"MLL" wrote in message
m...

"Mountain Dave" wrote in message
...
Greetings,

Picked up a used Old Town Royalex canoe recently and am looking for good
maintenance tips. ...
...
Keep it simple.

What MLL said.

Old Town will be happy to sell you a color-matched kit for fixing the vinyl
skin of the Royalex. 303 Protectant every month or so will prevent future
UV damage. If the boat was so bad that I'd want to paint it, I hope I
wouldn't have bought it in the first place.

Take a stab at the gunnels in a few places with a pen knife blade to check
for basic soundness. On a used boat, I would loosen enough of the gunnels
to sample the inner wood. I once had gunnels that crumbled from the inside
from some kind of fungal attack, leaving only a hard shell where I had
faithfully oiled them.

Sanding, then Watco or boiled linseed + turpentine on the gunnels is all you
should need. I usually try to do the gunnels before 303ing the hull,
because the 303 overspray on the gunnels seems to interfere with the oil.
On the other hand, it might be true that 303 on the gunnels might be
preferable to using the oil at all. I just dunno.

If you have wood decks, their undersides are favorite sites for rot. If you
find it, browse the West Systems website for woodrot restoration products.
There are some penetrating epoxys that are supposed to fix it, though I've
never tried them.

The protected wood (seats, thwarts, etc.) ought to get more attention.
Sanding, bleaching if you insist, and a couple coats of spar varnish should
fix these parts. Cruise the web for details on finishing marine brightwork.

I used to make a big ritualistic thing out of spring preparation of the
boat, waiting for perfect weather, masking off the Royalex, incantations,
drums, dancing, ... Now, I flow some linseed on the wood every couple of
weeks and wipe off the overmess. The boat seems to be just as happy.

Remember that the whole point is to be out on the water, not in the garage.

Hth,
Fred Klingener