Wildfilm: MRE16

We needed another riverboat like a hole in the head. However, just happened to come a cross a somewhat rare (and local) 'Craig's List' find - a Mad River Explorer 16 (tandem) canoe. Royalex hull. Wood (ash) gunnels, thwarts, yoke, webbed seats. Was posted as a 1991 (at that time) twenty year anniversary model. There's a stamped serial number on the hull for verification. We'll take their word for it.

Mad River Explorer 16

Took a ride up to check it out. Common to royalex canoe hulls sporting wood gunnel trim, there was one "cold crack", about eight inch length, located toward the bow end of the hull. Cold cracks occur only with wood gunnel royalex hulls, always at the screw holes, then propagating cross-section. This tendency is resultant to differential thermal contraction between the gunnel wood and hull plastic exposed to sub-freezing temperatures. The condition is avoided by storing the boat during the winter months in a dry, heated environment (aka, above freezing). If outdoors exposed to the elements, it is recommended to loosen the wood fastening screws and store in a dry location or under cover.

The cold crack

The seller had previously done an expert, and per spec, repair on the cold crack. We looked the boat over and (at the time) found no additional cracks. Otherwise, the boat was in what we considered excellent condition and was obviously well maintained over the years. Although not thrilled about a maintenance dependent wood trim hull, we did have a bit of space available for winter storage in a heated basement. F*k it - we slipped the guy the cash, strapped the boat to the vehicle, offered our thanks, bid farewell, and were on the road.

First opportunity we recruited muscle girl Sarah to assist with an afternoon of test paddling to evaluate performance and "sea worthiness". Took us a few strokes to get into tandem sync - she having never paddled tandem before (but a paddler none-the-less) and as for myself it having been quite a few years back. Only required a short learning curve. With her manning the bow I think that within the half-hour we could have entered and placed in any up-river race.

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One of the infrequent past times that we had paddled a tandem boat was on a river in Virginia with two boats and three other guys who we worked with at the time. Was a class I-II river and we were on a weekend river camping outing. Never paddled with those guys before and personally had only paddled whitewater boats. Those guys had claimed to be avid paddlers and each owned pretty nice 'Old Towne' tandems. I was bow positioned the whole trip. Couldn't get used to paddling seated so eventually switched to a kneeling position. Those guys became a bit outraged - "Why are you kneeling - that's not how you paddle!" Ta' boot, those guys did their best to totally avoid any turbulence of any sort, be it fun small waves or drops. I'd get reprimanded as well at any attempt to draw toward that "excitement". The few drops that we did run were done with a bit of trepidation on their part. One guy would constantly rest his paddle and grab the rails. Luckily that first evening there was a small set of class II waves with a small drop along an outside bend and channel just downriver from our camp. The inside bend was pretty shoal so it wasn't difficult to walk a boat back upriver. After they had loosened up over a few after dinner beers, I talked them into taking one of the boats, now relieved of all gear and provisions, out to paddle the narrow channel. I explained the benefits of kneeling, of not being afraid to lean the boat, and demonstrated draw strokes and stern prys. It wasn't long before I was settin' along the shoreline watchin' those guys have a heck of a lot of fun preoccupied runnin' the channel over and over with me drinking beers two to their one. The remainder of the trip they were now aiming for even the slightest turbulence. They couldn't have had more fun than if we were floating the Colorado.

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(Sarah Zagorce Image)

Paddled pretty good solo while kneeling "amidship". May add a foam kneeling pad. We also understand that, considering a symmetrical hull, the preferred way to paddle the boat solo/seated is positioned bow and facing stern, or, "backwards". Weight back solo in the stern seat position created heavy bow lift as in the above image

Later on, back at the sanctum, we masked off the gunnels and re-finished 'em using two coats of recommended 'Watco Exterior Wood Finish'. That should do it...

"Hey, let's go paddlin'!"

... well, hold on a minute. We thought that was it - until our boy Howie dropped by and under his (usual) close inspection spied two addition small cold cracks near the nose of the bow. One each both sides...

"Sh*t!"

... well, no big deal - but now just more work. The above image shows one of the cracks. That's the upper factory screw hole, with a lower stopper hole newly drilled by us partial to the repair. That apparent extension of the crack below the stopper hole is in reality an exterior scratch inadvertently cause by us by the drill bit when the drill slipped from our grasp after drilling the stopper.

We only had to loosen the bow-end rails just enough to access the cracks

A regular 1/16" drill bit functioned perfectly as a side-cut drill in the soft plastic and worked great for following the diagonal crack

Both cracks prepped for sealing with G/flex epoxy adhesive

Epoxied and clamped for 24hr curing

A typical finished repair - looks OK

While we had things apart we figured that we might as well apply a few coats of wood finish to the inside surface of the rails. A two stage process in our case - first the front half of the boat then the back half