View topic - Dreamboat Rebuild Rebuild

Things are a little slow in the shop, and here on the board. Time for another canoe rebuild, or actually a re-rebuild.

The Dreamboat is a flat bottomed Royalex tandem that I originally rebuilt years ago and gave to needed-a-boat Tom. Tom really needed his own canoe. First time I paddled with Tom he was in his wife’s Mohawk Rogue - high sided deep and well rockered for serious whitewater, with a Perception saddle – we were tidal marsh tripping and I saw a most peculiar sight.

There was the distinctive thump-boom-splash sound of a canoe capsizing when, suddenly, shooting skyward into view, above the tall waving Spartina grass, there briefly appeared the red Royalex bow of a Rogue. A Rogue canoe, the other rogue was enjoying the pluff mud bottom of the Transquaking Marsh loop. Both were eventually recovered, the canoe none the worse for wear. Tom, IIRC, had lost one shoe to the marsh mud bottom, and considerable of his remaining dignity.

Not just witnessed by me, with the advance warning of the thump-boom-splash everyone else had time to turn and watch that canoe projectile. I haven’t seen a rocket launch from my canoe yet, still on my bucket list, and that was probably my only opportunity to witness such a flatwater canoe launch.

Tom called the Dreamboat “Das Uberbot” because it weighs as much as a German submarine. While it made a better marsh canoe than the WW Rogue it had some submarine qualities in other paddling uses; going over drops the bow had a tendency to take on a wee bit of water.

EK_0023 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

Methinks float bags would have been a good thing in the Uberbot on that Yellow Breeches trip.

The Uberbot, borrowing from ALSG’s esprit de escalier considerations, henceforth to be named “Yet Another Rebuild Rebuild”, or YARR for short
Yar: “agile, quick, easily maneuvered, nimble”

I expect the re-rebuild will possess none of those nimble qualities. Produced by Dreamboat Company in Indianapolis in 1984, YARR is 16’ 2” long, 14” deep and, originally, around 33” wide. “Around” because I drew the gunwales in a touch on the original rebuild, and it is now 31 ½” wide. Maybe an original Warsaw Rocket? Anyone know the “Rocket” dimensions?

The original rebuild shows many early rebuild touches. New vinyl gunwales replacing rotted wood; doesn’t everyone install vinyl gunwales using 3” pop rivet spacing? What was I thinking? (WWIT?)

P5210028 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

Both stems were badly worn over a large area, so massive 5 foot long x 2 foot wide kevlar felt skid plates. At the time I had never heard of Dynel, or peel ply, or peel ply, or even beveling down the abrupt edges of kevlar felt with a tongue depressor as the epoxy set up. The uncompressed and un-edge beveled kev felt stands tall still today. “Pretty work”, as my old mentor would mutter in semi-disgust.

P5210015 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

Tom’s artistic lettering of “Das Uber Bot” has faded to near illegibility, and I wish I could make out what the subtitle beneath reads; I should ask him, there is subtext there.

P5210029 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

Wilhelm, properly pronounced with a harsh lip-spittle V, is a great Undersea Bot captain’s name. Recipient of the Saturated Cross with Watercress Custers, responsible for multiple sinking’s.

P5210016 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

Mostly sinkings of himself. The Uber Bot, without Captain Vilhelm aboard, proved capable of running WW, high and dry, all on its own, and would often nose over next to me, sans Tom, like a faithful dog as I waited in some eddy below a drop.

I would praise it “Good boy, good boat”. Once, on a peculiar lining escape when Tom’s “Nots, No-K” let loose, I admittedly shouted “This is the best day ever!” as Uber Bot floated the run out empty to nuzzle alongside my canoe.

For all that crudity of repair my brightwork was, even then, reasonably well done, and is still solidly intact and refurbishable. Garishly webbed seats, as typical of the plaid madness era; the webbing is still solid and largely unfaded. The finished weight not presenting an issue with a YARR rebuild I’ll remove the dreaded peg drops and install truss or half truss seat hangers for some extra rigidity along the sheerline of a 38 year old RX hull.

P5210024 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

YARR currently has a (wing nutted) removable yoke and a kneeling thwart. No permanent knee cushioning, BYO kneeling pad, but I did thoughtfully include ankle blocks.
P5210025 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

The kneeling thwart is coming out, and the yoke will be replaced with a custom rod holder yoke, as on OOSOBO.

P2110010 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

The too-seat-close front thwart needs to come out as well, so YARR can be solo paddled bow backwards, and may get a custom rod holder thwart within bow backwards arms reach as well. I have some rod holder improvement ideas in that regard as well, and may ask fisherman friend Eddie and likely YARR paddler for suggestions and opinions when it comes time to ponder custom angling outfitting. Year 2 with a fishing license, I still haven’t cast a line.

P1070058 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

YARR will definitely get a DIY aluminum L foot brace for the bow backwards position; again the same as OOSOBO.

P1160010 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

In fact, in replicating (or improving) OOSOBO’s reservoir fishing outfitting, I’ll probably replicate the distinct and decorative green hull, white stripe and diamond trim paint job as well. YARR, like OOSOBO is, or once was, green, and I’ll want another can of inexpensive green Rustoleum Topside to recoat the scrapes on the bottom of OOSOBO from slide-launching it this winter when it comes off the reservoir and back into the shop.

P3190001 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

Tom’s less artistic painting flourishes have also (thankfully) faded. There may have been some late in the day shop beers involved, but somehow, when the Uber Bot was finished, Tom was cajoled into graffito-ing the stems, using up near dead cans of old shop spray paint. FWIW the sliver spray paint lasted the longest, there are traces of blue left, and the red has vanished entirely

The worst of YARR’s needed repairs are from a trip it did last year, the first time it had seen water in a decade. Tom lent it to a novice couple, who paddled it on Mallows Bay. Mallows Bay is ship graveyard, a collection of 200+ steamship and other vessels.
https://dnr.maryland.gov/ccs/Pages/mallowsbay.aspx

Mallows Bay is historic, and peculiar, and can be tidal shallow. If there are 200 “Ghostfleet” shipwrecks there are 100,000 barely submerged pieces of rusty bolts and sharp metal. I’ve long wanted to go there, but not in a plastic boat. Incautious novices, paddling amongst 100,000 tidal sharps in a plastic canoe; the bottom of YARR is now suffering from death by a thousand slices.

