I was out in close proximity to Nunda NY before this 7 days on a new-to-me 2019 Royal Enfield Himalayan, checking out the filth roads and vistas. This region of New York State is just north of the broad patchwork of state forests in Allegany County. Short Tract Street connects the two areas.
Leaving Nunda on Rt 436 I turned remaining and climbed the eastern slope of the Genesee Valley along the Nunda-Byersville Road. It was close to the best wherever I satisfied John, a retired contractor who’s lived on a 40-acre spread for 35 a long time. He had a Mad River Canoe out front that caught my eye.
I invested the future hour with John finding out about his canoe obsession. He spends some of his time tracking down beat-up fiberglass canoe hulls with an eye to a rebuild. He confirmed me his canoe shed stuffed with Bell, Hemlock, and Mad River canoes that looked brand name new.
The new gunnels and seats are milled from ash that he minimize from the forest bordering his place twenty decades in the past. It is been drying in his shop for at the very least a ten years. Right after finishing any important fiberglass repairs and painting the hulls, John mills and installs new parts needed for just about every canoe. New gunnels are ripped from the ash into ¾” inch square items from the ash boards. All the woodwork is then finished with teak oil even though a mate usually makes new decals.
I requested him about the Mad River Canoe in the entrance of his store. He explained the cold-crack – see the fiberglass tape repair service – that happens when a Royalex canoe is saved outside and ordeals quick freeze/thaw cycles. 1 these canoe experienced 53 these cracks that John fixed. This unique canoe was owned by an aged couple in the Adirondacks that he’d fulfilled a couple of several years in the past. He did a brief fix to see if he preferred the canoe, and brought it household. He place it out since he had way too quite a few initiatives to comprehensive this calendar year and his canoe shed was total. John had just done 1 canoe – see the closeup bow picture – and disassembled a white-hulled for his following venture.
I called the Mad River Canoe people today to check with about cold cracks. They certain me that if the fix is done correctly the canoe is good and there is very little to fret about, downriver.
Yesterday I returned to see John. That inexperienced Mad River Canoe that 1st caught my eye is now on some sawhorses next to my woodpile, prepared for experience.
Posted by David Torke on 2021-05-07 15:21:54
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