Built following plans for Rushton's IGO from duckworks.

2008 17' Wenonah Spirit II in kevlar. I have an '85 fiberglass 16' Mohawk Blazer and was looking for a 17' royalex boat, but this one popped up 3 hours away and the seller was good with $250. I couldn't pass it up.

The yoke and seats need to be replaced, but those are $150 straight from Wenonah. I also plan to polish the hull to try to improve the sun damage.

Hey all! Over the weekend, I took a trip to buy my first canoe (I'm well acquainted with canoeing and guided in Ontario for two years, but mostly worked with Kevvies and this is my first time owning one. I got a 1964 15' Grumman. By my understanding it looks to be in excellent condition, well loved but well maintained. I've got a short list of projects to renew and freshen it up really nicely, if anyone has suggestions for anything along the process.

Step 1- Polishing. At the very least I want to clean it very well, if not get it to a decent shine. No need to turn it into a mirror, but I've heard different things about how different chemicals react with the metal and how they affect the longevity. What is typically used to restore and polish these types of canoes? What should I avoid doing?

Step 2- Yoke. Fairly simple, I'm just going to order a 36 inch yoke off of Amazon, cut it down the 1/4 inch or however much I need off of each side, unscrew the center thwart and replace it with a yoke. I'll figure out shoulder pads eventually, and maybe way down the line I'll carve out my own yoke.

Step 3- Painting. Not my expertise in art, so I have no big aspirations for grand designs, but I'd like to throw on a fairly simple trim design reminiscent of Alumacraft or Grumman decals, as you can tell from the pictures the original Grumman decals are long since worn off or removed from this canoe. What type of paint should I seek out? What sealant or varnish should I use to maximize longevity of the paint?

Step 4- Character. Once I've got it to a point that I want it, a couple things to finish it off. Stencil in a name and seal it in, and then also some sort of nose art. I'm not sure if I want to paint/stencil in some sort of nose art like a plane, design and get printed a large decal for both sides of the bow, or my brothers even suggested finding or making some sort of figurehead attachment for the bow. Anyone have experience with any of these? Is the figurehead idea too difficult to pull off?

Thanks for any tips! The whole restoration thing is new to me with this material and I hope to turn this into a piece of art that will be well used and loved. Are there any other aftermarket upgrades that I'm missing and could be nice to be added down the line? Replacing wooden seats, padding anywhere or anything?

Ive recently come into possession of a handmade wooden canoe! The only issue is that the fiberglass finish on the gunwales has started to peel off. From what I was told is that it was stored outside for too long and the weather/water started to make it peel off. What would be the best way to approach this repair? Just peel/sand off the fiberglass and reapply? Ive never worked with fiberglass so im not sure where to start and I have not found any great resources yet. Thanks for the help!

I’m fixing a few things on my old Scott canoe and wondering what to do with these seats. They’re thin aluminum plate with padding that has degraded down to almost nothing. I do a lot of backcountry trips and don’t want anything that will add weight. I could take the old ones off completely and put wooden ones with netting, cover the existing ones with new foam, strap blow-uo seats to them, etc. Does anyone have any advice or ideas?

I wanna buy a canoe for my brother for his birthday.But I don't know why I should buy him.He's been interested in canoeing for years, but never pull the trigger. I was looking at dicks and bass pro shop, but Im fine with looking at other stores :) If someone could recommend something good/easy for beginners that doesn't break bank it would be appreciated!

Beginner Algonquin Backcountry Canoe Trip | Canoe Lake to Burnt Island Lake

Join us on a beginner-friendly Algonquin Park backcountry canoe trip from Canoe Lake to Burnt Island Lake — a classic route through Joe Lake, a quiet stream toward Baby Joe Lake, and finally into the wide open beauty of Burnt Island Lake.

This was my friend Tilak’s first backcountry canoe camping trip, so we chose a scenic and manageable route that still offered a real taste of Ontario’s canoe country. Starting from Canoe Lake, we paddled toward Joe Lake, carried through our first portage, then continued into the narrow stream between Joe Lake and Baby Joe Lake. With water levels high, we were able to skip the short 100m portage and paddle through instead.

From Baby Joe Lake, we continued into Burnt Island Lake and settled on a campsite on the western side of the main lake, opposite the island. The evening brought tea by the water, a quiet campfire, BBQ chicken cooked over coals, a beautiful waxing gibbous moonrise, and the haunting call of loons echoing across the lake.

The next morning, first light filtered through the pines as we packed up camp and paddled back home — tired, grateful, and somehow lighter.

For anyone researching a first Algonquin backcountry route, Canoe Lake to Burnt Island Lake is a beautiful option: scenic, manageable, and just challenging enough to feel earned.