P5210019 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

P5210018 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

Easily fixed once YARR is clean and sanded. For now YARR can live on back deck near the hose. I need to give it a vigorous scrub with DougD’s magic mix of vinegar and Dawn. And after that it can continue to live on the deck until I have room in the shop; I need to RO sand the entire paint crusty hull bottom, and I’d rather make that colorful dust outside as well.

Once it comes into the shop it isn’t leaving for quite a while; I do need to have it done by March 1st, 2023. First thing, once in the shop, I’ll weigh it. I’m guess 86lbs. Maybe 85lbs post sanding.

And, of course, there is the Why Bother?

Next Spring YARR will get a reservoir permit, and be chained up (same padlock key) at Liberty Reservoir. The fishing at Liberty is better than at Prettyboy, the launch is closer than Prettyboy for most metro-area friends, and it would be nice to have a boat at water’s edge on both reservoirs.
https://dnr.maryland.gov/fisheries/page ... berty.aspx

I believe I can make YARR look and paddle agood as new with less than $100 in parts, pieces, epoxy, varnish and paint. And 100 very slow and enjoyable hours on the deck and in the shop. Mostly I really like the idea of having heavy, old-school vintage Royalex canoes, both green with identical broad white stripes and green accent diamonds, left at both reservoirs.

If nothing else I’m sure it would puzzle the reservoir cops; “Wait, didn’t I just see that canoe chained up this morning at Prettyboy?”

The only thing better, fishing or just reservoir exploring, would be a side motor mount for an electric motor. I’m not providing the motor, but I got the serious clamps with which to DIY a side motor mount.

P5170006 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

Of course now I wish I hadn’t given away the manufactured side motor mounts, plural, that came, and later left, with some used canoes. Long, multi-armed reservoirs like Prettyboy and Liberty would be a joy to sit and electric motor buzz about.

P3100011 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

Hell, I’ll sit in the back and acknowledge how fast, how far offshore, here-there-where instructions from a fisher-person bowman. With 80 some miles of shoreline there is a lot of reservoir edge I’ve never seen, and likely won’t without deep cycle assist.

YARR is at least clean

At least, and at last. I suspect that the last time YARR was washed was sometime shortly before it left my shop many moons ago. Scrubbed clean it reveals additional Mallows Bay slice and dice damage to the outer skin, nothing some epoxy and some cloth work won’t cure, and the encrustation is gone.

P5220001 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

Tom may be too generous with canoe loans. His pristine composite Malecite was offered to a boatless tandem pair for a trip down the Juniata. The very low water Juniata; the Malecite was pristine no longer. On the forgive them side I think the Malecite is now another rotted and falling off wood gunwaled backyard hulk.

Fortunately it is forecast to rain for the next few days, which will help dissipate the canoe –shaped outline of dirt and crud spattered on the deck. On the plus side YARR is probably a pound lighter.

With the years of exterior dirt removed I can tell that I had repainted the bottom, from the water line down, with green paint. Probably, given my than less than state of the art efforts at the time, using enamel spray paint. Which, for spray paint, has held up remarkably well, much better than the similar vintage spray paint job on OOSOBO, which was flaking and peeling like canoe leprosy.

PC190009 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

UV exposure on paint, any paint, especially spray paint, matters, and Yarr’s home for many years was in Tom’s backyard. While his under-engineered canoe storage racks may occasionally have collapsed under snow loads, his yard is at least densely shady. Pluses and minuses; all of his shaded but never quite sun dried wood gunwaled canoes are now Mulch Gunwaled, feeding the lawn with the recommended daily allowance of trace element oils or varnishes.

The inside, once de-grimed, proved to in remarkably good condition, with scant wear on the vinyl skin. Perhaps it was protected from years of boot heel scuffs by the layer of accumulated filth.

P5220003 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

Counting the plethora of 3” spacing pop rivets in the gunwale, sixty five. On each side. 130 pop rivets holding the vinyl gunwales in place. WWIT?

I checked the right stern stem for a HIN. Nope. Then I checked the other side and bow stems. Twice, the second time with an LED flashlight and a magnifying glass. Nope. I know it had a visible HIN back in the day, but never recorded any more than “DRM” for Dreamboat.

With the inside scrubbed the HIN popped out clear as day. Amidships, under the inwale; DRM 1684 110.

P5220005 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

That does not equate to a modern (post-1972?) HIN; DRM is the Dreamboat Company, but the middle four numbers indicating the company serial number should be 5 digits long, and the last four (not three) characters indicate the year of manufacturer (aside from the weird not-a-calendar year business).

I have forgotten how to read more vintage HINs; it sure as hell isn’t a canoe from January of 2010, or even “110” November of 2000; I had replaced the rotted wood gunwales before then. I need to figure out how the interpret the HIN’s year of manufacturer.

YARR is definitely not a “Warsaw Rocket”. Looking at some old Warsaw Rocket photos those Uniroyal-molded canoes had recurved stems, and I remember that recurve from the two Shenanndoah/Warsaw Rockets I rebuilt. YARR has noticeable layout at both ends.

P5220004 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

The Dreamboat Company manufactured pontoon boats in Indianapolis. I seriously doubt they had their own molds and oven for Royalex canoe manufacture, so my best guess is that, like the original Warsaw Rockets, Dreamboat bought naked hulled from some manufacturer, and outfitted them for resale in their spare time in (pontoon boat) shop.

Starting in the early-to-mid ‘70’s various companies were buying naked hulls, “Warsaw Rockets” molded by Uniroyal, and trimming/outfitting them for resale. Royalex Blue Holes, Shenandoahs, Perception’s Chatooga and Nantahala, Mad River’s Endurall, not to mention any paddling club that could buy the minimum (dozen?) raw hulls to haul home and finish on their own.

Paddlers with club outfitted newfangled Royalex canoes were the bees freaking knees next to their Grumman companions. The weight was near the same as aluminum, but they didn’t stick to rocks.

YARR is a mystery begging to be solved, and I’d love to ID the maker of the hull. Symmetrical, flat bottomed, moderate rocker, 16’ 2” long, 14” deep, (originally) something like 34 to 35 inches gunwale width, 19 ½” deep at the stems, with some layout at both ends.

What company was molding that shape/size of RX canoe back in the heavyweight day? Or do the middle digits “1684” date it as hull manufactured in the sixteenth month of 1984. . . . .no, wait, that can’t be right. . . .WTF, who hull dat?

