Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Welcome to the Canoe Intensive Care Unit


I see a lot of canoes in my job at Headwaters Outfitters, located in Rosman, NC. We sell them, rent them, send people out on the French Broad River in them. Occasionally, an old boat comes through the shop that needs some help. In this blog I will be writing about the restoration of one of these old boats. We came across a 1988 Mad River Canoe Winooski a few years ago that is suffering from the typical problems encountered by a canoe stored outside in the sun year round. The wood gunwales are rotten, cane seats are blown out, and the gelcoat is badly sun damaged.

The first thing I have to do is clear out the boat shop of several other boats. A quick sanding and coat of spar varnish on the gunwales of the wooden canoe in the foreground will have it ready for sale and ready to hang on the ceiling of the retail shop. The Old Town Molitor in the back is getting new seats and gunwale refinishing.

So off I go to transform the storage building into the Canoe ICU workshop. The first free clinic is Feb. 28 from 2pm to 4pm. Join me as I start sprucing up the Headwaters fleet. I'll have the wood stove stoked and the room toasty.

Blue water, White water - its all good,
Lec