Sistering?

MGC

Scrapmaker
In the adds I see Crosscuts is listing the 50lb OT that he owns. I recall reading about that a while ago. (I think we have all done that at some point).
He details how he repaired the rib damage:

"Rather than removing the canvas and replacing the ribs, disturbing the over-all patina, the broken ribs were sistered on the inside. This required steam bending short rib sections and screwing and gluing them on the inside of the original ribs."

I have never seen that done from the top, only from the back. I'm curious what folks think about this repair tactic?
 
IMHO
Sistering a partial rib over a broken rib is a viable temporary fix to maintain hull shape and strength until the canoe can be torn down for recanvassing. At that time the broken ribs can be repaired with a backside "dutchman" or replacement.
 
Sistering

I have a 1910 Carleton. Some old timer sistered a bunch of ribs and they are still intact until I get around to repairing the old girl.
 
This is nicely done! It's pretty much the only way to keep using the canoe, short of a full blown teardown and repair.

I always find it amazing what people have done to keep a canoe floating! Sheet metal, roofing tar, fiberglass, plywood, broom sticks, tobacco tins, angle iron, copper wire.......
 
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This is nicely done! It's pretty much the only way to keep using the canoe, short of a full blown teardown and repair.

I always find it amazing what people have done to keep a canoe floating! Sheet metal, roofing tar, fiberglass, plywood, broom sticks, tobacco tins, angle iron, copper wire.......

Photos please!
 
Dave -- your list might have included steel mending plates to reinforce gunwales. And how could you have not mentioned Bondo? . . . liberally applied, of course, to "repair" cracked planking, to "reinforce" sistering on some ribs, and to hide steel screw heads supporting the seats. I don't have pictures yet showing how the stems and planking near the stems on this recently-acquired ufo were "rebuilt" with Bondo, something I just discovered this past weekend. Truly amazing, terrifying stuff!
 

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I had to inside sister a couple ribs on our '58 Seliga.
They look a bit like the images shown except I tapered the ends to make them better blend in.

The canoe had just recently been restored and we took in on a river trip and as usual, we found some rocks, cracking 2 ribs.

Someday when it gets recanvased they will be replaced but it could be many years away.

Dan
 
Sistering

The Canadian Canoe Co canoe presently listed in Classified came with tar smeared over badly damaged bow planking then sheet copper tacked over the tar. Plumbers tape was applied to all the seams.

R.C.
 
Here is a creative fix. This canoe just found a new owner in Colorado.
 

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