It lacks the stem recurve of a vintage, flat bottomed Old Town Camper (nee Chipewyan). Flat-ish bottomed I doubt it is some (love the shallow vee) early Mad River hull. 16’ 2” is longer than any of the early Blue Hole molded OCA/Prowler/Starbursts, IIRC those were mostly in the 15’ range.

Maybe some early flat/slight arch bottomed RX Mohawk? The Mohawk Intrepid 16 was 16’ 2”, 33 ½” waterline (but 36” sheerline; I don’t remember how much I drew in the gunwales), 14” deep and speced, before massive kevlar felt skid plates, at 73lbs. That all fits well enough, but the Intrepid had 21 ½” deep stems and YARR’s stems are 19 ½” deep.

Or not, that stem measurement was attempted with YARR still on sawhorses; sitting flat on the shop floor, whadda ya know, 21 ½” exactly. Without the drawn in gunwales the hull producing some tumblehome, left more slab sided it would have a 36” beam.

Mohawk started building canoes in the mid-‘60’s, and the Intrepid model has been around since at least the early 1980’s.

https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/1904/ ... 1643408326

That catalog spec weight is for the R-84 version, the standard Royalex model was speced at 73lbs, and the massive kev felt skid plates, and kneeling thwart (and WWIT 130 pop rivets) undoubtedly added considerable poundage.

I’m going to call it an early Intrepid. And I’m going to call Mohawk to see what they think.

Possibly built in the 16th week of 1984, hull number 110?

YARR is in the house. Or at least in the shop

“First thing, once in the shop, I’ll weigh it. I’m guess 86lbs. Maybe 85lbs post sanding”

I was pretty close; 84 lbs suspended from the hanging shop scale, maybe I scrubbed off more than a pound of dirt

“but YARR’s stems are 19 ½” deep, not even mis-measured close to the Intrepid’s 21 ½”.

Eh, I was not close, but I did mis-measure. I had attempted that measurement with the canoe upside down on sawhorses, measured down from a plank set on the bottom. Not accurate in any way; when I put it on the shop floor, whadda ya know, 21 ½” exactly.

P5240003 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

OK, I measured the max width at the ( ), for a slab sided width without the rebuild drawn-in gunwales. 36”. I am now convinced this is a vintage Mohawk Intrepid. It is identical in every dimension, length, original width, depth, stem height and lay out.

Mohawk started building canoes in the mid-sixties, were fairly early into the Royalex game and I think the Intrepid was being built by the early 80’s.

Local paddler and guidebook author Roger Corbett paddled an Intrepid. Sadly this wasn’t one of his, my records show that it was given to me, in need of a major rebuild, by Shelia Chapelle. She also gave me her father’s early 80’s OT Chipewyan, which I repaired, as best I then crudely could, and gave back to keep as a family heirloom.

The Chapelle’s were a paddling family, and their kids all started young. Seth started paddling WW that would have made me pee my pants at a young age, and became a dedicated (if I suspect dizzy) single blader at a young age.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YNROpqQAy4

Back on topic, I may know more about a plausible Mohawk backstory soon, I’ve e-mailed Mohawk. That canoe company has changed ownerships a couple of times, so I’m not holding my breath.

With YARR upright on horses in the shop it was time to cogitate an outfitting plan. Once it goes gunwales down for sanding and epoxy/cloth work it won’t be back upright for a while, so this is a chance to think about the brightwork parts and pieces I’ll want. Starting with losing the wing nutted yoke and kneeling thwart

P5250008 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

Pretty work; I had pencil scribed that kneeling thwart wood to cut out curvaceous seat drops, and never bothered to sand off the lines. Perhaps I had intended to install it “clean” side up and oopsied.

Lose that yoke and kneeling thwart, and install a “center seat”. OOSOBO is fine paddled bow backwards. Provided it has 40-50lbs of trim counter weight in the bow. YARR will be carried twice a year, on and off the racks as it is chained up at the reservoir in March and retrieved in December. Screw the yoke and kneeling thwart, gimme a solo center seat.

Like OOSOBO my intention is to rebuild YARR with minimal effort, expense or new parts. Tinkering time yes, expense no.

The existing seats and peg drops are still impressively solid, and the pegs are the proper length for the sheerline rise. Those can stay in, or at least get re-urethaned and go back in. The stern seat stays.

P5250004 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

As does the bow seat.

P5250006 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

I am amazed that the webbing is still sound, and drum tight. I guess I did do some things right back in the day. With the installation of a center seat even that thwart behind the bow can stay.

Just need a center seat. Thank goodness I drew the gunwales in a touch; I have the near perfect size center seat, already tautly webbed, with pad keeper straps, just a little dusty from storage.

P5250010 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

Behind that seat, for some lateral regidity, a thwart. That thwart would be within arm’s reach of a stern paddler in tandem guise, so maybe something wide enough for a minimalist no-sail-mount utility thwart. I’ll just cut down and repurpose that kneeling thwart.

YARR is getting heavier. And heavier; the front seat, as originally rebuilt, is more than five feet back of the bow. Plenty of leg room, and plenty of stem depth. I’ll want to provide the bow paddler with a utility thwart to call their own.

P5250012 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

Eh, needs to be a little wider bow utility thwart, wide enough to install a cup holder. No worries; I’ve plenty of shortie brightwork pieces that need only be cut to size and lightly refinished. Not as elaborate as this, but same concept.

P7140005 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

Three seats, two minimalist utility thwarts, bottom repairs, paint job. . . . .I’m calling the finished weight in the low 90lb range when I’m all done. Thank goodness that, as a permitted reservoir canoe, it needs only be overturned and slid into the lake.

90 freaking pound canoe. Dammit, now I really wish I hadn’t given away all of the side motor mounts I got with used canoes.

Let the stripping commence. Old kneeling thwart & drops, ankle blocks, degraded thwart and deck bungees, stem painter loops, old decals, etc. All gone.

P5270001 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

The wing nutted removable yoke can stay in for now to provide some lateral stability. I’m not a fan of wing nutted removable stuff, and this one show an example of why; the flange washer on one side went missing, so it is just a naked machine screw head atop the outwale.

P5270003 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

I’m guessing Tom dropped in the drink at some point and never got a replacement. If only he knew someone with a well stocked shop.

