Will the canoe be boyant enough when dumped in the water? Or do I need to add bulkheads etc? Your thoughts and suggestions would be helpfull.
Steve W.
floatation question
floatation question
As I get closer to finnishing my Bob's special I have yet another question
Will the canoe be boyant enough when dumped in the water? Or do I need to add bulkheads etc? Your thoughts and suggestions would be helpfull.
Steve W.
Will the canoe be boyant enough when dumped in the water? Or do I need to add bulkheads etc? Your thoughts and suggestions would be helpfull.
Steve W.
Others with experience will surely chime in, but I'll get a start.
Whether it's "buoyant enough" or not, likely depends upon what you intend to do with it and how buoyant you would like it to be. Are you running whitewater so want it to float high when swamped? In that case, I doubt it - you'll probably need some air bags secured in the canoe to get the amount of flotation required to make a big difference there. For most other cases, I expect that the buoyancy of the wood would be sufficient in that the boat won't sink to the bottom of the lake. Even in whitewater your canoe should be floating (mostly submerged) in the pool below the rapids waiting for you, assuming it doesn't get pinned. Of course, if you build with ironwood strips, 1/4" square tubing gunnels, and rebar seats, all bets are off.
Besides displacing some water and increasing the buoyancy of the swamped canoe, bulkheads serve another purpose: dry storage.
Cheers,
Bryan
Whether it's "buoyant enough" or not, likely depends upon what you intend to do with it and how buoyant you would like it to be. Are you running whitewater so want it to float high when swamped? In that case, I doubt it - you'll probably need some air bags secured in the canoe to get the amount of flotation required to make a big difference there. For most other cases, I expect that the buoyancy of the wood would be sufficient in that the boat won't sink to the bottom of the lake. Even in whitewater your canoe should be floating (mostly submerged) in the pool below the rapids waiting for you, assuming it doesn't get pinned. Of course, if you build with ironwood strips, 1/4" square tubing gunnels, and rebar seats, all bets are off.
Besides displacing some water and increasing the buoyancy of the swamped canoe, bulkheads serve another purpose: dry storage.
Cheers,
Bryan
Speaking of buoyancy, see that pic in my avatar? I could have used a lot more buoyancy in my fiberglass canoe shortly after that picture was taken. The photographer was sitting atop a rock face which the water coming through "Corner Rapids" hits. Most of the water does a 90 degree right turn, but some does a left turn to make a nice eddy. I was having great fun riding down the chute, peeling out to the left & riding the eddy back to the top where I'd slip in below the top wave (Naomi's Wave) and ride it back down again. On one of those circuits, I took on a bit of water, but it didn't look like much and I figured I could do one more round before stopping to bail. Well 5 or 10 gallons of water doesn't look like much in the bottom of a canoe, but that's 45 kg or about 100 pounds of water sloshing back and forth. Needless to say I swamped. I also learned something about water currents at that moment. It seems that while things seemed fairly straight forward on the surface, a major portion of the water hitting that rock face goes straight down, not just right or left as I thought. I remained on the surface while my 17' canoe went down - way down, eventually to be spit out to the right where it pinned on a rock and nearly wrapped. I learned so much from that trip - about currents, overestimating one's ability, underestimating the efficacy of a ferry (another story), discovery of an area new to me, and later, how one guy that does fiberglass repairs will try to screw you while another will try to teach you instead, how to repair a fiberglass canoe, how to work with epoxy, what fiberglassing is all about, how to paint a canoe, and much more.
Cheers,
Bryan
Cheers,
Bryan
I tested one of my canoes (stripper of conventional construction) by flooding it just to see whether or not it would float on its own. It does but just barely. Don't overlook the weight of the things you might have with you: fishing equipment, possibly an anchor, etc. While the canoe might be able to float itself, without some positive floatation added it might not have the reserve to take care of the extras. I haven't added floatation to this canoe but I'm mindful of what I carry in it. On another canoe (also a conventional stripper) that I use strictly for sailing I added air bags.
Charles Campbell