My children attend Manitoba Pioneer Camp and I pay for their fees in an exchange of services. Basically, I take in their "basket case" wood canoes, the ones that no one else dares work on, fix them up good, and get the canoes back to camp.

This time I am working on a Peterborough low end Champlain. This is the only one that MPC has and it is a favourite of many paddlers. A few years ago it had the misfortune of being blown off of the canoe rack and was impaled upon the next rack. The gunnels were smashed, as well as four ribs, a bunch of planking, and, obviously, the canvas.

While I am at it, this deck had to go. While the work was reasonably done, it is completely inaccurate for a Peterborough.

There were a bunch of gunnel repairs awaiting...

So I decided to make life simpler, to do a better job, and to just replace the inner gunnels altogether.

To get that upturn of the sheer near the ends it is necessary to steam bend the gunnels first.