Old parts out, new parts temporally in. Despite my general aversion to peg style drops I had some 3 ¼” walnut peg drops already drilled for machine screws. They will do for now. And perhaps for always.

P5270005 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

Those pegs are held in place with a small rubber washer on the machine screw ends under the drops; it would be hard to hold them all four of them in place while fitting the seat with only two hands.

Dang, I never get this lucky. The rails on the seat, which I removed from some canoe when installing a Conk seat, are exactly the correct length, even the hole locations match. No cutting, no drilling, simply spin the nuts on. I may run out and buy a lotto ticket.

P5270008 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

I should keep going before my lucky streak runs dry. That center seat, on peg drops, needs some lateral support, a thwart some at least few inches behind the seat. I was going to use the old kneeling thwart, but it is 4” wide and I only have 24” between the middle and stern seats. That stern thwart needs to be at least a few inches behind the center seat for a back band to fit peoperly, so it would behoove me to use something skinnier.

I didn’t want to cut a virgin 36” thwart down to 27” in length, but had nothing else slender shapely and long enough on the used thwart rack. For easy of peeziness progress mark the angles and cut 4 ½” of each end an into the overflowing box of trimmed –to-size end cuts.

P5270009 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

Not much of a “utility” thwart, it will at least get drilled for an over/under/over run of bungee.

Now for a piece I don’t have readymade, a more spacious utility thwart for the bowman’s use. Cut some hull matching end angles on a 5” board, drill some holes and a test fit.

P5280014 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

Perfect, but isn’t close to finished. The bowman’s utility thwart needs to come out, as does all of the other new brightwork, so I can lay a few coats of spar urethane. And before the bow utility thwart gets urethaned it needs a bunch more holes drilled. And before anything else gets started, egads my workbench! It’s almost like Tom was here.

P5270012 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

It took all of five minutes to put it all away properly. Much better, room to work without clutter. I am admittedly anal about shop organization, but I do not understand how folks can work with a cluttered bench.

I may say “I don’t care about the bow paddler, I’m never paddling up front”, but the bow position has some issues. Yes, it has an unobstructed view ahead, yes it should be scouting and calling out “Rock!” (or, at Mallows Bay “Razor sharp metal”) with enough time to react, but there isn’t much space in the bow to put anything other than underfoot on the floor.

The bow needs, at least, a place to hang a water bottle (or other beverage) without having it roll away out of reach in the dirty bilge. Miscellaneous & Mystery parts and pieces box to the rescue; a bunch of defunct camp chair arm beverage holders.

P5280015 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

Yeah, that’ll do nicely once epoxied and screwed into place. I’ll run a couple of crisscrossed + webbing straps across the bottom to add additional support to the mesh bottom

P5280017 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

That bowman’s thwart needs the usual bungee for miscellaneous keepage. Holes of course beveled in the direction of bungee stretch.

P5280020 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

All of the various bungees will get a cord lock at one end for tension adjustability. Probably some other geegwaws on the bowman’s platform, pad eyes or mini SS D-rings, but those can come later. Almost done with the bowman’s utility thwart, I just need to run the right angle edges across the router table, and then do some sanding.

All of the hardware from the removed brightwork is in labeled plastic bins, ready for the reinstall, and that is enough for a day..

P5280022 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

Tomorrow, more dust making; hand sanding the new brightwork, and RO sanding some of the fugly off the hull.

Minimalist Dreamboat rebuild; two seats, one yoke, Mad River Explorer-style.

P5290007 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

Dream on. I’m not weighing it; I don’t care, it isn’t staying that way. Once the newly urethaned brightwork goes back in the old bow and stern seats and drops can come out to be refinished and re-installed.

I won’t see YARR upright for a while; need to order some green Rustoleum Topside, patch Mallows Bay slices, and maybe add a thickened epoxy fillet to the standing-tall edges of the (less than skillfully installed) kevlar mega skid pads.

Seriously, I didn’t even bother to take a tongue depressor and hand-bevel down the kevlar felt edges as the epoxy set up? Da fug? So many early mistakes and lessons learned; that little bevel touch would have taken a whopping 5 minutes. And why, why oh why, did I encourage Tom to grab old cans of spray paint and dazzle the stems before he departed with Uber Bot?

P5210022 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

Tom had other encouragement; the Squatter Sisters were in the shop that day, having finished adding gold glitter to the newly installed skid plates on their canoes. That bit of comedic “Tom, here’s another beer, and some old cans of spray paint” finally came back to bite me.

I don’t want the open side to go upside down just yet. While the bungee cord was out, some new painter-keeper deck bungee. Bless a big arsed vinyl deck plate, allowing me the preferred over/under/over sideways Z pattern.

The rabbit, trailing a stopper knot, comes out the hole, goes back in the hole, doubles back diagonally underneath before reemerging topside and heading aft.

P5280001 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

Topside looks like this

P5280002 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

Under-deck looks like this; with a hidden deck plate recess and diagonal bungee for your stash.

P5280006 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

I don’t much care for the OEM ¾” wide stem loop holes, and may try to sleeve those with something less hawser sized; I don’t foresee a future where YARR needs to be Z-dragged off a lot of WW pins.

P5290010 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

I also don’t foresee a future where I will ever again want a kneeling thwart, or even want to install another. Should anyone care to try paddling in prayerful posture I have gobs of kneeling thwart drops, angle cut and shaped, some ready to go ¼” hole drilled.

P5290012 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

Just bolt on a 3 ½” to 5 ½” piece of dimensional lumber. Eh, maybe shave off the right angle edges first. WWIT? I’m pretty certain that omission wasn’t subconscious desire to pinch Tom’s thighs

Bye bye topside. I’ll be back later.

Ayiee, what fun, the bottom. RO sander and cyclonic dust extractor cart to wheel alongside. But first, I’ve only had to learn this lesson thrice, four gunwale chalks screwed into the sawhorse.

Intently RO sanding, not noticing the canoe jiggling ever closer to the edge. When one gunwale slips off a sawhorse the rest of the canoe follows quickly, and KABAM-BOOM loudly, usually executing a half-twist to land upright. That’ll knock some dirt out of the gunwales.

P5290015 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

All of the Mallows Bay slices need to be sanded and cleaned before any cloth and epoxy work, and the old have-another-beer Tom wild-hair dazzle spray paint needs to be removed. The original green scum line bottom could not have been spray paint, I must have rolled some. . . . .thing; the green scumline bottom paint is unflakey intact, but it too needs at least a light scruff befor future painting.

