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Older canoe repair

Ok...do canoe colors “mean” something? I was going to use red because that was the color it was before and if there are areas I couldn’t get all the way down and I scratched the boat it wouldn’t show as much.

Thanks for those measurements. That will work perfectly.
 
Oh, thwarts. I would like “handles” on each end (about 1foot in). Then I know a center yoke. I was thinking mine additional rear thwart. I was hoping to avoid a front thwart because I would like to sit there when solo... Would the canoe be fine with a yoke, two handles, and one thwart?
 
Oh, thwarts. I would like “handles” on each end (about 1foot in). Then I know a center yoke. I was thinking mine additional rear thwart. I was hoping to avoid a front thwart because I would like to sit there when solo... Would the canoe be fine with a yoke, two handles, and one thwart?
You will be just fine with a yoke, two carry handles and a rear thwart. I was just kidding about colors and you should use whatever you like and you're right that red makes sense if it used to be red.
 
Seat design. Light and should accept the seat back my wife likes.
 

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In a tandem canoe, I would first decide on the position of the front seat. This will be dictated by how much leg room is required or desired by the bow paddler and can be dependent on the hull design. Hulls with fuller ends may allow the front seat to be placed closer to the stem. Boats without flotation tanks (such as Royalex or three-layer poly hulls) may also allow the front seat to be placed closer to the stem. Since that boat is composite, hopefully it has some float tanks built in. If it does not, I would seriously think about adding some flotation in the form of short, inflatable tandem end bags or foam blocks, else the canoe could sink out of sight. If you need to add flotation to the ends, you need to take that into account when deciding on the position of the bow seat.

Once you determine the position of the front seat you need to consider where the center of gravity of the two paddlers will be relative to the seats, and how you want the boat trimmed. I prefer to have boats trimmed neutrally, but I have found that many tandem canoes come stock from the factory with the seats positioned in such a way that the boat is trimmed bow light. Most people will agree that bow light is better than bow heavy, and a little bow light will not hurt.

Seat placement can get tricky in a boat with a hull that has a distinctly asymmetrical water footprint, such as a swedeform or fishform hull. Your pictures suggest that your hull is pretty symmetrical so you should not have to deal with that issue.

The center of gravity relative to the seat will vary from paddler to paddler, depends on whether they are sitting or kneeling, and how they sit on the seat, or how much of their rear end they put on the seat when kneeling. Anatomical factors such as femur length also come into play. But I have found that a good general rule is to figure that the paddler's center of gravity will wind up approximately 1.5" in front of the front edge of the seats forward transverse seat frame.

Lets see how that compares to the formula given by gumpus in post #20. A seat postioned with the front gunwale hole for the front seat 31.5" forward of the longitudinal center will put the paddler's COG 1 1/2" plus half the width of the front seat frame (lets say 5/8") forward of that hole. So the bow paddler's COG winds up 32 1/8" forward of longitudinal center.

If the front hole for the rear seat is positioned 35 3/4" behind the hulls longitudinal center, the stern paddler's COG will wind up another 2 1/8" inches in front of that hole, or 33 5/8" behind longitudinal center. So considering paddler's of relatively equal weight and a hull that is symmetrical below the waterline (so that the longitudinal center of buoyancy and the longitudinal center of length are the same) that arrangement will result in a slightly bow light trim since the stern paddler's COG is 1 1/2" farther from the longitudinal center of buoyancy than that of the bow paddler.. That is exactly how I have seen most tandem hulls come stock from the factory.
 
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Got the bottom painted and getting ready to tape off for the top. Any advice on how to keep the sides even? Would hate to have the two-tone off between the port and starboard sides.
 
Got the bottom painted and getting ready to tape off for the top. Any advice on how to keep the sides even? Would hate to have the two-tone off between the port and starboard sides.

I don't know the "best" way. One thing you could do is float the boat in some scummy water and let the scum dry and use that as a guideline. Probably best to consult an expert that has done it many times. I suggest that you call Dave Curtis at Hemlock Canoes and ask him for advice. Dave is a great guy and I bet he'd be happy to share his technique.

Hey Pook, I remember John Winters saying that people always believe that red canoes are faster. Maybe the color generates passion and adrenalin. That's a very nice looking canoe and I'd like to paddle it.
 
Well, a laser level works best.

If you have a 16 foot long flat area like a garage floor or patio you can prop the canoe up so that it remains vertical. You can do this with some scrap wood and some C clamps. Clamp a stick transversely across the gunwales of the boat at the center. Then clamp uprights to that vertically of equal length. Check to make sure that the canoe is centered with a carpenter's level.

With the canoe so supported, take a short stick of the same length you want your waterline depth to correspond to, typically 3 or 4 inches or somewhere in between. Attach a marker to the top of that stick and go all around the boat marking that vertical distance onto the hull above the flat surface it is sitting on.
 
Gumpus,

I thought that speed was the reason Bill Mason always paddled red canoes but turns out according to his daughter Becky it was because red canoes looked good on film!

And I'd be happy to lend her to ya for a day!

Bruce
 
Gumpus,

I thought that speed was the reason Bill Mason always paddled red canoes but turns out according to his daughter Becky it was because red canoes looked good on film!

And I'd be happy to lend her to ya for a day!

Bruce
That's a generous offer. Tomorrow works fine for me and if you could drop it off between 8 and 9 am that would be great. ;)
 
Nice save. That is a lot of work and a great result.
 
Wow. I went back to the original photos for comparison. Would never guess it was the same boat.

I’m curious about the seat plan as well.

Deck plate plan? Maybe cut a piece of somewhat flexible black plastic and pop rivet it atop the gunwale stems, with some holes drilled for painter keeper bungees.

Looking forward to seeing it with seats, yoke, thwart, carry handles or however you finish the trim. And a report on how she paddles.
 
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