The Story

This is the story of a man, his wife, and a canoe. It's old. The canoe that is. It's a Mad River Whistler. A pretty good boat from what I've been able to find out. But it's old and it has it's problems. Like most things old, including the man, that just happens to be me. The wife, not old. Speaking of the wife, she is the reason I have the canoe. She is a rabid user of Freecycle, a network for people to give and get other peoples not quite used up stuff. She has given a bunch of stuff, kids shoes and boots, out grown sports equipment, and has gotten some stuff. Some of it quite surprising. A Fisher receiver with surround sound and Bose speakers, some nice brand new furniture, some other stuff, and the canoe.
The canoe, it's not new, it needs some work. It's old and faded. But I think with a little, I hope, work, and some new parts, it still has a few seasons on the water left in it. It was listed as needing new gunnels, which the guy had, and some other work. So my wife asked if I was interested, she didn't have to ask twice. She contacted the guy, and we where selected to get the canoe. So on a dark november night we went to pick it up. The guy giving it away, or getting rid of it, seemed to like it and was sad to see it go. He said he had a lot of good times in it. But its time had come.
So what is wrong with it you may ask? Well the hull is made of fiberglass, pretty indestructible. But the gunnels, and decks, and thwarts are wood. Ash to be exact. But wood plus water plus time equal "rot". A dirty word to any wood boat, or boat part. The gunwales and deck are, in a word, toast. The other parts are old and dirty, but usable. And there is a small tear in the hull, I guess that happened when the guy removed the gunwale, he only removed on side, And I guess he decided it was too big of a job for him. That's the way it goes.
It sat under a cover, with the kayaks, for the winter, but it's time to get started.
These are the before pics.








So you can see just what I'm up against.

Repairs start soon.



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