: Hi Folks, my brother-in-law has just acquired a We-noh-nah kevlar canoe.

Congratulations on the new boat

: Unfortunately there is a crack running through the gunwale into the bilge
: area.

My condolences on the need for repairs. fortunately they should be fairly simple, but they may be a bit ugly.

The main structural elements on a canoe are the gunwales, thwarts, ribs (if any) and keel. With a crack in the gunwale you will need to make a patch that carries any loads a good ways into the surrounding gunwale. This would be a fairly long and stiff patch, something like the structural equivalent of a splint on a broken leg. If the gunwales on this boat are wood, then just remove them and replace with new wood parts. If the boat has the gunwales shaped out of kevlar/resin, then try to do as neat a job as you can, putting your patch on the inside. You might also consider adding a woden outer gunwale as a support and a rb strip, or, you could sandwich the area between two long strips (an inwale and an outwale) to make a very strong gunwale.

Reinforce the keel area near the crack, too, even if you don't see any damage to the keel. It is possible tha tthe damage you see in the side of the boat was caused by the keel area flexing too much in the wrong direction. Stiffening it will prevent that from happening again, and thus protect your patched-up area.

Add a thwart to the area near your patched gunwale. This may mean two thwarts very close together, which will look funny in most canoes, but the thwart will greatly increase the strength of your repairs. Another option is to replace the current thwart with one wider thwart. You could use an 8 inch wide board for this, and perhaps lighten it by cutting out a long oval in the center. Or, put in a center seat, which can also serve as a wide, thwart.

Consider painting the boat with a coat of epoxy. Tinted epoxy would hide the amber color and give you something with more visual appeal. Besides, the kevlar itself probably didn't tear. The crack you have is probably from the plastic resin cracking. Applying a coat of epoxy to the outside of the boat should help seal that side of the crack -- and any other small cracks. Of course you'll have a patch on the inside which will seal that side.

Sanding by hand should let you rough up the area withoutraising too much fuzz. This sounds like a fairly small area, so that should not take you too long.

Good luck with this.

PGJ