About 9 years ago I completed a cedar strip canoe. It was in Alaska and the only way to get it to my cabin was to fly it in on the floats of a float plane. After arriving at the lake (about 2 hours out of Anchorage) it looked fine. I launched it and everything seemed fine. The next day I noticed the appearance of "distress marks" on the hull at areas of steepest curvature. It appeared as if the fabric popped out of the resin. It wasn't too bad and it didn't really bother me too much. The epoxy was the West System and it was varnished with spar varnish. I am wondering if it was stress from the flight or thermal stress.

I moved it out of state on top of a car about one year ago. It was covered with bubble wrap. Temperatures were pretty high in southern B.C. where it ended up. It now has more of this distress, even on the less curved parts of the hull. Does anybody have an explanation? Is there a preferred way to repair? I was going to strip the varnish, add more resin, sand and refinish. Is there anything that I need to know about prepping the surface of the old fiberglass? Any help or comments greatly appreciated. Thanks

Barry Santana