Monday, October 8, 2012

New project boat

My newest project boat is a Navarro Loon 17 canoe.
This was once a beautiful boat, but it was neglected for a long time, and fell off of a moving car at least once.  It has significant damage to the hull, and the gunnels are almost entirely ruined.  (The seats are in excellent condition--I think the previous owner may have replaced them instead of repairing all the other problems.)
And the boat has a cat on it--I'm sure that wasn't there when I bought it.
Some of the cherry-wood ribs are broken or cracked.  I may have to settle for quick-n-dirty fixes for those, since the damaged ribs are over the places where the hull is damaged, and getting the hull fixed takes precedence over aesthetic concerns.  I guess I'll try repairing the other parts of the hull that need it as practice, and then see if I have the chops to salvage the ribs and repair the adjacent hull.
The bow (or it could be the stern, it's hard to tell) is smashed up.  I don't doubt that I can repair it, but I'm going to have to come up with some other scheme for attaching the painter, since the brass painter loop has had it.  The cat doesn't seem to be damaged, but may have suffered some sort of emotional trauma.
There's a hole in the bow (or stern) that I think was caused when the fiberglass was abraded away when the canoe hit the road after falling off a car.  The uppermost end of the bow was almost damaged, but may have been partially protected by the brass painter loop.

I don't have a table saw or a band saw, or the patience to to cut 20-some feet of wood by hand, so I'm on the lookout for some hardwood strips that are around the right size to make the gunnels.  If you happen to live near Crockett, and would like an opportunity to use a canoe or kayak, maybe you could help me re-saw some wood to make the new gunnels for this boat.

I'm hoping that I can use this canoe for one or two camping trips, and maybe for a multi-day camping trip in the delta.  I'll probably have to settle for some day trips on a local slough, if I can talk someone else into manning the second paddle.

1 comment:

  1. My name is Ben Higgins and I am also restoring an old and neglected Navarro. Mine is a Legacy 13', but I believe both of ours were manufactured around the same time. I've been searching the internet for people also going through the same process, and luckily found your blog. This is my first restoration, so I am not a seasoned pro by any means. I have been documenting the restoration process on a photo bucket account you can find here: http://s1105.photobucket.com/user/ohuigin/library/Navarro. If you are still working on the canoe, or have finished it and wouldn't mind me asking a couple of questions, it would be greatly appreciated. Feel free to drop me a line at higgins.ben "at" gmail.com.

    Cheers,
    -Ben

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