Bye bye Uber Bot moniker, ya gots to go. It took some elbow grease, and a couple different RO pads, but Uber Bot and all traces of old dazzle spray paint are gone.

P5290014 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

Eh, that enough sanding; it’s a decades old beater boat, not fine furniture.

By rough count there are. . . . . .lordy, 25 slices from losing the Mallow Bay swordfight. After the hull is clean, to make certain I don’t omit any minor cuts, I’ll mark the slices with a blue Sharpie. All of those linear wounds can be covered with 2” or 3” E-glass tape and epoxy, and I can probably cover some with a single longer or wider run of glass tape.

Accidents happen, but the Mallows Bay novice loaner use, “Oh, you seem to have run aground on a sharp metal object? Maybe just scootch the rest of the hull across the knife edge” didn’t help. There is one Z slice that would perhaps have been fun to witness, if only to return me to my childhood.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SBR-xk_Xknc

Mohawk responded to my “Is it an Intrepid?” query. Twice; after a preliminary e-mail with Intrepid matching dimensions the Production Manager, and a follow up with photo, he asked the current owner.

“I was able to share your photo and canoe info with our owner, and here's what he had to say:

Mohawk would sometimes sell unfinished hulls to other companies, but most of the ones that he can think of are international companies in England and Japan. He said that the Intrepid was similar in design to the Mohawk "ABS" model. The ABS model was made using a preformed Royalex hull that the manufacturer (Uniroyal) sold to several companies who then simply put their markings on it and assign it an HIN. So it is possible that Dreamboat purchased some of these Intrepid-esque preformed hulls from Uniroyal and then simply put their logo and HIN on it

So while the mystery still is an open case, there at least is a good idea of what might have happened.”

Being a couple owners, and a couple relocations, along Mohawk’s travels that history may be incomplete, but it is something to go on.

If the Mohawk “ABS model” was, as I suspect, a Warsaw Rocket from Uniroyal, YARR is not that; the Warsaw Rocket had classic recurved stems. That does leave open the question “Did Uniroyal ever make a different model RX canoe?”

I’m pretty sure the answer is no, but can’t swear to it; I was paddling aluminum at the time, and for a decade after.

It does answer the question “Did Mohawk sell unfinished hulls to other companies?”

Inquiring minds want to know the cost of a Japanese-trimmed Mohawk Intrepid. I’m calling YARR a Dreamboat trimmed Intrepid unless convinced otherwise. Provided your dream is a 90+ lb three seater.

I will say that Mohawk’s customer service and timely response to even weirdo questions remains, as always, top notch. I miss their line of canoes.

Slice and dice Mallows Bay patching. The good news is that I had some 2” fiberglass tape, and some 6” peel ply in rolls.

P5310002 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

The OK news is that I can cover all of the slices with a strategic dozen longish strips of 2” glass tape, and a dozen strips of 6” rolled peel ply. 3” or 4” glass tape would have been easier still, but I’m committed to using what materials I have on hand. The last thing I ordered boat-working wise had a three week delivery date.

Even so the simple snip-to-length of those materials was a time saver. Still, the prep time, as expected, and as usual, took longer than actual cloth and epoxy work.

I’m not striving for perfection. A better methodology for the slices along the chine curves would have been to cock the hull sideways at a 45 /, and do one high, held nearer horizontal side with epoxy and cloth at a time. Nah.

Skimping further on the prep I masked only the bottom drip-edges to capture gravity induced epoxy runs, I have faith I can paint epoxy in straight-ish lines on the no-drip uphill sides.

Glass taped, epoxied, peel plied and repeatedly hard rollered, that mess of bandages can sit overnight before the peel ply removal and reveal. Later, a light sanding, and a light top coat of epoxy mix on the patches.

P5310003 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

FWIW, the epoxy required thus far, a mix of 2/3 West 105/206 slow hardener and 1/3 G/flex for better vinyl skin adhesion, amounted to 1 cup, or actually two half cups, one half cup for the bottom coat, one for the top coat, and I was scraping the dregs off the brush to eek out the last of the top coat fabric saturation.

Zero wasted epoxy in laying that heavyweight E-glass tape; I am getting better and better at estimating epoxy quantities needed; I never needed the secondary objects I had prepped and set aside for excess epoxy.

I have some thick bias tape, kevlar tape, Dynel sleeve and etc. Nah, that that 8.7oz E-glass tape needed enough hand-laid saturation and peel ply compression.

https://www.sweetcomposites.com/Seamtape.html

Mostly I didn’t want to use up too much epoxy on a reservoir use designated canoe.

The mega kev felt skid plates have chips and crumbles missing, and the bow has a vertical split/crack through the felt. None of the various slices, splits or cracks show on the amazingly un-scuffed inner vinyl, so that’s a plus, they are only “skin deep”.

P5310007 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

That cracked felt skid plate rack must have required a head on impact. Perhaps Tom and a hidden (or obvious) rock, or perhaps the Mallows Bay newbies, headlong at speed into the protruding timbers of a Mallows Bay ghost ship. Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!

I’ll lightly top coat the mega skid plates with the same epoxy mix when I top coat the glass tape bandages. But, before then, I can fill the missing and crumbled felt divots with thickened G/flex.

I wasn’t sold at first on the value of pre-thickened G/flex 655, and was a little put off by the squeeze-tube containers. Well dang, apparently I have found a lot of uses for it, even using it sparingly, with zero waste.

The 655 squeezes out of the tubes with toothpaste consistency; it is even easier to judge equal pea sized dabs swiped off on the side of a medicine cup. Would buy again; it is a good compliment to the less viscous G/flex 650

Time for another coat of urethane.

P5310010 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

Note the absence of the center seat hanging to dry. In addition to magically fitting, both rail length and seat drop hole locations, that old seat was already heavily urethaned, and needed no further attentions.

Most of the new and old re-used brightwork needs only sealant coats on the newly cut butt ends, but the virgin-wood bow utility thwart needs at least four or five sealant coats. Which is an opportunity to keep slathering urethane on all of the butt ends.

Baby Got Back; I like thick butt ends and I cannot lie.

