long storage partially finished boat

[AkDan]

Well most know where I am with this canoe. I am working to get the stems on. Well I just got word that the condo association is NOT going to heat the garage this winter which means I wont beable to do any epoxy work or any glue work of anykind. Temps are in the 30's as we speak, I doubt I can get things even remotely wrapped up in the next few days. Had some off and on snow today, so winter is nockin on the door.

What would you do? I cannot bring the boat into the house and have no other place to transport it to. I can't cut holes in the garage to heat it with a wood stove....any idears?

If I have to store the unepoxyed boat (finished stripped), will the bow crack in the cold? is there anything I should do to keep it from twisting, warping or possibly cracking?

I still have to attach the outer stems, then do some fill in work. Gotta teach a class on saturday but I bet if I go hard I can get to the point of glassing the outside maybe before mid next week? this is all new ground for me and with no one else around I am going by what I read....help, tips anything else is appreciated!

[Glen Smith]

I believe the boat will be ok if there is no finish either on the outside or inside. If you epoxy the outer hull but not the inner hull, variations in temp and especially humidity will wreak havoc with it. Leave it unfinished but protected so it doesn't get wet and it should be fine come Spring. I imagine at this stage the boat is still on the forms so they will prevent the hull from warping.

[Fred G]

depends on the quality of wood for the strongback and forms. If you think they will not warp as they get dried out, then you will be ok. Otherwise, I'd say space heater.

[Doug]

? Wrap it up too;
- to prevent acute temperature changes
- physical damage
- UV damage?
- theft?

I would imagine the the would is about as dried out as you will get it.
Temperature with stay fairly level from day to day.

All the best,
Doug

[AkDan]

Thanks guys. There is a glimmer of hope, the heat is still on and I might be able to bicker with the association long enough to finish this boat out minus the trim work. I hope anyways.

If not temps can reach -50 to 0 on the average and even sometimes above 0 for a few days though it's pretty rare. I had thought about running rachet straps inbetween every or every other mold to help keep it from cracking, not tight just snug.

[Patricks Dad]

I'd go nuts (more nuts) knowing that the project is just sitting there all winter without being able to work on it. Is it possible for you to build a small shelter around it (a couple/few layers of plastic vapor barrier for example) and heat just that small area with a heater so you could continue working on it? We had a problem in our unheated garage last winter but had the big advantage of a furnace there which heats the office above the garage. I simply punched a giant hole in the heating duct to heat the (uninsulated) garage. It cost an arm and a leg in heating bills but I couldn't have imagined stopping work.

[AkDan]

PD,

Ya I hear ya. My plan was to finish this boat and get on with either a kayak or a slightly larger boat so I can take my wife out in one. That and get into building bows and work more on arrows.

I've thought about running a visqueen barrier and heating it with a 5 gallon propane tank and one of those round burners....I do have a concern with fumes and the epoxy though.

I am headed out here to buy a chisel for the stems and get on with them tonight, hopefully I can get them stinkers mounted here in the next couple of days.

[Patricks Dad]

The topic of fumes and epoxy is worth looking into. I vaguely seem to remember reading something about that being a problem somewhere but I can't be sure (I'm getting to old to trust my memory). Electric heater?

[Glen Smith]

I have read that oil-fired heaters can create a deposit on the boat that will contaminate the surface and cause fish-eyes in the epoxy. Propane, I'm not sure.

[AlanWS]

The most important thing to do if you can't get epoxy on both the inside and outside before a cold winter is to be sure you leave it on the forms. They will prevent warping.

If you are going to work on it, heating it is fine. I heated my garage with electric oil filled heaters for the last epoxy coats of my recent canoe, which worked fine. Natural gas (methane) or propane heat will not put the same kind of crud in the air as would oil or wood, but I'd still be more careful to sand shortly before putting on epoxy, to make sure you have a fresh surface. And you need to heat evenly: radiant heaters that make hot spots on the hull can cause epoxy in those areas to cure too rapidly and overheat.

If you are simply storing the unfinished canoe, leaving the space unheated will cause less stress than heating. The absolute humidity goes down, but since cold air can hold much less water than warm air, the relative humidity goes down much more if you heat. And the water content in the wood depends on the relative humidity.

The hull is most stable if the inside and outside are the same. Epoxy on both sides would be best, but epoxy on neither is second best. The least stable situation is when you have epoxy and glass on only the outside of the hull. If you must leave the boat in that state, the inside wood can contract and expand, but the outside can't. LEAVE IT ON THE FORMS!

This advice is based on what happened to a canoe I made 30 years ago. I was working outdoors, so was at the mercy of the Minnesota weather, and spent a lot of time wrapping it and unwrapping it to work on it. I took it off the forms, thinking I would be able to glass the inside before winter, but was not able to. I thought I had stored it carefully for the winter, but in the spring the dampness caused wood to swell so much the hull buckled, putting a couple of creases lengthwise down the hull, previously perfect, at least as I remember it now. I did finish up that canoe, and it is still a fine canoe that people comment on admiringly. But it was hard to finish, and I still see the repairs first when I look at it. Though now they are not quite so painful to see as they once were.

[bduster]

I am kind of in the same situation but have just started the building process I have finished the strongback and molds should be done by next week. My garage is not heated but I was hoping on installing the strips and stem this winter and sanding the canoe, than wait to do the epoxy when it warmed up in the spring. Will this work? I live in colorado and my garage can get down to about 20F during the winter.

any advice would be appreciated.

[tom in caledonia]

I left my fully stripped Redbird on the forms in an unheated garage this past winter and had no problems. It was not glassed. I covered it with an old sheet but otherwise it was exposed to the ambient conditions inside the garage. These conditions ranged from extreme cold (-20F) to mild (30+ F) and damp (Southern Ontario winters). I had no splits or warpage that I could detect. I think that, as previously stated, it's important to be totally unglassed or glassed inside and out if the canoe must be stored.

To bduster: I found that I couldn't sand on the colder days. I guess the sanding generated heat which thawed any moisture in the wood. The sawdust would just clump together and totally clog the sandpaper. I eventually gave up and waited for milder weather.

[bduster]

awesome I really appreciate the advice so it sounds like the best thing is to keep it on the mold and just use my hand planner and maybe wait to sand until the temperture warms up for the spring.