Project Complete: Probe 12 Ready to Float Again

The last thing needed to complete the project was to rig and inflate the float bags. Several shots of the finished canoe, ready to go paddling tomorrow.

Inflating the flotation bags with a cheap tire compressor (high pressure, low volume) was taking forever. I switched to a shop-vac (high volume, low pressure), inserting the hose in the exhaust end of the blower and placing the other end hard against the dump valve on the bags. That worked dandy: it took about 7 seconds to inflate each one.  

The float bags are BIG. Somewhat smaller would have been better, but the next smaller size from NRS was too small. 

Don't blame me for giving her a rubdown with Armor All. Nice and shiny, at least compared to when I received her.

I had installed D-ring patches to anchor the inner corners of the float bags. I should have placed them several inches closer to the ends. As it is, the bags intrude into the cockpit, somewhat too close to my personal space.   

I'll have to work on the lacing at the inner ends of the bags (the yellow parachute cord) to better contain them. But that's a minor detail, on the order of normal everyday tweaking that most canoeists are always doing. 

Looks pretty cushy. We'll see how the geometry works on the water.

Here's a summary of the costs:

Canoe             200.00

Skid plate kit             99.99

Kevlar, 5 oz.             33.99

G-Flex 16 oz             54.15

Float bags             239.90

D-Ring patches             43.80

G-Flex Filled, kit             25.77

G-Flex 8 oz.             19.50

Kevlar, 9 oz. twill             44.99

corrugator tool (air roller)             6.53

brushes, spreader             2.63

contact cement             12.61

pop rivets             3.38

bungee             1.59

SS fasteners             6.22

TOTAL             795.05

So I ended up paying roughly what a boat in this final condition would have cost, maybe minus the flotation bags. 

There are a few ways one could bring these costs down. Some items I spent in error on stuff that wasn't needed: the 9 oz. kevlar @ $45; the smaller kit of unfilled G-Flex epoxy @ $20; and the stainless fasteners @ $6.

I bought high-quality urethane-coated nylon flotation bags: I could have cut that cost by about 50% by buying vinyl bags, and that might have been appropriate, given that they cost more than the used canoe. So take off another $100 or so if you wish.

The skid plate on the back was really needed to beef up the hull damage, but the front plate was an improvement, so you could subtract half the cost of the kit (i.e., $50).

With one minor exception, I had all the tools I needed, and several of the consumables (e.g., mineral spirits, colloidal silica, etc.). But I'm not counting those costs. So this project might have been done for about $575, boat included. 

I'm happy with the results. I have, I think, a boat that's worth what I paid for it, and I much enjoyed doing the work. If the outfitting needs to be tweaked, I won't be nearly as hesitant to dive into that project as I would have been had I not done this work. 

And especially now, with Royalex no longer in production, the ability to keep an ABS boat alive at almost any cost is looking like an essential skill for some whitewater canoeists, who will either have to do it themselves, or pay professional rates to others.

Coming up: the final installment of this blog will be an appendix, listing all of the tools and materials used in the project.