The Making of a Party Canoe – Out Your Backdoor

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It all started when a friend gave me a canoe.

I live in the middle of flatwater Michigan and have been a longtime MAIB reader and a lifelong fool for boats. My garage rafters are hung with care with crusty canoes and kayaks.

But my scene took a turn when I visited a nearby friend who has an even more intensive propensity for messing around.

Pat is, I’d say, our area’s volunteer superstar. He loves community outdoor fun. And he has polebarns. He organizes logistics for a huge old volunteer-run weeklong bike tour. And he’s neck-deep in local paddle fun, too (though he always wears his PFD). A few years ago the youngsters at MSU started an absurd event called the Campus to Coast — they paddle nonstop in the way-too-early spring 150 miles from the center of Michigan downstream to Lake Michigan. They do it the week before final exams so they’re all still in town yet haven’t gone berserk with study. About 100 kooks start out. Pat helps. He also stores for the youngsters one of the “hero boats” used for outings like that: a huge 23-foot 4-person kevlar Wenonah expedition-race canoe. He helped fundraise to buy it for kids who after mastering the C-to-C decided to try set a Mississippi canoe record by paddling it without stopping in a boat big enough to sleep and eat in. They’d get fed from boats that would come out from the shore to supply them as they kept paddling along. Pat did a fair bit of that shore support and more. That’s the kind of guy Pat is. His policy for storing the big canoe, and probably everything else, was that it would be available to the community to borrow.

So I stopped by his house once for a nonprofit board meeting he was hosting (for the regional Quiet Adventure Symposium) and did a little sight-seeing of various craft stashed about the property. …That’s when I saw it.

It was a 3-person Minnesota 3 kevlar Wenonah canoe. Featherlight at 55 pounds despite being 20 feet long.

…And it was full of holes.

Pat is good at delegating and persuasion. He saw me lay eyes on the wreck and said “Do you want it?” … “Take it tonight. I will load it on your van for you. Then you fix it and you can have it. Just make it available for people to borrow. A friend and I bought it cheap a few years ago and haven’t done anything with it.” …It was an offer I couldn’t refuse, especially since he’d already told me to pick up the other end of the boat.

I was thinking it might make an awesome party boat!

The big boat was set up for racing, with hydration jug holders and other fittings for nonstop high-speed performance. …I was going to rip out all that stuff and make room for a picnic or party in the middle 8 feet of the boat. Or where someone could take a nap. Yet it could still be an expedition boat. It seems sometimes the pleasure potential of light performance boats can be overlooked. My view is that we don’t always have to paddle hard. Or “hydrate.” Sometimes it’s good to lollygag and sip wine. Or sometimes paddling hard can mingle with relaxing hard.

A year later I “gotaroundtuit” and dug into repairing the big boat. It had started to become overgrown in our yard — emergency! I scraped off the flaking patches that encrusted most of the hull where someone had attempted to repair it. I marveled at the ruin.

It had at least FORTY leaks, holes and tears. Some openings were a foot long! Plus broken ribs and bent and broken aluminum gunnels. Wow! I marked them all with a black sharpie and stood back and marveled.

I got a lot of advice from expert friends told me things like how I should re-vacuum-bag the hull. All sorts of advice for making professional repairs.

But I needed a QUICK repair. And needed only that the boat float and not hurt anyone and have a party space. I was doing this by myself, catch-as-catch-can. It would have to do! I was going to execute the required mission, nothing more.

From our local West Marine franchise I bought $120 worth of supplies: several yards of glass cloth and a gallon of WEST System 105 epoxy resin and 207 hardener. I like using WEST products since they’re great — and made in Michigan. (Their G/Flex is especially awesome since it’s flexible and designed for dissimilar, moist materials that vibrate.)

I cut and placed patches and got to mixin’. Man, epoxy can cook off quick if you’re not precise! I mixed small batches and patched for a couple long sessions. Then I sanded and filled the weave until it was tolerably smooth. I don’t think I did a “good” job, but I fulfilled the mission. I’m aware of the values of engineering: solve the required problem at the right level. It was waterproof again and stiff where it should be. I un-bent and splinted the gunnels with smoothed-out aluminum bars epoxied and clamped in place. (It blushes a bit depending on the weather. I read I can wash that out and have scrubbed away some already.)

But the thing feels tough! And, wow, is it light! Lifting such a big boat so easily gives the impression of it weighing even less than it does.

I also like how it’s somewhat see-through with its glowing golden fabric hull — the sun does shine through it.

Its light weight makes it so easy to carry and strap onto a vehicle roof and to manage on the water. It will, of course, be running straight! Not a boat for a small twisty river. (We could install a light aluminum-plate Verlen Kruger-style foot-rudder on it! More canoes should have such rudders.)

Then I noticed another of my beat-up old canoes, an early-80’s glass Mad River Malecite with cane seats that had blown out and a hull that had always swayed and oil-canned because we’re heavier than the 150-pounders who the low-freeboard boat was specced for. It has 3 seats so it can be paddled solo — or with three! I rewove the wrecked seats with lawn chair webbing: nice! Then I removed the long bolts that the seats hung down from and which swayed like the dickens when we paddled. I rebolted the seats right snug to the wooden gunnels. Tightened that boat right up! We are tallish and enjoy strong paddling. The now-higher seats give us better ergonomics. We can easily handle any increased tippiness. Then I cut foam blocks and wedged them under each seat which firmed up the hull. We immediately took it for a test paddle on the river down the street. It’s like a new boat! Wonderful! Repair fever frenzy pays off!

After taking that small break from the big boat, I told friends that it was ready for a test. They’d been excited to experience it and have a spacious party boat added to our fleet. They aren’t serious paddlers but they seriously like to have a good time amid natural beauty. I have found that at least a few younger people are interested in outdoor fun that includes cultural considerations, which is one of the ways I like to roll. It’s a nice way we can bridge our generational differences.

So we went for an afternoon paddle and picnic.

It was everything I imagined it would be.

Hooray! …Hooray for friends, fun and quick fixes!