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Canoe outfitting?

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I have an older 14' royalex solo canoe. I'd like to put some foot pegs in and make a spray deck for the bow.

I did some online searching on foot braces. Didn't really find a whole lot.
I know that I do not want a brace that goes across from one side to the other (like Wenonah's). I would prefer and adjustable kayak pedal style. I've looked at the kayak replacement ones but do not want to drill holes through the hull below the waterline. I'm sure I could seal it up and it would be fine but I'd rather not. I was thinking I could use West Systems epoxy and stick them on but don't know exactly how they mount and I'm afraid epoxying them on might interfere with being able to adjust them. Maybe some sort of spacer epoxied on first??
Anyone every try this?
Any info would be appreciated.

The spray/splash deck seems pretty straight forward and not too hard.
A book I have shows how to make one using snaps riveted just under the gunwales and I saw a good "how too" write up online using Velcro.
I was thinking about making one based on how a cockpit cover or spray skirt goes on a kayak.
I figured I could make a "pocket" that slips over the nose of the bow and fold and hem a channel around the perimeter of the deck. Make sure that the perimeter sits just below the gunwales and put some bungee through the channel, put it on the canoe and pull the bungee tight and tie in the stern under the deck. Does that make sense?

Any thought or comments on that?

Thanks for any help or info.
 
There are a variety of metal and plastic kayak foot pedals that you could use, but I'm not sure what adhesive bonds those materials to finicky Royalex. Some people use Plexus to glue kayak foot pegs to composite hulls, but I don't have personal experience.

I prefer the Wenonah aluminum foot bar, and mounted it onto ash strips epoxied to my SRT's composite hull. The foot bar tracks screw into the wooden strips, and are hence removable and replaceable. You could use the same approach with kayak foot pedal tracks, but again I don't know what adhesive would best bond wood to Royalex.
 
Thanks for the reply.

I just repaired a pretty good puncture and crack in a royalex MR explorer. I used West Systems epoxy, the majority of royalex repairs I read online were done using west systems epoxy with excellent results so that's what I used.

Here is before and after (before paint) pictures of the repair I just made.

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I have a set of Harmony foot pegs that we tried unsuccessfully to Plexus in. The trouble is that Royalex is flexy and glues (even gorilla ones like Plexus) do not flex as much..ergo out popped the pegs. We are resigned that as the hull in question cannot morph to a carbon fiber with its rigidity, we will have to rivet them in. Fortunatey all the work is done above waterline.

I asked staff at Placid how they plexused in the same foot pegs to the composite RapidFire and they stated that there were some hundred pounds of sandbags applied to form the footpeg support to conform to the hull shape and some sort of torture device that kept the bags in place during adhesive drying.

I don't want to go there to sandbag he**
 
I would be concerned with using only a drawstring attachment for your spray skirt. Mine is firmly attached so that if I upset and have to swim I won't find myself entangled in several yards of fabric. Maybe it would work and be secure enough but you know how much water weighs if it gets trapped inside. I'm not on my soapbox, just wanted to give you something to consider. I drilled holes about every 4" under the gunnels of my canoe. I used a heavy shock cord (actually I took apart a truck cargo bed net I bought from Harbor Freight) that was a very snug fit in the holes to keep water out and laced it in and out of the canoe all the way down each side. I put velcro strips on my cover and snug it down through the outside loops; stretching the shock cord. This keeps tension on the cover as the fabric stretches and relaxes with the sun and wet/dry treatment it gets from the rain or paddle drips. An added benefit is that you can use the inside loops as lash points to secure flotation bags or gear. Just food for thought...
 
there were some hundred pounds of sandbags applied to form the footpeg support to conform to the hull shape and some sort of torture device that kept the bags in place during adhesive drying.

Well, if you use my ash mounting strip method, you don't have to apply pressure to bend anything. You just have to carve the wood strip on one side to the shape of the hull. That should be easy for someone with woodworking skills. The other side of the wood strip remains flat to take the flat foot peg rail.

That still doesn't answer the question of how to bond the wood strip to the Royalex.

I recall seeing another method and even posted pictures of it on the old STR site. The guy used a strip of minicell foam, which he contact cemented to the hull. Then he contact cemented the foot bar track to the foam strip. He said this was still going strong after a year, and he could always shave the foam off with a knife if he wanted to remove the whole thing.
 
Glenn I thought Dave Curtis did your footpegs.

Spray cover? Check out how Dan Cooke makes his. They snap on with snaps that are unidirectional..resist forces of waves crashing on top. The opening is quite wide in diameter but velcroes around the paddlers torso and can be quickly undone if a wet exit is needed. Then you are free of entanglements.

Nothing on his cover has a cord. I do know NW uses them but in conjunction with a system that will not let them pull off. A spray cover is something you never want to swim with.
 
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Glenn I thought Dave Curtis did your footpegs.

Yes, Dave installed them per my specs, but that doesn't change potential validity of that solution for Tracker. In fact, Dave didn't even shape the hull side of the ash spacer strip to the precise contour of the hull. He just epoxied the two ends of the strip and left a gap in the middle. That was epoxy of wood onto Kevlar, and it's held up strong for four years now.

I had a professionally made spray skirt 33 years ago for my first canoe, a MR Explorer, but only used it for one year then tossed it. It was a PITA to put on and take off, was heavy, was downright dangerous in whitewater, and didn't do anything useful that I could tell. It was fastened with snaps on the underside of the wooden outwale. That's a more secure fastening method than shock cord, but a PITA as I said. Never again for spray skirts for me. Almost as useless, but not at ugly, as Kevlar skid plates.
 
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Speaking to several paddlers at Rendezvous(Ozarks) this spring, so far no one has been able to adhere footpegs to Royalex with adhesives.. just too much movement in the hull.

Glad your method is working for you Glenn. But I thought you might be enroute to Alaska!
 
Thanks for the info guys.

Should I assume that the patch I just put on my MR explorer will come off because of the royalex flex?

I think I will nix the spray cover idea for now. Most of my paddling is flat water. Just thought it might be nice in the rain. I read about a spray cover in one of my books and thought it would be fun to make one (I'm a jack of all trades, master of none type). If I do ever make one I'll go the snap route for fastening it.
 
I used west systems 105 resin and 206 slow hardener.

The majority of everything I read said the 105 resin was better than G flex for patch repairs on royalex.
 
I bought Harmony Keepers foot brace kit Saturday afternoon and after looking at them figured using the supplied hardware was the best way to go.

Installed them Sunday afternoon.

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And then went for a test run to my local lake.

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I like them!
They really helped with using the double blade and even helped a little with the single blade when not kneeling.
 
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