I love the feel of compressed release treated peel ply in the morning, it pulls off clean and easy. The glass tape will need just a touch of RO sanding, but the selvage edges are flat instead of standing tall and rough.

Some green pigment to tint the epoxy and color the cloth would have been helpful. A lot of green canoes have been coming through the shop, guess I need to order some for future use.

Eh, I think I said that last time. No more couldashoulda, I just ordered some, guaranteeing that the next canoe will be red, or blue. Or purple.

I have entered the sequence of “An hour’s work a day”; lightly sand the E-glass patches, refinish the mega kevlar felt skid plates with a light coat of epoxy, couple more coats of spar urethane on the new brightwork, sanded in between.

Bunch of sanding, bunch of epoxy and urethane work, and I don’t want to make shop dust with wet epoxy or urethane. I could take YARR outside, but it’s too damn heavy to carry back and forth just to sand. I could take the brightwork outside, but it is 95 freaking degrees and humid as hell. At this suddenly-summer rate I’ll need to put the window AC unit in the shop soon.

And, before much of that sanding and urethane work, I really don’t like the unfeathered edges of the mega kevlar skid plates standing so tall and abrupt. I want to lay a transition bead of thickened epoxy along those edges.

Not G/flex 655, I’ll spare the expense and use something self thickened; West 105/206 with 406 Colloidal Silica added. A bead of that thickened epoxy mix painted along the transition edge with a tiny paintbrush. Something caulk tube thickened, like ALSG’s Six10, would have been easier, but not for $36 with a 3 to 5 week ship time.

https://www.amazon.com/West-System-655- ... 281&sr=8-4

Laborious, and time consuming and I don’t care if it’s creeping down a bit where I started when I get to the other end; a flexible squeegee run will fare out that fillet.

And I had just the mini-squeege. We have a couple self-adhesive door sweeps and, when those were cut to length, I had 8” lengths of leftover rubber sweep squeegee. Yes, save everything might-find-a-use. I did, easily cut to mini-squeegee pieces.

P6010015 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

Perfect disposable mini squeeges.

That’ll do. At least it won’t be so gurgly as to offend friends in the distant Nutmeg State.

P6010016 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

Given that the E-glass patches and thickened epoxy fillet will need a light sanding I guess I can do the same with the utility thwart and brightwork ends; it won’t make that much dust. And then lay another coat of urethane; that’ll be four coats on the U-thwart and butt ends, probably enough, but I may get one more coat on the thwart.

Glass and epoxy patches sanded and lightly top coated with epoxy YARR can sit for a day and finally go back upright.

P6040025 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

P6040026 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

The expanse of mega kevlar skid plates were a considerable expanse, and thirsty. Even using a light 105/206 (no G/flex) epoxy coat, and tipping out with a foam brush, that was another two+ cups of epoxy.

Step away from the hull McCrea, any further epoxy attentions will just make things worse. I only needed to reinforce that lesson a dozen times. Gotta know when to walk away, but it is so hard not to keep screwing with wet epoxy. Be strong, retreat to the fresh-air office and have a well deserved beverage.

Before YARR goes back upright the precious cup holder in the bow utility thwart got affixed in place; bead of G/flex around the traced outline on the U-thwart, old camp chair mesh pocket holder covered with wax paper, and clamped flat under a board for 100% all around seal.

P6030018 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

Later, to dress up the perimeter of the black cup holder ring, a bead G/flex with black pigment

P6030019 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

My lack of tiny paint brush abilities shows in that wobbly black bead, but that cup holder isn’t going anywhere. I may paint it later with black enamel for added UV protection, and another chance at painting unwobbly lines.

Tomorrow I can flip YARR back right side up and start installing the outfitting, some of which has yet to be made.

Per the good folks at Mohawk, they manufactured the Intrepid from the early 1990's until 2015.

I’m ruling out a 1984 HIN date, at least as an ‘80’s Intrepid model, and I still think it is/was an Intrepid. That Dreamboat HIN is so faulty missing numbers that it could well indicate an early ‘90’s canoe.

I need to get in touch with the original owners (Hi, remember me from 20 years ago?) and ask if they recollect any history.

In any case YARR, post-plastic slice surgery, once fully rebuilt and painted, is destined to lie about its age. A reservoir permit requires a bunch of personal and boat information, including the HIN. An oopsie ten digit HIN might not pass muster, so YARR’s HIN is now DRM1684OL110. Adding a couple characters to the middle made YARR a 2010 canoe.

Which it isn’t; it was beaten near to death when I first rebuilt it 20 years ago.

I’ll take the etching gun and scratch the additional numbers betwixt and between the Dreamboat HIN.

P5220006 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

But, like OOSOBO, which had an actual HIN, albeit faint and on the left bow (previously rebuilt backwards, not by me), I wanted something more distinctive; a HIN plate attached to the right stern, not scratched inside amidships. A Dreamboat dog collar ID with Hull Identification Number is on the way.
P2280001 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr
I’ll concentrate really hard and try to pop rivet this one in place right side up.

Mistake were made. Mistakes continue to be made, sometimes in peculiar twenty year cycles.

I noticed an, uh, uncomfortable mistake, still in place from the original rebuild. A reassembly mistake made 20 years ago (and, yeah, more recently). This is the as-is, as-has-been for two decades stern seat. Notice anything amiss?

P5270009 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

The stern seat is anti-canted. It has been anti-canted for 20 years; the seat frame leans backfreakingwards! Tom mostly paddled it as a solo from the kneeling thwart.

The bow seat was properly installed, with a slight bit of forward cant, so I was batting .500 on that early rebuild. Not bad for a then AAA amateur. Who admittedly still manages to install seat drops backwards.

I can at least take schadenfreude pleasure in picturing a very uncomfortable stern paddler at Mallows Bay. Serves you right pal, although maybe that My-aching-thighs is why he wasn’t keeping an eye out for sharp metal shards. Let’s park it here, atop this piece of rebar, I really need to stretch my legs.

Now that YARR has various cross member thwarts holding the sheerline together the old bow and stern seats are coming out for inspection and refinishing, and proper reinstallation. I have at least a 50/50 chance of reinstalling the seat drops properly canted.

Ah, wait, that’s two seats. That’s eight peg drops. Maybe less than a 50/50 chance. But this time I won’t let it leave the shop for the next 20 years.

