Dave Allyn ) writes:

To be honest, I am building this more because I saw the idea in a
magazine and it peaked my intrest. I rarely canoe, and it will
probably only see water a few times a year. In the off time it will
be stored in a shed, out of direct sunlight.

You can save yourself a lot of time and mess by just taping the seams and
painting or varnishing the hull. On my small plywood boats I don't even
tape the seams, just round off smooth the outside of the edges with a
sanding disk on my drill and then apply 2 layers of polyester resin along
the seams to seal and protect the exposed plywood edge. You have to seal
all the exposed plywood edges on the boat anyway to keep moisture from
getting into the edges where the end grain of the wood is open. I mix a
small amount (1 teaspoon) of resin at a time and spread it along the edge
with a toothpick. To each teaspoon of polyester resin you have to add 2
drops of hardener. I touch up the paint each spring and sometimes mid
season as well. (Photos of the boats on my website, see below.) I keep a
boating log which shows I go out about 30 times a season, usually for an
afternoon or evening.

Also seal the gunnel, top and bottom, if the boat is ever going to be
stored outside upside down, especially over the winter. Water will drain
off the bottom of an overturned boat and collect along the gunwale where
it can sit and rot. It will also hang and drip of the top of the gunwale
of an overturned boat. I've had to repair delmainating and rotting plywood
edges along a gunwale after storing a home built boat outside inverted over
the winter. The keel, skids, and bottoms have never been a proboem stored
upside down because water does not collect on them.

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