holes, which tend to clog up when the first spider egg sack or bit of leaf litter becomes lodged.

Sizable weep holes in the decks are more functional, not just in quickly draining water when you flip the canoe onto your shoulders, a large hole is easier to pass a cord through when tying down a floatation bag with and end grommet.

I've seen several builders bevel the bottom side of the inwhale, so there wasn't a ledge for the water to sit on.. I think it would be an effective method.

Wood gunwales on Bell Canoes, at least in the latter years, had a particularly elegant shape, with a sloped inwale and, IRRC, and even an oddly shaped outwale. Charlie Wilson posted an explanation of inwale & outwale shapes with cross section photos of that sexy shape on some board (P.net?) years ago.

Northstar may shape their wood gunwales in that fashion, I haven’t thought to check for that on a Northstar canoe.
 
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