YARR Reassembly

Before the center seat and new brightwork went back in YARR a minor attempt was made at removing the grunge left behind from under the kneeling thwart ankle blocks. Acetone and a sharp (but rounded corner) metal putty knife and elbow grease.

P6040001 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

OK, even with some steel wool scrubbing that did very little except demonstrate that my contact cement work leaves behind some seriously tenacious grunge. Those two little squares are not worth any additional effort

Moving on, the new center seat went back in. Reinstallation is easy once everything has been dry test fitted and removed for urethane finish work. The center seat drops have a touch of forward cant, which will be oppositional force helpful after I install a DIY foot brace for that center seat position.

The aft thwart got strung with bungee cord and a cord lock tensioner. I like having a spacer ball on one topside run of the bungee. The bungee cord holes in the thwart are offset along the grain from the machine screw holes at the butt ends; probably unnecessary, can’t hurt for split end prevention.

P6040004 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

I should have laid another coat of urethane on the old re-used balls, but they’ll do for now. Those are the last of my wooden balls, time to buy more. Michael’s, not mine, the craft hobby store.

Same deal for the front thwart.

P6040006 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

With the two thwarts in place I could remove the wing nutted portage yoke. It will be superfluous with YARR chained up at the reservoir edge, perhaps most often used as a solo, but it is already cut to size, with hardware, so it might as well be refinished, if only for installing it when shouldering YARR on and off the roof racks twice a year.

With the yoke out YARR is starting to look like a functional solo/tandem canoe.

P6040007 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

Last of the brightwork, the frou frou bow utility thwart. It still needed a few things, starting with a couple belt & suspenders webbing straps under the mesh bag for additional support.

P6050012 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

Like the other thwarts an over/under/over run of bungee, with a drilled dowel this time instead of a ball; on the more platform-ish utility thwarts an easy lift spacer is still a good idea, but a flat bottomed spacer is sometimes better.

YARR already has beaucoup webbing loops pop riveted under the inwales, useful as tie points in a tripping canoe, less so for reservoir day paddling and fishing. Those were made so they could be turned unexposed under the inwales; no need to drill them all out, just turn them sight unseen.

P6050009 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

I have a webbing loop idea for the utility thwart that will leave more flat surface available, without using any pad eyes, mini SS D-rings or deck hooks. Any of those doohickies, if desired for purposes yet unknown, can be added later.

My custom has always been to put webbing loops on machine screw ends underneath a thwart or carry handle. I never thought about putting webbing loops on top of the brightwork; four little webbing loops, more open workspace atop the utility thwart.

P6050015 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

I like it, and think that the unoccluded space may have true utility.

“Woman, make me a sandwich and get me a beer!”

P6050017 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

“Uh, honey, no, wait, put down the knife”

Lots of outfitting still to do. Knee bumpers, but I have readymade minicel pieces (thanks as always Conk) for the bow and stern seats.

With YARR on the shop floor pad and a sitter testing knee spread on the bow and stern seats there was, as expected, no decrease in width needed, so just a little cushion for the pushin’ on the side of the inwales. Four thin minicel Conk strips, exactly the size of the inwale edge.

A comfortably braced knee spread at the center seat height and location proved to be 25” apart. Inwale to inwale YARR is 28” at knee brace location, so I need to come in 1 ½” on each side. A yoga block brought that distance in perfectly, 1 ½” past the inwale edge.

P6060033 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

Contact cement, as usual two coats on the hull, three on the foam, heat gun action, clamps and boards.

P6060035 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

When the clamps came off I infilled the inwale edge above the yoga blocks with a slender chunk of minicel. I had just the thing for that purpose; friends had leftover 4’ long strips of minicel, cut with a taper from 1 ½” thin tapering out to 1 ½” thick.

Useless? There is no such thing as useless minicel. I had sliced those into 24” lengths for easier storage, and I cut the backfill pieces needed from the thicker ends of that scrap.

P6060036 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

The yoga blocks come with beveled edges; a couple band saw slices off sections of that long, tapered minicel scrap and I had two perfect infill pieces, 8 ¾” long, 1 ½” thick and 1” deep. Those will add needed cushion at the right-angle inwale edge, and the minicel is a little squishier than the EVA yoga block foam.

P6070051 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

I’ll Dragonskin some additional curvature on the edges of the infill pieces. Or perhaps something else; one avid fisherman relates that he keeps his trolling rod trapped between his leg and the inwale when paddling for better tactile feel of a fish on the line. The protruding center seat knee bumpers may have enough depth to rasp and Dragonskin out angled rod handle sized C-slots.

I need advice from my intended reservoir fisherman friend first.

As with the OOSOBO rebuild I needed to make another aluminum L-bracket and telescoping bar foot brace, adjustable old school style with wing nuts.

I have 40” of aluminum L left; rather than have wastage I’ll cut that into four 10” lengths and make an extra set of foot brace side rails. 10” rails is a little short, but if I install the bar at center hole I will have four inches of adjustment fore and aft, which should be accommodating enough for different legged paddlers.

Four 10” long pieces of aluminum L. The sharp right angle corners had to go, and you can guess where I went to see them get gone. The 1” tabletop belt sander.

P6070056 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

Those will do. I drilled them out for 3/16” flange rivet holes on one side, and for wing nut foot bar holes on the other. Might as well drill both sets while I’m at it, and put the second set in a spare parts box, ready for the next canoe. Eh, the next “give-away” canoe; if it’s my canoe I want a Wenonah adjustable foot brace dammit, fumbling with wing nuts sucks.

https://haywardoutfitters.com/product/w ... oot-brace/

Those Wenonah foot braces are out of stock almost everywhere, and nearly 50% pricier via secondary vendors than just a few years ago. Screw that, I can buy aluminum L and sleeve-able conduit, drill some holes and make multiple telescoping foot brace bars for less.

As long as I’m not the one needing to make occasional wing nut adjustments. I am not a wing nut fan; day one on a multi-week paddling trip with a friend. He had lent his L-bracket, wing nut foot brace rarely paddled solo canoe to someone. Someone who had adjusted the bar position.

100 yards down on the first day he announced “Hold up, I need get out and move this foot brace”. I waited up. Had a beer and waited up some more. Had a bite to eat and finally said “I’m gonna mosey slowly on, see ya downriver at the next big eddy” Freaking seized and corroded wing nuts.

Eh, for a canoe I may paddle very rarely these will do cheaply just fine.

