Building my own Kevlar - Carbon canoe

The Rebuild

Canoe project forum

Running total of cost

Canoe Project Home - The Strongback - The Form - The Mold (part 1) - The Mold (part 2)
The Layup (part1) - The Layup (part 2) - The Layup (part 3) - Project Finish (gunwales) - Project Finish (floats) - Project Finish (seats)

The Rebuild Part 1

Click on images below for high resolution images

07-26-2011 - In the prior picture you may have noticed the ash gunwales were rotting. They eventually snapped. Here is a picture of my replacement gunwales made with red cedar.

I have decided to try something different with these gunwales. Instead of having separate in wales and out wales I am going to try to leave it all one piece and use the and the hull with the gunwale. To this end I am cutting a grove in the red cedar. If I find that I cannot bend the gunwale to the hull of the boat I will cut the grove all the way through.

Here is a close-up of the grove in the gunwale.

This is a picture of the end of the gunwale showing the grove I cut.

While I was fixing up the gunwales I decided to firm up the ribs. You can see the blue filler patches on some the ribs and the stern float. This is made of Raka 127 epoxy, 631 hardener mixed with fumed silica. This makes a light yet strong filler.

07-28-2011 - Disaster!
Overnight we had quite a bit of rain. It filled the canoe enough to crash the saw horses on which the boat sits. Because there are no gunwales on the boat the hull was not turned upside down. You can see in this picture where the force of the impact with the ground caused some of the ribs to delaminate. . . but wait there's more.

Here you see damage to the starboard side of the hull at the gunwale. The entire hull buckled when it hit.

Likewise a similar rip happened on the port side.

Here you can see more damage to the port side and bottom.

Here is a wide view of damage to the starboard side and bottom.

Here is a close-up of the damage. The pictures do not show it well, however both port and starboard sides have holes in them. In this picture you can see where the three coats of green epoxy cracked and delaminated from the original layup.

It does not stop there. In this picture you can see where the bow float has broken and delaminated from the hull. What is not pictured is the floor of the hull where the Raka 350 non-blushing epoxy had delaminated from the original layup. It was a mistake to use both Raka 350 and Raka 631 hardener mixes (not mixing the hardeners which I did not do, just using two different hardeners at different stages). The 350 hardener make a softer less heat resistant layup and in the heat of the day the two differing layers of epoxy started to delaminate and peel away.

08-16-2011 - Life got in the way of me fixing the boat. The wise thing might be to just scrap the JuddBuilt and start anew. Who said I was wise. A friend came over and helped me apply patches to the rips on both starboard and port side of the hull. Thanks Jon.

08-17-2011 - Here you can see a black strip on near the hull gunwales. This is some unidirectional carbon fiber tape. I should have bought a weave but was trying to save money cash since this boat is becoming a money pit. I am apply the strip of carbon fiber to stiffen up the gunwale area of the hull so that I can flip the hull over and start fixing the other damage without causing more.

08-18-2011 - Today we (my son and I) put carbon fiber on the port side of the hull like we did yesterday on the starboard side.

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