• Happy International Mermaid Day! 🧜🏼‍♀️

Restoring a Bluewater Saugeen 16-6

Joined
Jul 30, 2022
Messages
4
Reaction score
2
Last autumn, the seasonal gales brought a Bluewater Saugeen 16-6 to the beach in front of my house on Saanich Inlet, just north of Victoria B.C. I put it up on all the social media, and contacted the local clubs, but no-one has claimed it, and I can understand why, even if they did lose it and saw the ads. It's in pretty sad shape - lots of places where the gel coat has cracked and lifted. Ordinarily I wouldn't even try a repair, but I bought 4 litres of West System resin and a can of 207 clear hardener to do my deck railing and used very little, so I have enough to patch the bad spots and then coat the whole exterior.

I'm planning on sanding the bad spots back to solid gel coat (being careful not to harm the Kevlar), and using glass cloth to patch them, and then coating the hull with West epoxy. (I have the cloth on hand.) Comments, please?
 
Ianc, I'm not one of the repair gurus, but I do want to welcome you to site membership. Feel free to ask any questions and post messages, photos and videos in our many forums. We look forward to your participation in our canoe community. You might consider adding your location to your profile, which will cause it to appear under your posting avatar.

Some photos of the cracks and damage of this canoe would be helpful for giving advice. Do you think the damage is only to the gel coat layer? What, if anything, are you planning to do with the discolored areas where you sand off the gel coat? I'm not sure about the benefit of coating the entire hull with epoxy if only patches of the gel coat are damaged. Epoxy is subject to UV damage and is usually covered with paint or varnish.

Hopefully some more experienced repairers will chime in.
 
Thank you very much. I've set as my avatar the closest I can come to a canoe-related pic: me on the wire of a 5o5, when I was much younger. Attached are pix of some of the injuries to the canoe.
 

Attachments

  • IMG_0856.JPG
    IMG_0856.JPG
    61.4 KB · Views: 11
  • IMG_0857.JPG
    IMG_0857.JPG
    74.5 KB · Views: 11
  • IMG_0858.JPG
    IMG_0858.JPG
    143.9 KB · Views: 11
The boat is ready to take to the water, and I have a couple of lessons to pass on. I chipped out all the crazed gel coat that would come, and feathered the edges. Cleaned the injured areas, wet them with West epoxy using 207 hardener, put on cloth with a slight overlap and wet it out, sanded the edges when hardened, coated the entire canoe with epoxy (two coats, light sanding between) and then painted it with Pettit EZpoxy, two coats, light sanding between. Some things to pass on.
For all of you who have used West resin and 205 hardener, 207 is a different animal. I bought the 207 primarily to do my cedar deck railing, as it cures clear, and it did. And it cured quickly, as it was 28 C with full sun when I applied it, so the wood was about 40 C. The canoe was under my deck, in the shade, but still 28 C. I brushed on the first coat after making the repairs, tipped it several times over an hour, and it cured perfectly. Next day it was hard, and I gave it a light sanding and put on the second coat, tipped it off until it started to tack, and then called it a day. When I looked at it next morning, there were runs all over the place. The bottom was perfect, but the turn of the bottom to the sides had runs wherever I had made repairs. I should have sanded them down, but this wasn't going to be a great job, so I didn't bother making it really right. I gave the whole thing a light sand, and brushed on a light coat of Pettit EZ Poxy. It went on perfectly. Had to work fairly quickly to keep a wet edge, but no problems. Then I tipped it off, which was easy, but if you find a holiday while you are tipping DO NOT BRUSH IT OUT. You will get streaks and putting on more paint will produce runs. Just let it be and fix it on the second coat. The canoe is done - not great, but the whole hull is stiff, with no oilcanning in the repaired areas. And I have about three litres of West resin and 3/4 litre of Burgundy EZ Poxy for something, although GKW.
 
Nice job, Ianc. Pictures would be informative and interesting.

(I merged your two threads together so the entire restoration story is in one thread for future readers and researchers.)
 
207 was my go to when I used west system, its clarity was very good. Runs are usually a sign of applying too much epoxy, I used to get them all the time, until I started applying my fill coats with a foam roller, and tipping off with a foam brush. Same for painting hulls. Might take another coat or two, but I found the results to be much better.
 
Here are a couple of pix. Not a great job, but it's a lot better than it was. The bow seat was broken - the tenons on one side had parted, and one of the tenons on the other side had broken, so I glued the tenons back in place and made two T shaped gussets out of 6 mm ply for the other side and glued them onto the underside at the joints, and then added a piece of 10 x 40 mm oak to the underside. More than strong enough.
 

Attachments

  • IMG_0861.JPG
    IMG_0861.JPG
    155.1 KB · Views: 9
  • IMG_0862.JPG
    IMG_0862.JPG
    154.5 KB · Views: 9
Last edited:
Back
Top