P6080060 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

Still, I detest metal work in the shop. Sharp little curly-cues of aluminum shavings everywhere,

P6080062 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

Dammit, I walk out there barefoot sometimes, or worse with just socks on. That drilled shaving shit is evil.

Prep work drilling done, the rest of the foot brace installation is a piece of cake. Cut the sleeved crossbars to fit, wing nutted centered on the side rails while resting atop a temporary platform, call it my usual 32-ish inches away from the front edge of the seat for my leg length (seat height and gunwale knee spread matters in foot brace location too), 6 ½” high for the ball of my angled size 12’s and pop rivet in some flange washers.

Having the foot brace bar resting on the temporary platform makes installation a lot easier. Drill one hole from the inside, through the hole in the rail, pop one flange rivet through that hole from the outside, measure/adjust the depth of the other hole, drill, pop rivet and walk around to the other side for more measuring, checking and pop riveting.

P6090065 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

That’s a couple minute task once everything is ready. Perfecto. Slide the platform out, slip some black foam pipe insulation in place and all is comfy in YARR land.

P6090067 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

I think I have a model ID on YARR. A first shop glance comment from an old school paddler – “That looks a lot like my ‘80’s Old Town Kennebec”. Not a lot of Kennebec photos or specs on the net, but yeah, kinda ‘80’s old school this:

https://canoes-for-sale.com/old-town/ol ... nly-147448

The Old Town deck plates and gunwales I installed may have helped his first glance “looks like”.

Or, says he on further inspection reflection, “One of the early Mohawk “Whitewater” models”. A likelier possibility, perhaps verified by a question and answer on CBoats:

“The Mohawk Whitewater was a boat made in the early 80’s. It is the first version of the Intrepid series of boats”.

Ding, ding, ding; between some hazy history hints from the folks at Mohawk, and the memory of a guy who was selling Royalex canoes before I had even heard of such a material, I think we have a winner.

1984 pre-Intrepid “Whitewater” model molded by Mohawk, and sold naked hull to Dreamboat.

By the time I’m done with plastic surgery and cosmetics she’ll look 40 year younger. I wouldn’t recommend it for any actual whitewater paddling, but as a reservoir canoe YARR has still some good years left.

I want to see a birthday cake with candles floating on the reservoir in 2024 for the 40th anniversary. I’m partial to chocolate or coconut. Especially if there is an entire, intact coconut cunningly hidden WTF inside the cake.

Long story involving a multi-year tale of coconut pranksterism.

Stern seat cant correction and back band attachments

Before going any further the reverse cant angle of that stern seat needed to be corrected; 20 years of discomfort was enough.

The long drops I had originally made proved to be, uh, jeeze, a whopping ¾” too long. Cut down to proper size and test fitted the stern seat has a touch of forward cant.

The good news was that the butt ends of the drops and seat frame were already heavily urethaned and look solid. Eh, I needed to lay a couple coats of urethane on the cut ends of the newly shortened drops, may as well lay some more urethane on all of the butt ends and pipe cleaner some inside the machine screw holes. When the uninstalled opportunity arises, especially after 20 years. . . . .

While the urethane coats set up I turned to some other comfort issues. I gave OOSOBO paddler Eddie a couple junky old back bands, and I know my aching back necessitates the comfort of my preferred sacroiliac support, a Surf-to-Summit Performance back band.

https://www.surftosummit.com/collection ... -back-band

The back band’s swivel clips need inwale attachment points; on the stern seat I turned four of the existing webbing loops out from under the inwale and those were perfectly positioned, no additional attachment points needed in that seat location.

The bow seat had useable webbing loops under the inwale for the front straps, but needed pad eyes for the back straps. Pad eyes I got, I use them often enough to buy them in quantity.

P6090001 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

Front back band clipped in.

P6090004 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

The center seat had the reverse, with usable webbing loops at the back but needing pad eyes up front.

P6090006 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

Using four new pad eyes and eight existing webbing loops any seat can have a back band.

Since I was dropping vinyl curlie cues inside YARR I rounded the edges on the minicel knee bumper infill pieces.

Done drilling, pop riveting and making minicel dust in the hull, not yet even vacuumed up, a travelling friend stopped by on his way north and we had a grand ole time; shot the shit, repaired a ukulele, found a clamp on sail thwart and downwind sail that should work on his Loon, and as usual managed to foist off some other shop surplus on him.

I was given a useless-to-me can of West System aluminum powder.

https://www.canoetripping.net/threads/w ... er.127469/

That stuff is now $65 a can, and I have zero use for it on composite or RX repairs. He, on the other hand, has a leaky, family-historic Grumman in Maryland, and several ancient & suspect aluminum fishing boats in Canada, which may or may not have survived the recent Derecho intact.

West System’s “Aluminum boat repair kit” comes with G/flex 650 and 406 colloidal silica as a thickener. But, seriously, $45 for this kit:
“Each kit contains 4 oz. G/Flex 650 Epoxy Resin & 4 oz. G/Flex 650 Hardener (for a total of 8 oz. of mixed epoxy), 406 Colloidal Silica, 2 reusable mixing sticks, 2 pairs of protective neoprene gloves, 2 application syringes, 2 plastic mixing cups, and detailed repair instructions”

Those better be some damn special mixing sticks, gloves and cups.

https://www.jamestowndistributors.com/p ... 6oQAvD_BwE

With multiple aluminum boats to repair screw that, 32oz of G/flex 650, enough to do all of his leaky boats, is $86.

https://www.amazon.com/WEST-SYSTEM-FLEX ... 487&sr=8-2

If Colloidal Silica is the thickening agent of choice that stuff is $20 a can.

Any reason the 420 aluminum powder wouldn’t be as useful, or better, than silica in repairs to aluminum hulls? Serious question; he left with the can and plans to use it. Sure hope it will work as a thickener in that aluminum-repair guise, but whatever, not my canned problem anymore.

Shop visitor on the road again I finished the Dragonskin work. I love Dragonskin on minicel. Still do, even though Dragonskin was discontinued a few years ago. I have a stash, including a full virgin piece and a couple pieces new in bag.

P6090010 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

One trick to preserving minicel; it’s better to cut off a piece off just the size you need for the shaping at hand; too large pieces tend to crease and crack.

P6090009 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

That little finger sized squib of Dragonskin, retrieved from the scrap box, was perfect, and is still good as new.