As I am considering another boat I am also considering wooden gunwhales but have heard stories of them cracking or the hulls of royalex boats being damaged due to cold weather shrinkage. Is this true? do any of you have wooden gunwhales? and how easy are they to maintain as I'm a lazy bugger at times?
Nige and Andy are your men for this.
Pro's
Look bloody good match the rest of the wood work I would have them if I could afford them.
Con's
Maintenane
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I have seen them on one or two we-no-nahs, nova crafts and mad rivers
Maintenane
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Let this slip and they look bloody awful snoty green mold covered things
Heather & I spent hours and hours trying to get the wooden gunwales on the Blue Steel back to something decent, still recon there is a lot more work to do and more oiling, then there is the on going maintenance
They look nice, but add weight to the boat and need a lot of work to keep them looking nice, bit like the Forth Bridge you just finish cleaning it up and time to start again.
Bruise when you put it on the roofrack, sod to repair if they break and I always wonder how strong they are over normal gunwales for hanging things off them like seats and K/T etc.
Computer says ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
NO! never again!!!
Graeme
Hi Lee, as you know i've put Ash gunwhales on the apache, gave them 3 coats of danish oil when i assembled it and nothing since, plan to do some winter maintenance soon when i get some spare time, All they need is a light sand then re-oiling, i'd stay clear of varnish as the moisture gets underneath then it starts lifting, nothing sanding and oiling won't sort out, my canoe won't have any serious stresses put on it as i'm only a flat water person so can't say about serious abuse, Hope this helps Andy.
At least you can screw things into wooden gunwales, when I screwed eyes into the gunwales of my Charles River, I found them to be hollow.
Richard
(07-12-08 12:56 PM)marker Wrote: [ -> ]At least you can screw things into wooden gunwales, when I screwed eyes into the gunwales of my Charles River, I found them to be hollow.
Richard
Yes all gunwales are hollow, on some WW boats they do have an aluminium insert, the best way of fixing anything is to drill down from the top and if needed drill the top hole slightly bigger and fit a spacer between the top and bottom finished off with a cup washer on the top.
Graeme
(07-12-08 10:03 PM)Retro Wrote: [ -> ]LAS247 sent me this last night and as we know I don't like green canoes but this is one nice green canoe fitted with wood. You need to view the high res photos from the top and side views.
http://www.madrivercanoe.com/explorer-duck-hunter
This one has nice wooden guwales as well
![[Image: 5StarTrainingRTees079.jpg]](http://i252.photobucket.com/albums/hh7/yorkshire-canoe/5StarTrainingRTees079.jpg)
But lets face it if you want wood gunwales why not go the whole hog
![[Image: canoe_prospector_wood.gif]](http://www.yorkshirecanoe.co.uk/images/canoe_prospector_wood.gif)
Graeme
If you can get the boat with unfinished gunwales (or are willing to remove varnish) you can reduce the maintainance significantly by treating them with Deks Olje. I did the gunwales on an old fibreglass boat I made years ago with Deks Olje D1, it left a nice oiled type finish and although the boat has been sat out in the open for 4 or so years the gunwales still look in OK nick.
Read the instructions on the tin, and be prepared to spend a whole day getting as much D1 as possible soaked into the wood. Maintainance should then reduce down to wiping the gunwales down with a D1 soaked cloth once every 6-12 months. It's expensive stuff (nearly £20 a tin) but well worth it.
Wish I'd used it on the deep dish yoke I made for my present boat, I just used danish oil and it went moldy while left in a damp freight liner for a couple of months.
I've treated it's replacement with D1, but still haven't got round to fitting it (it's only been ready to go into the boat for 6 months!
)
All this talk of wooden gunwales, varnish or oil has left me all flumexed
As most already know, my Valkyrie has varnished wooden gunwales, and after a nearly a year of many trips and bad paddling technique, they're starting to look tatty! The canoe is stored outside, unfortunately I don't have anywhere to store it under cover, so its time for some maintenance.
Some time this week she'll be taken to my place of work to be fettled and pampered and made to look like new again. But, do I remove the varnish (big job) and use oil instead, or, go for the easy option and rub down and re-varnish? The rubbing down will involve getting back to bare wood, as rubbing through has occurred and is looking grey and dark in a number of places.
Sorry Lee! Hi-jacked the thread. Ooops!!
Difficult question Nige, I think it's dependant on how much work you want to do
I think Oil is the better maintenance soultion in the long run once done a quick wipe over with your choosen oil every now and again and hey presto nice gunnels
But I would'n fancy sanding all the routed slots in your boat, to get rid of the varnish this then brings paint strippers into the equation can you use them
I don't know
what effect it will have if it comes into contact with the gel coat of the fiberglass on your canoe
You could mask it up and slap a load of Nitromors on and because the varnish has only been on there a year it will/should lift it right off but it's still a lot of work. I would wait for more advice before proceeding
As Graeme said I spent something like 2 days with a electric sander and I dont know how much Sand paper I went through, then I started oiling it then Graeme wanted to take it for a spin as we fitted all new seats and yoke in and I just have not had time to re-oil it.
It did take a long time but it looked so much nicer when it was finnished so its up to you if you have the time or do you trust Lois to do all the hard work for you
Jus' been readin this in my dinner break, as most of you know my boat has wooden gunwales tbh I don't tend to them as much as I should but hey ho' I don't think there is that much of a maintenance issue. Further more i would like to add....like most others I thought that plastic / ally gunwales were the strongest by far and if wooden gunwales were twatted big time they would splinter..............e..eeeeeeeeeeeeeee no. After attending the CCC Hereford meet Liz's WNN p15 complete with untreated wooden gunwales (bearing in mind this was the boat I tried and fell in love with before my prozzie was shipped across the big pond)...I digress Lizzies boat was unceremoniously wrapped around a rock on some French river, the Roylex shell now boasts a crease the gunwales intact!
Cheers
Tim
Ahh bugga! Thanks for reminding me Tim.
The gunwales on the Valkyrie are in need of serious attention