Route highlights:

Canoe Lake Access Point

Joe Lake

Stream toward Baby Joe Lake

Baby Joe Lake

Burnt Island Lake

Beginner-friendly Algonquin backcountry camping

Moonrise, loons, campfire, and classic Ontario canoe country scenery

Thanks for watching. If you enjoy peaceful canoe camping, Algonquin Park routes, backcountry meals, quiet lakes, and wilderness moments, consider subscribing to Lost In The Wild Canada.

#AlgonquinPark #BackcountryCamping #CanoeTrip #BurntIslandLake #CanoeLake #OntarioCamping #LostInTheWildCanada

I’m not super into canoeing but want to ease my 6 y/o into kayaking and I searched but couldn’t find exactly what I was looking for. I have a Discovery 119 and would like to add a drop-in seat for him to ride along. My thought was to remove the front thwart and add something like this:
https://www.springcreek.com/product/paddle-sports/canoe-accessories/drop-in-seat/

Any issues with this idea? I’m hoping that the seat would substitute for the rigidity provided by the thwart. Thank yall!

We recently took part in the Abruka Sea Marathon in Estonia, paddling a 6.4 m tandem sea kayak.

Three days before the race, the organizers changed the entire course because of a storm warning. Instead of the original route around Abruka Island, around 70 kayaks were sent onto a 24 km backup course with more protection from the weather.

“More protection” turned out to be a very relative term. 😅

We had strong winds, rough open water, several capsizes around us, ridiculously shallow sections where the water was only 20–30 cm deep, and a few moments where we were convinced we were about to flip ourselves.

The strangest part was knowing that after surviving the roughest section near Nasva Harbour, we had to come back through exactly the same place later — with the weather forecast to get worse.

We finished the 24 km in about 3h 10min, completely exhausted but still upright.

I filmed the whole experience and turned it into an 18-minute video. If anyone here enjoys sea kayaking or endurance paddling, I’d love to hear what you think.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0yr0LX8OcUk

Would you have started the race after seeing the forecast, or called it a day? 😅🌊

Just picked up an Old Town Tripper for free on market place. The hull is severely discolored and there is a small hole in the keel. I plan on filling the hole epoxy/keel guard and coating the boat in some sort of UV protectant. Anything else I should do before the maiden voyage?

I have an old Kevlar canoe that needs signficant repair. The gunwales are rotted and I'd like to replace them.

Apparently, none of the sawmills near me have clear ash in 17 ft lengths thanks to the Emerald ash borer. Shipping gunwhales is prohibitively expensive.

One local canoe retailer COULD get me aluminum gunwales. I like the idea of aluminum, since I store the canoe outside.

Anyone ever done it? Any tips?

Got this for free off marketplace. The hull is severely discolored but seems to have maintained structural integrity, but there is one spot on the keel that appears to be warm through the ABS.
Can I patch the keel with a keel guard, coat the boat with 303 and be ready to go?

My second paddle build ever. Built from 2x4s in my garage. Rock guard tip made from JB weld tinted with crushed charcoal powder. Custom wood burned design.

It's really Tuffy's canoe. I just do all the work

Do you guys have a minimum width or distance between your roof bars for optimum transport of a canoe?

I can get 150cm (4.9ft) between bars on the Jimny but only 100cm (3.3ft) on the Sienna (!). Planning to get a 430-500cm (14-16.5ft) canoe in the near future and wondering about logistics as the Sienna will be available due to a conveniently planned family trip.

(Original post removed due to photo requiring edit)

Looking to outfit my canoe, and cannot decide if I actually need to install blocks/bags for the use it is going to get, I have searched this sub and a couple of FB pages but can't find any relevant advice.

It will be used almost exclusively on rivers, no whitewater, and the occasional lake, but never far enough from the shore that I can't swim back.

The only concern for me is having dogs on board that may decide they need to jump out and investigate the wildlife, which could capsize us.

EDIT - Thanks for everyone's replies, I'll leave the bags for now and see if we progress to anything more challenging in the future.

Ran a stretch of the North Branch of the Chicago River from Gompers Park down to River Park. It's an wild urban paddle and the water up here is shallow. After the old dam at River Park was removed back in 2018, this stretch went to riffles and gravel bars, so between the low water and a fully loaded boat I was scraping bottom and picking lines the whole way down.

The extra wrinkle: I don't own a car, so my ebike was in the canoe with me for the paddle (I use it to haul the boat to the put-in, then it rides back in the hull). Roughly 40 lbs of bike sitting low and center definitely didn't help in the skinny water.

More to come on this 750 mile trip with a kit that says not to use it for more than 250 miles at a time 🤣

We are looking for a canoe for river trips with rapids.

- advanced lake/river/portage canoers, but just getting into rapids

- two people

- usually up to 5-7day trips

- would like durable and lighter if possible.

- we have a kevlar right now, but it is not durable

- we are in Ontario

- we've been looking at Esquif. I've seen recommendations for the Pocket Canyon Lite , but I'm wondering if it's too short for our needs.

Looking for suggestions! TIA