Hello--

Thanks for the Suggestions and reccomendations for my repair of the duck boat. Thought you might like to hear what happened...

The customer decided, following our advice that fixing the boat with a canvas cover made the most sence, so that is what I did.

I purchaced the Wood & Canvas Canoe by Jerry Stelmok and Rollin Thurlow to learn about the details. Rollin and his Northwoods canoe shop also supplied me with Materials and advice. (thankyou)

The job went quite easily...perhaps more easily than epoxy/glass covering it would have. (I Have posted a few photos for you to check out)

I first patched the major dings with wood, filled the minor ones with recorsinol glue and wood flour, then sanded the entire hull to smooth it so the canvas would lie flat. then I saturated the hull with Linseed oil to restore some toughness to the pine planking.

Then I covered the boat with canvas...almost like spreading fiberglass cloth only stiffer and tighter weave. With the boat on saw-horses, I stretched the canvas over the boat lengthwise with a come-along. I then Pulled the canvas around the hull and tacked it to the gunwales. The ends were abit tricky but the shape of the bow and stern allowed me to pull the canvas smooth almost to the very ends. I had to make small folds at the tip of the bow and around the edges of the transom.

Coating the canvas was easy. I had pretreated the inside with a mist of green cuprinol wood preservative to retard mildew and rot. Rollin supplied me with the filler he uses on his canoes. it is a linseed oil based product with silica (probably like cabosil) I rolled it on with a large fluffy paint roller. It quickly soaked in so i recoated it several times. Then i used a canvas mitt and rubber gloves to rub the filler into the weave. It went pretty quick and left a smooth surface, little sign of the weave underneath.

thought you might like to hear what happened...

--eric