@mermike should do a commercial for Flextape. That’s amazing! Please share permanent repair details with us including photos. Is the build planked or are there sections of plywood? Will you scarf in new plywood or replace whole sections?
Also please share details of design. I’m interested in flotation, storage of supplies and the form of the hull relating to its ability to run rapids.
I read a book re some guys who pioneered using wooden dory type boats to run a Grand Canyon tour company - I don’t remember the title or author. They were always repairing the boats. One of the principals ran the river in exceptionally high water for the record but came pretty close to buying the farm in doing so. A great read!
Repairs won't happen until spring. It takes a while to dry out the boat after soaking in the river for a couple of weeks.
Construction is Hydrotek plywood over Port Orford cedar frames. 1/4" on the sides and 1/2" on the bottom. The deck and hatch lids are 3/8". The bottom is covered with 17 oz. biaxial fiberglass. The entire exterior of the hull was then covered with 10 oz glass. There is no glass inside the hull to prevent rot from occurring.
The bow, front cross hatch, 2 side-hatches, rear cross hatch and the stern hatch are all independently sealed and are mostly watertight. The collision pierced the front cross and right side hatches. We weren't going to sink, but getting to shore was going to get harder as the compromised hatches filled with water. We were 8 days into a 20 day trip, so the hatches were pretty full to begin with.
I built the boat with Brad Dimock at his boatshop, Fretwater Boatworks in Flagstaff. Brad is an author, Grand Canyon guide with over 300 trips, boatbuilder and designer, and raconteur extraordinaire. He worked for Martin Litton and Grand Canyon Dories. He still guides a trip or 2 a year. He and fellow guide Andy Hutchinson built and rowed the replica boats for the Nat Geo re-enactment of Powell's trip down the Colorado. If you'd like to build a dory, he and/or his protégé Cricket Rust teach a class at the Wooden Boat School in Brooklin, Maine every summer. He's also teaching
a class this fall at Lowell's Boat Shop in Amesbury MA.
Brad is going to lead the repairs, as the damage is pretty extensive. I left her in Flagstaff, where she's drying out in Brad's attic with a number of historic river dories. I imagine she'll be an eager listener as the older boats share their tales.
