Canvas Covered Kayak Repair

[mower]

I have just inherited two old canvas covered kayaks. They have been meticulously cared for, and are in great shape, but that doesn't change the fact that they are nearly fifty years old. The canvas is very brittle and will need to be replaced. What is the best approach to this? Is there some modern material that may be more practical than painted canvas, or is canvas still the way to go?

[TomRobb]

If canvas worked for 50 years it'd be hard to argue for replacing it w/ something else. Still heat shrunk Dacron of equal weight has some advantages - no rot, tight as a drum head, etc.
Dealer's choice.

[Ian McColgin]

Canvass. Canvass only. You may have to go to an art supplier to get good canvass but canvass.

Heat shrunk dacron is great on the geowhosits designs but the traditional framing is vastly different and the stresses of heat shrinking, while they might appear similar to stitch and stuff, are quite different.

G'luck.

[bob goeckel]

mower, check out the wood canoe heritage assoc. web site there maybe some good advise there. www.wcha.org (http://www.wcha.org)

[Hugh Paterson]

Lo Mower, I still have an old canvas kayak that I used to use as a boy scout, when we needed to replace the canvas we redone the skin using upvc coated canvas to "improve" the durability, seems to work quite well.
Shug.

[nedL]

http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid28/p6c3dd88d0d6168ed9d8109416993ff11/fe126895.jpg

"Before"

http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid28/p7913468e055bedda58459b6b2da3301a/fe126879.jpg
"After"

I also have one that my dad & I built 25 years ago with the original canvas. It's not difficult. Gotta go now, I'll comment more tomorrow.

[Mike Field]

I built one 40 years ago after the style of Ned's. The canvas is still fine. If I were replacing it, though, I'd still go the same way. There are rubberised fabrics and so on, but stretching and fastening plain canvas sounds a whole lot easier to me.

[Bark]

If the kayak is a Klepper, you can probably still buy a replacement skin made by the manufacturer. A good source for folding kayak information, including Kleppers of all ages:

www.klepperwest.com (http://www.klepperwest.com)

[nedL]

I'm back.----After one build from scratch & one total rebuild (25 years apart) I would definately stay with cotton canvas if I were doing it. Cotton canvas is cheap & readilly available. You fasten it on with a regular staple gun & stainless steel staples, and can finish with 2 - 3 coats of a good quality oil paint. If you want a nice smooth surface you have to rub in white lead before painting (same process as finishing a canvas covered canoe). On both my kayaks I have only painted the canvas, you end up with a bit of a rough surface after two coats. If you sand carefully between coats it ends up pretty smoth after three coats of paint. The one pictured above was painted with a high quality exterior oil paint that I bought as a mistint from our local paint & wallpaper store for $5.00. To get from the 'before' picture to the 'after' picture cost less than $25. Granted we did have the canvas left over from a couch re-upolstering (sp?) that we never got to.
http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid28/p63f92559e0c3560cf9b1172908891c5f/fe126871.jpg

[ 02-22-2002, 08:25 AM: Message edited by: nedL ]

[Chris Coose]

I've seen Old Town skiffs redone with FG and whatever. It is death. Makes me want to open a vein just to think of the image.

[nevrdun]

For inexpensive cotton duck go to http://www.pearlpaint.com/10cottonduck.html

[Paul Scheuer]

This is by no means a raving endorsement. My Folbot Sporty Kayak (My Wooden Boat position # 35 Photo (195) (Search Folbot), has two layers of leatherette on the bottom. Each layer is about 0.045 in. The red top cover is about 0.035. The only virtue is that the skin material is already finished (shiny side out of course). The two layers are bonded with “Blue Glue” carper adhesive. It is probably more durable than filled and painted canvas, but it weighs a ton. The 15 foot boat weighs about 70 lbs. This was a “free boat” that I acquired as a partially finished kit. It has a plywood and cypress frame, with four or five station frames and rounded over 1 inch stringers. The kit is from the 50’s and the plan calls for a fake “king plank” racing stripe of the white material, which I did not apply. This is the rigid version of the Folbot folding kayak, which also used the artificial leather skin. I’ve put a couple hundred down river miles on it and many hours of lagoon cruising, without mishap. I carry patch material and sneaker glue in my kit.

[nevrdun]

Jeez Paul, I've got the same kayak on the horses in the shop right now. Folbot Sportster 15', double skin bottom and beautiful red snake skin patterned top, a kitboat from circa '65. Did I say had? Previous owner thought to 'strengthen' it with googy-poo, on the outside! Ground off as much as I could with a disk grinder for krissake, to no avail. I suspect that the fabric was 'Verolite' since I have a '60s canoe covered with the same, still holding the canoe together. When it came time to refabric the Folbot, the old stock Verolite I found was $20 a yard for the 16 yards needed. Don't have that kinda money, but we had 3 sheets of 5mm marine ply for free, so now the Sporster is 'wood-on-wood'. At 20 feet you'd think it was still fabric covered. The grandchildren love it, and the bright finished decks look almost as good as the original snakeskin. We do what we gotta do.

[capt jake]

My step dad has one of those Folboats that he built about the same era as you're talking. Covered in a vinyl cloth of some sort. It has weathered all of these years and gets used every summer. No leaks and lots of fun. smile.gif

[Howard Gmelch]

Old Town Canoe sells good canvas. I like organic materials next to the wood and canvas is nice to work with. Old Town - (207 827-5513

[Paul Scheuer]

The Folbot company might still be around. I ordered gunnel covering pieces sometime near 1987. I seem to remember somewhere in the Southeast. I had their price list, and it seemed like the prices were resonable at the time.

[nevrdun]

Folbot-ees should go to-
http://www.folbot.com/tour1.htm and check out the forum for skinning,
repair, buy/sell, and somewhere in the archived forum, construction details
that help to estimate age of your garage sale find.

[John Gearing]

I had a 17-foot non-folding Folbot for a few years back around 1990. Bought it used for $70 and had to only make a few minor repairs. Heavy boat but I always dug the way it flexed going over waves. I gave her to a friend of mine who wanted to use her in the ocean and he still has her lo these many years later.

Within the past few years I considered getting another Folbot and exchanged some notes with the company to inquire as to whether they still had the jib-headed sloop rig in stock vice the lateen. Sadly, they informed me that the last big hurricane that blew through there (South Carolina I think is where they are) wiped their facility right off the map. They lost their inventory of boats, materials, plans, etc. They have re-grouped however and are still building and selling boats, but the old stuff is no longer available.

I seem to recall that George Putz put out a book on building canvas kayaks. Might be worth a look.

[DanO]

Canvas is the only way. I just restored a 1942 Old Town canoe and was delighted with the canvas part of the project. I was a bit intimidated at first, but there's a great technique featured in Jerry Stelmok's book "The Wood and Canvas Canoe." Seems like it would work for a kayak as well.

BTW, are you the same Mower with the Penobscot 14? If so, I hope your enjoying yours as much as I am.

Dan O.

[Chris Coose]

Dan,
I finally got to recovering a 1923 18'OT last winter. Did it by the book. What a fun deal it was to place it into the stretched canvas!
I wished I'd had a couple extra hands working in the finishing compound.
Different method for my OT skiff though. I stretched and tacked to the transom and then yarded on the bow end. It was not quite as graceful.