Thread: Delaminating problem

Good thing the canoe was free. Delaminating ply not a happy omen.
Boat *may* not have a long & prosperous life ahead of it.
Should be able to cut out that section of veneer with a stanley knife
& chisel, dry thoroughly, & replace it with new veneer. Best to use
epoxy as glue if you can afford it. Fills gaps, is strong & truly water-proof.

Have fun
Alan J.

Originally Posted by Nortas

Hi all. First time poster here so be gentle. I have been given a 4 metre canoe/kayak (huge cockpit) that I can use in the father&son canoe program that I run. It is stitch and glue construction and fairly sound but I'm sure it's been built out of cheap ply (6mm but only veneer on either side of a thick core). I'm fixing holes by cutting them out and scarfing in a piece of decent ply but I have come across a couple of small areas where the ply has delaminated on the outside. Any ideas on how to fix this without cutting the section out? Thanks in advance.

Then again...

You may well be better of taking some measurements and making up some moulds and make another one to the same dimensions and give that one to a pre-school for the nippes to muck about in?

Really its not brain science to do this and as youve already got the prototype why not? Doing this allows you and your son to make it together and this would bring UNTOLD satisfaction joy and bonding beyond anything you can imagine... also you can use GOOD ply and get a bottler of a canoe!

Just a thought as I reckon from your brief discription that shes pretty much well along the way out anyway so why not?

Cheers
Shane

You could drill 1/8" holes on 2" centers (yep, lots of holes), throughout the affected area, then squirt slightly thickened epoxy into the holes and clamp until cured. This is a common method to fix bulkheads that can't be removed, but have experienced some delamination. It's also a "fix" for sheered skins in cored construction too. It adds a fair amount of weight if it's a large area, but can save the difficulty of removing the damaged panel(s).

The other approaches have been mentioned, but if this is an indication of the remainder of the hull, then you may be best advised to replace sections wholesale, scarfing them into their neighbors, eventually replacing the poor quality plywood with something more tolerant of marine life. With this avenue of pursuit, you can repair the bad spots and work in a replacement schedule (for the remainder of the hull) as time, materials and budget permits. It's a piece meal way of doing it, but under paint and putty, who'd know and it offers some real, practical experience working with the different materials and methods.

A good father and son project(s), which will be on going, at least for a while.