Barn Find

[Sven]

I guess the title is a bit misleading since I didn't actually find this in a barn, but in an elderly gentleman's garage where it had ben sitting since some time in 1981, which makes this hull older than me by about 2 years. Now here are a few pictures

Untitled by Steven Fike, on Flickr

Untitled by Steven Fike, on Flickr

by Steven Fike, on Flickr

by Steven Fike, on Flickr

Some of the details:

design name unknown
length is 18'
redwood strips flat edged
was still on the forms until last night, I picked it up with the strongback/forms still attached
fiberglassed on the outside.....

 

[Jim Dodd]

Love Old Barn finds ! I'm sure there are a lot of them up there !!!
I'm thinking it's an MCA design. Maybe a stretched MCA Osprey, or Explorer. It is so reminiscent of the early Minnesota builds I've seen.
What are the form spacings ?
Betting it's Polyester resin on the outside. Having said that, I'd still be tempted to finish the inside with Epoxy, and paddle it ! Yeah the Poly will loose it's grip, at least you would have epoxy on the inside holding it together, when the time comes to remove the old Poly on the outside !
It appears he followed the shear with the first step.
The Football looks like a herringbone pattern up to mid way, and then switched to straight strips. Red wood is harder to flex than Cedar, and that may very well be the reason for change ! He had to fit every strip !

Great Score, and have fun with it !

Jim

 

[DeniseO30]

Just a suggestion, keep it on the form until you are ready to fit out. It may spread a bit.. Nice find.. gotta wonder why it wasn't finished.

 

[Jim Dodd]

Just a suggestion, keep it on the form until you are ready to fit out. It may spread a bit.. Nice find.. gotta wonder why it wasn't finished.

Yeah ! Strapping in the center form has worked great for me ! Beings it's been on the forms since 1981, it's probably not going to change much.
Sand, glass, and pull together at the shear to match the forms, as the resin cures.

Jim

 

[DeniseO30]

My son used to do the inside of our strip canoes after we popped them off the forms. We found Red Devil Type pull scrapers filed with a slight curve to the blade (keeping the file handy) workedwork faster than trying to sand with a machine or by hand. Long diagonal strokes produced lots and lots of curls lol

 

[Sven]

Jim,

The forms are spaced at 16" intervals. The guy I bought it from told me he altered the design a bit for less sheer height and he moved a couple of the forms in the back end to create an asymmetrical shape in the hull. This is a very flat bottomed design, I didn't measure but would guess the center form is flat for about 12"....
Ding ding ding, you are absolutely correct on the poly resin. My tentative plan at this point is to sand and glass the inside and then flip it back on the form to remove the glass from the outside. I know this will be a bit of work and I didn't include any picture of the troubled areas.
You sure have a good eye for the details. He did follow the sheer with the first strip and yes as well to the herringbone up to a certain point.
I have a lot of respect for the flat edge strip builds as this must have taken a long time for a first timer to get stripped up. He did a pretty dang good job, not too many over beveled strips that I can see yet since I started sanding.
Did you notice it has an inner stem but not an outer one?

BTW, I paid 200$ for this which I thought was reasonable considering you can't really buy the materials to get a hull stripped and to this point for that amount of money.





Denise,

As Jim stated this resin has had plenty of time to cure since 1981. I will pull a couple of the stations from the strongback and use them while it is in the cradle. I will definitely be using a number of different scrapers I have "customized" for canoe building. I don't usually use a file to sharpen them since I was gifted a Work Sharp sharpening system for Christmas last year, Boy do I love that thing!

The story I got from the original builder was that he is a retired aerospace engineer, and shortly after starting this project he started traveling a lot for work, 2-3 weeks at a time and also had a few kids he was raising as well. I guess it sounded like his priorities changed and he never found the ambition to get back at it.

 

[DeniseO30]

Well, I guess you know if you wipe it down with mineral spirits or even water it will give you a wet look preview of how would look finished before you start removing fiberglass hopefully you won't need to.

 

[Sven]

I will post some pictures of the worst areas later, but as it will not be my canoe once it is finished I feel like the right thing to do is start over on the outside.....

 

[Jim Dodd]

Two other things that puzzled me !
One he didn't trim the cloth, before sanding the out side, and two, all the MCA designs where stemless. Ted Moore (CanoeCraft) was the only proponent of stems, that far back .
Interesting !
Anyway you have a fun project there ! Enjoy !
Oh and yes keep posting progress !!!

Jim

 

[DeniseO30]

It's probably an unfinished canoe because it was outside the person's skill set. It is easier to trim the glass after it's flipped over, I do know that.