Hey again everyone,
Quick question on the inwales. I bought a kit from Bear Mountain and my inwales are 7/8 x 3/4. At first I wasn't sure because it seems it would make more structural sense to have the 7/8 side be vertical and the shorter sides level with the hull. This would also make bending easier. From what info I could glean from CanoeCraft though it would seem the 7/8 is indeed the horizontal side (as it suggests tapering from 7/8 to 3/8). Maybe this a daft question but I feel like these inwales require some real precision and I don't want to start off wrong. Also, a quarter-inch deep scupper doesn't seem very deep for 7/8'' wide inwale. That's less than 1/3, whereas in my mind I always pictured the scuppers being about half... could be wrong there.
Glad to be done with the epoxy, was not my favourite part of the process, but am pretty content with the result. Any input on the inwales appreciated. Thanks in advance folks!
Mike
inwale and scupper dimensions
7/8 wide x 3/4 high is the 'standard' approach but really, so much of a canoe you build is custom to what you want to do. Lots of people have built canoes with much smaller gunwale dimensions, myself included. Scuppers as well are completely up to the builder. They are only present as a nod to the traditional look, when the scupper was the space caused by two adjacent ribs in a wood canvas canoe. Lots of builders use them for looks, tie down areas, for draining water, as well as weight savings over a solid inwale.
If you search this site, as well as others, you'll see that there are many many options to your gunwales.
If you are truly worried about not doing it the 'right' way, you can just stick with Ted's recommendations in Canoecraft and all will be well.
Moonman.
If you search this site, as well as others, you'll see that there are many many options to your gunwales.
If you are truly worried about not doing it the 'right' way, you can just stick with Ted's recommendations in Canoecraft and all will be well.
Moonman.
...my inwales are 7/8 x 3/4. At first I wasn't sure because it seems it would make more structural sense to have the 7/8 side be vertical and the shorter sides level with the hull.
IMO... better to glue the inwale on with the greatest amount of surface area available to the hull, so that the possibility of the inwale tearing away for any reason is reduced (more glued surface area = more bonding strength to the hull).
The inwale/fiberglass glue joint may not tear away, but next to it, the fiberglass/cedarstrip hull bond may tear away instead (there's something called peel strength that measures the strength of fiberglass bonding to cedar). So the 7/8 side should provide stronger bonding, especially where scuppers reduce the surface area beside bolt holes.... you'll want to have more surface area glued to the hull here, rather than less.
The 3/4 inch top inwale surface should be wide enough to support a bolt head, maybe depending on the bolts.
My $0.02 anyway...