Canoe gunwale replacement

Shawn Hollis

Shawn Hollis

Active member
I picked up a Navarro canoe off of craigslist yesterday that needs new gunwales due to rot. I have done some reading on the net about different techniques, but I wanted to see if any of ya'll have done this. Ash seems to be the wood of choice, but I would listen to other suggestions. I am looking forward to the project, I think it will be a nice canoe when I get finished. Thanks for any input. Shawn
 
I did the inwale and outwale on my E.M. White this summer. My choice of wood was cypress. Ash was too pricey. To get the length I scarfed the boards using epoxy. Make sure you have a lot of clamps. Harbor Freight or some other China importer is a good source for bulk C clamps. Its not a difficult job at all. bob
 
Shawn

I used White ash, 3/4 x 3/4 on my strip boat. Lots of clamps and brass screws. I don't believe I glued or epoxied them in place. Lots of clamps...did I mention that?

Chuck

seats.jpg

 
Thanks for the replies guys! Chuck your canoe turned out great! I had decided to ask Santa for a few more clamps to help out with this. I have a few feelers out looking for ash to use, but cypress is my fall back wood. I know of a place locally where I could get full length stock that I could mill down for my use. Thanks again guys.
 
I have replaced the rails on my Mad River Winooski with ash. I also rub them with Watco oil every other season or so.
 
Shawn

I wish I had some strips of ash laying around but I'm all out. Hardwoods Inc in Scottsboro has it as well as cypress and other stuff too. Whatever you get I'd be more than happy to machine it down to size.

Eric
 
Thanks Eric! I knew they had the cypress, since Brian got his floor material from there. I appreciate the offer to mill it up. I may take you up on the offer after duck season. Shawn
 


White oak will work also.....get the tightest grain you can.

Some of the wood in my air boat is white oak and it has help up well.

Matt
 
Shawn,
I'd also be interested to see how it turns out, as I am considering replacing the thin, aluminum gunwales on my riverhawk with cypress or some such, to stiffen things a bit.
 
Matt brings up a good point. Cypress will be more prone dent and ding. If ruggedness is a consideration then ash, white oak, and other hardwoods may be a better choice.
 

You might already know, but do not use red oak, the wood grain is open and will absorb/hold water.. Run a piece of red oak through a saw to produce a thin sheet, hold it up to a light and it looks like Swiss Cheese....very hard to seal

You may already know such esoteric nonsense

Matt
 
I did not quibble over price! I figured $40 was a good price for a $1700 canoe!!! Even if it needed a little TLC (I love me some Craigslist!). I cleaned it up yesterday, and it is really is nice. If the hardwood place in Scottsboro has ash, I will probably go with that. All of the "kits" from Mad River or Old Town I see are mad of ash, and the old ones I removed looked to be ash as well. Thanks again guys


This is how she sits now. You can see one of the old inwales and a part of one of the outwales in the background.

These are the seats, yoke and the decks are in behind. I need to make a new yoke, but the rest is fine. The decks are walnut.


I need at least 14ft. pieces, the old outwale measured at 13' 6"
 
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How well do you think that white oak would bend? (3/4" x 3/4") Some guys made a hot box out of pvc to steam the gunwales before attaching them. Others said it was not needed, just plenty of clamps as stated earlier. The 16ft. boards would work out well for me Eric.
 
Shawn

Any pics of the canoe? How tight a bend can the gunwale have? Does it bend in two directions? 3/4" x 3/4" can be worked fairly well but it really depends on the curve needed. Dry fitting is a good way to figure it out. You will definitley need a bunch of C or hand clamps.
 
cheap substitute for clamps are the trusty PVC section cut like a C, You don't need tons of torque usually for the WHOLE distance and you can put real clamps every so many feet and a few PVC C clamps in between to stretch the dollar so to speak.

Nice find, if you were closer I would give you some 16' ash...

3/4 X 3/4 should bend just fine without steaming, but watch for grain run out.
 
I put ash gunwales & inwales on a 16' dory in the mid-80s that need to be replaced now after over 20 years. The boat is fairly heavy, but this time I'm probably going with white oak for the gunwales and something lighter like mahagohy for the inwale.

I'm considering Ipe but having to replace oak or ash every 20 years or so isn't bad.

If I was doing a canoe I'm not sure I'd use a hardwood gunwale. A canoe doesn't get wacked all that hard very often.
 

GaryRI

Canoes dont get whacked? ummm tell that to mine when I am bucking it up over beaver dams and doing a few class 3 rapids,,,,and a wind rolling it over on a rocky beach until the anchor line became tight...

Mine gets used and abused.....that is why I bought a RoyalX hulled boat...a cedar strip just would have been trashed...

Matt
 
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