Just got the old gunwales off my canoe and was looking how to install new ash ones. My problem is I do not want the royalex to show. Has anyone made a cap to hide them. I think I can cut a rabbit on one side and overlap the other but worried that it will crack Any suggestions?
-
Happy National Blueberry Pie Day! 🫐🥧
Old Town Royalex gunwales replacment
- Thread starter cbdeajr
- Start date
G
Guest
Guest
If you have the tools, and skills, to make a rabbet I wouldn’t worry too much about cracking. You’ll want a helper and a bunch of clamps to hold the gunwales in place while you screw them together, especially taking care that the rabbeted side doesn’t start to creep up above the flat side.
I don’t know about a “cap”. It would be an awfully thin strip of wood to fill that void. I have considered using a length of screen door spline with wood gunwales on composite boats but thought it might degrade over time into a mess.
With a few exceptions most of the Royalex canoes I have regunwaled originally had vinyl gunwales and that is what I used as replacements, mostly because I am out of indoor or covered storage, or I was passing the canoe along to someone who would be storing it outdoors.
Most composite canoes that come with stock wood gunwales have rabetted gunwales with a thin lip or "kerf" that covers the top of the hull. Most Royalex boats that came with wood gunwales had the gunwales "sandwiched" such that the inwales and outwales were level with the top of the hull and the intervening Royalex hull showed.
The latter method is stronger because for any given vertical height of inwale and outwale, the gunwale screw holes will not be as close to the hull edge. If you remove the gunwales from a wood-trimmed composite canoe, you will often find some of the gunwale screw holes very close to the top of the hull sheerline. You can get around this by making inwales and outwales with a taller vertical dimension to make up for the 1/8" thick kerf that extends over the hull, but they will be heavier.
If you want to do this, rabett the outwales rather than the inwales. Rabetting the inwales will reduce the thickness of the inwale to the extent that holes for mounting seats and thwarts might weaken the inwales excessively. The hull thickness of Royalex boats usually varies quite significantly being much thicker at and near the stems, thinner in the quarters, and then often somewhat thicker again amidships. When cutting your rabetts you will need to make them deep enough so that the kerf covers the thickest portions of the hull, and then trim down the kerf a bit for the thinner sections.
The latter method is stronger because for any given vertical height of inwale and outwale, the gunwale screw holes will not be as close to the hull edge. If you remove the gunwales from a wood-trimmed composite canoe, you will often find some of the gunwale screw holes very close to the top of the hull sheerline. You can get around this by making inwales and outwales with a taller vertical dimension to make up for the 1/8" thick kerf that extends over the hull, but they will be heavier.
If you want to do this, rabett the outwales rather than the inwales. Rabetting the inwales will reduce the thickness of the inwale to the extent that holes for mounting seats and thwarts might weaken the inwales excessively. The hull thickness of Royalex boats usually varies quite significantly being much thicker at and near the stems, thinner in the quarters, and then often somewhat thicker again amidships. When cutting your rabetts you will need to make them deep enough so that the kerf covers the thickest portions of the hull, and then trim down the kerf a bit for the thinner sections.
G
Guest
Guest
Pete, both good points.
The thickness of Royalex, and the difference in RX thickness midships versus at the stems varies on different models. The thickest RX I have ever seen was on a couple of old Blue Holes and Shenandoahs.
The RX thickness varied even on the same model and manufacturer over time. I regunwaled an old Old Town Chipewayn (now Camper) from back in the days when OT used white vinyl gunwales. I have a chunk of Royalex that was busted out of the sheerline near miships on that hull and it is every bit of 3/8 inch thick.
I don’t remember the thickness of the Royalex at the stems, but it was significantly thicker. That would require a seriously thick and custom kerf and a really beefy outwale.
Faced with that I just pop riveted on new black vinyl gunwales and deck plates.
With a no-rabbet wood gunwale sandwich would it be useful to paint a bead of epoxy or G/flex over the exposed RX foam core?
It is going to be a bigger job than I was planning for but OT no longer has replacement gunwales for their old 18ft canoe now. They only go up to 17ft. I have checked the thickness and it does varies significantly from point to point and from one side to the other. So someway it will be a 2 part gunwale. I may look at putting a full width cap on when I get the gunwales attached. Maybe something like 3/16 and tapered to the edge. Should not add that much additional weight. not sure how to attach it so as to allow the gunwale to be able to flex and not crack the cap.
I think if you put a cap on top of the gunnels you will speed up the chance of rot by trapping water between the cap and the gunnels. Maybe if you ran some glue (Tightbond III) along the top of the gunnels and clamped it you might get a tight fit on top, but water will seep up from under the gunnel/inwale and stay there. I wonder how long a 3/16 piece of wood would last on top of the gunnels as that area takes alot of stress from car topping and rolling the canoe over at night.
I like the look of the gunnels sandwiching a Royalex canoe and and I did it on the Kevlar Bell Northstar I'm working on also. Like pblanc said the screw holes where very close to the top of the sheerline on the Bell. Rather than work that close with my limited talents I chose to sandwhich the hull on the Bell without a Rabbit.
I like the look of the gunnels sandwiching a Royalex canoe and and I did it on the Kevlar Bell Northstar I'm working on also. Like pblanc said the screw holes where very close to the top of the sheerline on the Bell. Rather than work that close with my limited talents I chose to sandwhich the hull on the Bell without a Rabbit.
G
Guest
Guest
Agree about the hazards of tapping wood rotting moisture under a cap, or even gluing the tops of the wales together.
The exposed foam core edge may be of some concern. On aged RX regunwales I have found that that foam core to be kind of crumbly/porously degraded.
A thin bead of sealant applied and allowed to cure along the naked foam core, before the gunwales were installed, would allow water to flow and evaporate between the sandwiched wood sides and still seal and protect the core.
I’ve done just that on some really crumbly foam cores. I don’t know if it helped, but it didn’t hurt.
Similar threads
