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If you just want to get the boat on the water and are not terribly concerned about cosmetics. you get get the damaged gunwale back in line by banging it with a rubber mallet and/or using a wooden jig and clamps to pull back in. Then fill the crack and the depressed area in the gunwale with West...

Judging from the photos it certainly looks repairable. Whether or not it is worth doing depends on what the value of the repaired boat is worth to you as well as what your time is worth. I would not use roving for any repairs. Tuff-weave is a proprietary lamination consisting of fiberglass...

Many epoxies do offer fast and slow hardener options. But the cure of epoxy is still dramatically affected by ambient temperature. If ambient temperatures remain below 50 degrees F the epoxy cure rate will be very slow unless you have some means of heating the surface to which it is applied...

It really depends on the circumstances. I usually use an Astral Greenjacket PFD with a sizable zippered front pocket. In this pocket I would usually have at a minimum my car keys and I have a rescue knife attached to the outside of my PFD. I also have a whistle on short lanyard attached to...

I still have two, roughly early 1980s vintage, one white, one brown or olive drab, or whatever they called it. They haven't seen any use for quite some time. Nowadays I tend to wear cheap straw hats, often purchased at Walmart, which keep the sun off about as well and are no great loss if the...

S fiberglass has significantly greater abrasion resistance as well as strength in comparison to E fiberglass.

And now you don't even need to bring the canoe!

Voyageur is long gone but NRS and Harmony still make 3D end bags around 30 inches in fore and aft length. Harmony bags are available in lightweight nylon or heavier vinyl. You can check out Harmony and NRS canoe end bags on Amazon. Mohawk Canoe used to sell vinyl bags but I doubt they still...

A lot of builders of composite quality canoes use vinylester resins for a several reasons. First and foremost, it is cheaper than epoxy. Good vinylester resins are now almost as strong as epoxy and Dave Curtis once told me that some military-grade vinylester resins are actually stronger than...

A lot of older Royalex whitewater canoes are 13' plus 1-2". That is because at the time they were designed the minimum length for sanctioned whitewater open boat slalom racing was 4 meters so that length allowed the owners to compete in the Royalex classes. Some of the earliest whitewater...

If you are primarily a river runner and are looking for a boat that is whitewater capable but not too terribly inefficient on the flats, I would reconsider your preference for a modern, short polyethylene WW canoe. The short plastic boats will turn on a dime and are good for technical...

I have used a variety of epoxy resins. Epoxy is not very toxic in the usual sense of the word, but the hardeners tend to be allergenic and repeated skin exposure to the hardeners used in epoxies can cause some nasty allergic contact dermatitis. One thing I have noticed with West Systems G Flex...

I have paddled a fair bit of whitewater up to Class IV, mostly in open boats but a good bit in kayaks. The main differences you will encounter in switching from a kayak to an open boat are independent of the exact boat model and are as follows. 1. You will not have a strong brace on one side...

Some people will tell you that vinyl adhesive will only bond to PVC such as the vinyl layer of Royalex. I have found that not to be the case. I have used vinyl adhesive to bond in many vinyl backed D rings and anchors in composite canoes constructed with vinylester resin and it has held up...

It is actually easier to roll or reenter a canoe with no flotation in it. The only problem is that it is impossible to do anything with it once you have. Both gunwales will be underwater amidships so it can't be bailed or pumped out. The more flotation you have in the canoe the less water...

I apply abrasion plates to the stems of canoes after they have sustained significant damage. But just say no to Kevlar felt skid plates. I have purchased canoes with Kevlar felt skid plates and I have removed them and replaced them with abrasion plates of a woven fabric, usually Dynel but...

Earlier in this thread I posted a photo of a Perception saddle mounted in a Blue Hole Sunburst II whitewater solo canoe. Here are a couple more photos of one mounted in a Mohawk XL13 solo whitewater boat. Between the three of them I think they demonstrate the installation requirements fairly...

Unless the wood on your gunwales is stained to the point that the stains will not be removed by sanding, there is no need to use trisodium phosphate. I have never had a need to use it on any of my wood-gunwaled canoes. I don't like using Tung oil on gunwales although I have used it on wood...

I have done something very like that, although instead of using a dedicated backpacking back pack I usually use a Granite Gear traditional pack in either the #3.5 or #4 size. I put gear into very lightweight roll top dry bags of various sizes and colors ranging from 8 to 20 liter capacity. The...

The heavy clear plastic liners do work and Granite Gear also sells them BTW. But I prefer to use individual light weight roll top dry bags inside of my Cordura GG traditional 3.5 and #4 packs instead. They add little weight, little more than a plastic liner, and different sizes and colors help...