Durability test of a cedar strip canoe

[Jim Dodd]

I involuntarily put #20 through a torture test awhile back. #20 is near identical to my Pearl, except slightly bigger.

On the way home from a paddle. I had the misfortune of seeing my freshly built #20, FLY off my truck rack at 60 mph on a blacktop road.

I tie my canoes to my rack, and just used too short of a rope, this time ! (Last time !)

The canoe lifted up and flipped, landing on the bow, and skidded down the blacktop, right side up.

Lucky for me, only one other vehicle was near by. He stopped to help, I even knew him..

To my surprise, the only damage was a small split of the gunnel from the hull at the bow, and some light road rash on the bottom!

I consider myself VERY LUCKY !

I'm sold on double layering the bottoms of my hulls.

I will post pictures of the repair in progress tomorrow

Jim

PS. Don't try this at home !

 

[Mihun09]

W/C canoes that fly like that usually have similiar results of little damage. You should see the bottom of Mem's canoe after our recent trip, it is more white from scratches than clear.

 

[stripperguy]

When I first started building strippers, I would have nightmares just like what actually happened for you!! My nightmares included watching in the rear view as my creations burst into thousands of toothpicks, which were then avoided by all of the swerving traffic behind me. Yeah, it was a recurring thing for a while. Fortunately for me, I never had those nightmares come to reality.
I've dropped my boats from 4 ft onto concrete, impaled a boat on a stump, had one crushed in a pin, but never lost one on the highway.
I always wondered how they would fare.
Do you have "before" photos? That is after the crash but before any repairs, I'm really curious to see how it looked.
Speaking from personal experience, skidding along pavement at 60 mph is not really my idea of fun!! Tumbling is even worse!

 

[yellowcanoe]

A friend had a dacron cedar wooden canoe fly off when his rack collapsed at 70 mph. He had a safety line so he dragged it on the interstate for a tenth of a mile(bad dog). One broken outwale and one cracked plank.. Easily fixed

I got to visiting while tying off a wooden hull and forgot to finish tying it on. It flew off at 45 mph hit the center line bottom down did a double barrel roll into a ditch.

Just a little road rash fixed in five minutes with Rustoleum.

The bounce factor ( flexibility) in wooden craft is astounding.

 

[Jim Dodd]

Here's pics of the repair underway. I only had one spot that the glass was worn down to bare wood. Again quite lucky !

Jim

 

[Jim Dodd]

It amazes me how tough these strippers are !

Jim

 

[wysedav]

Is this the one you just finished? I think I'd cry, glad it worked out reasonably OK. I think my lighter constructed boat might have ended up as match sticks.

 

[Jim Dodd]

Is this the one you just finished? I think I'd cry, glad it worked out reasonably OK. I think my lighter constructed boat might have ended up as match sticks.

No, but close. I just finished Pearl, #21. #22 is a Kevlar copy of Pearl. Actually #20 is a slightly enlarged Pearl. I'm pretty well take by Pearl !

Waiting to do a water test of all three, when I finish the Kevlar.

Jim

 

[Jim Dodd]

Repair completed.
Waiting for Watco to dry, and it will be water ready.
Here's a pic

Jim