Homemade Canoe Sponson's: anyone ever try?

C

Clifton Rogers

New member
Im about to attempt to make some homemade sponson's for my canoe. i just shelled out a bunch of money for a few butt's-up pintail's, a few butts up blackducks, and 4 headless feeder style blackducks. which cut in to my sponson fund; and i just couldent justify spending 150$ on foam. soo, im gonna try pool noodles. Anyone ever try? the noodles im looking at are the same ertha-foam as the one's i was gonna buy.
 
Pool noodles will work if you have a good cover for them and don't turn your hull into swiss cheese attaching them.
best,
Harry
 
How would you control your noodles, so to speak?

By that I mean, they are called "noodles" for a reason. How do you keep them pointed in the direction you want to go, mounted to the canoe, positioned to the water etc etc.

Take a look at this

http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/templates/product/standard-item.jsp?id=0065151020568a&navCount=4&podId=0065151&parentId=cat601235&masterpathid=&navAction=jump&cmCat=MainCatcat21276-cat601235&catalogCode=IK&rid=&parentType=index&indexId=cat601235&hasJS=true

Seems like you could make two sponsons from 1/4 " plywood, like two miniature canoes...

For that matter, since the bouyancy required is leveraged by the length of the outrigger, you could probably hollow out a couple of cedar 4x4's and shape the ends like the picture and do the job.

Of course you'll have to wear a hula skirt and and a bone thru your nose whenever you use this rig.
 
I have a friend that made his from 6" diameter pvc about 4' long and some 1" conduit. Fashioned a nose cone from wire mesh then burlaped and sealed it, used small c-clamps to hold them to the canoe. They aren't pretty but they work.
 
This rig worked on kayaks and could be rigged for a canoe. We used to do it by lashing a broomstick to the gunwall, lashed a second rod to the end, pointing fore and aft, and threaded a couple old lobster bouys to the contraption. Ugly but very, very effective.
 
(2) two 8) eight inch boat bumpers attached to (2) two lengths of 1 1/4 x 1 1/4 square aluminum tubing.

Works great & have never tipped it!!!
 
i think yall are describing outriggers. im talking about sponsons that run along the "freeboard" if a canoe had them. from bow to stern, about 4" below the top edge. not even to the water line @ max compasity.. 2 guys, gear and decoys... held on by a bolt and big 2.5" washer on the outside of the noodle about every 1'.
 
Keep in mind that stability is in large part by increasing max beam. So, 6" sponsons on each side increase the beam by 12". A lot on a canoe/kayak with a 3' beam.

I've played around with putting home made sponsons on a short kids canoe I picked up cheap. I took the seat out and sit on the bottom, paddling it like a canoe. I fell into some black closed cell foam about 6" thick. I found the best stability by placing the foam just touching water with a load simulating the weight of gear I intend to use. They have to be "mechanically" attached. No glue is strong enough. I used plastic zip ties every 8" then filled holes with GE silicon.

I don't think pool "noodles" would work. No flat surface to put next to your boat. Cut in half length wise you loose too much width.
 
MLBob's gear is a good deal. They'll work for sure. I've urinated away 50 bucks on my projects pretty fast & they don't always work.
 
What Capt. Jeff said about the boat bumpers. I hunted a marsh where a guy was rowing a home built 6 hour canoe. He had a conduit frame with large boat bumpers (larger than 8") on each end. The nose of the bumpers were angled up on the outriggers so if the boat tipped the rear of the bumper would start to touch the water and the farther the boat tipped the more bumper would contact the water.
 
Google "closed cell foam" if that's what you're looking for.

That's what I did then after seeing what they wanted for it, I built the bumper set-up.

But that deal that Bob's got is pretty sweet!!!
 
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