By Rob Dale
“If the far north is still in your blood, I think you’ll be happiest with a 17′ Pakboat”…Cliff Jacobson, author of ‘Canoeing Wild Rivers.’
A canoe that fits in a bag! It sounds like a pool toy, yet the pakCanoes are well proven. Our boats have seen numerous rivers and have been hauled on planes, shuttle vans, buses, water-taxis, and regular taxis. Often it’s the only solution to reach remote rivers.
Love them or hate them, they are sluggish on the water and can’t take a hit like a Royalex boat. However, if you treat them with respect and stay on top of the maintenance, you will get a decade or two of service.
More than just a tool list, here are 3 case studies. Stories of field repairs that saved the trip.
#1 We’re paddling a shallow section of river with barely enough water to float a boat. Out of the bushes, a barrenland grizzly starts crossing the river in front of us. In a panic, we attempted an unplanned eddy turn and hit the shore hard. The stem piece snaps and punctures the hull.
The curved stem piece is vulnerable (the newer models now have a thicker gauge tubing). The best solution is to carry a spare. Lash the spare to the existing stem and then it’s neatly tucked away. It’s too awkward of a shape to fit into a pack.
In this case, the spare was for a 17 footer, not our damaged 16.5 footer. The ‘fork’ piece needed to be moved. Rivets drilled out. Then reattached with self-tapping screws.
#2 The stern paddler is overweight and packed too much gear. There is only a few inches of freeboard. On an unscouted shallow boney rapid, three ribs on the canoe snap.
The solution is splinting. In the tool kit are 10cm lengths of PVC conduit tube that are the perfect size to slide over the tubing. Jagged bent ends of the ribs are cut off with a pipe cutter. The conduit is filled with marine-grade JB weld epoxy. Then it’s reinforced with 2 self-tapping screws.
#3 The canoe is broached on a rock. Water is pouring in the stern and the extra weight is quickly warping the boat. The stern-man with a rescue PFD clips-in the towline. Both paddlers abandon ship to lessen the weight. This frees the canoe. The stern-man swims to shore, the canoe swings into shore via the towline. The mangled boat has bent rods, a broken rib, and two warped deformed ribs.
The solution is to sacrifice low priority parts to replace high priority parts. Step one, take out the sponson rods and gut them. Cut the internal bungee cords and swap out the bent pieces: gunnel, keel and chine. If need be, rods can be trimmed to size with the pipe cutter.
This broken rib is splinted with an end-insert-piece cut out from a bent rod from our new garbage pile. No glueing required. It has a perfect friction fit with some crimping with pillars. Rough edges are filed down.
The warped ribs are patiently reshaped. Put the rib in a sandbar, stand on top the bend, and pull up. The sand and the width of your shoe will help distribute the force evenly. Aluminum is a soft metal that is easily compromised. Too much force in one place will snap it.
All these stressful moments were a little too real. It took the creativity of many minds to focus and find the solutions. Everyone stayed calm, took a moment to do inventory, and make a plan.
Repair Kit:
Patch Kit and PVC Contact Cement, Epoxy, Aquaseal, Alcohol wipes, Gear aid patches, Precut Splints (PCV conduct or metal tubing), Multi tool (pillars, screwdriver sockets), Drill bit (hex inserts into multi-tool), Duct Tape, Mini hacksaw, Wire, Forceps, Vice grips, Pipe cutter, Sand paper, ⅝ inch Self-tapping screws, Sewing kit, Thermarest repair kit, Tent repair kit, Eyeglasses screw kit, Nitrile Gloves, Zip ties, Extra yoke hardware, Extra webbing, Cordage, Bungee and Buckles
When did they thicken the gauge of the curved stem part, do you know?
I need to replace the shock cord on some of my pakboat’s long gunwale, chine and keel rods. I see there are rivets about 10 inches from the end. Any ideas? I imagine I’m going to have to drill out those rivets to release the current worn out cord and then put in new.
You don’t need to drill out the rivets. If there isn’t a bushing or stopper knot, the cord can be pushed past the rivet. Here’s the process I used to replace my shock cord on one of the pak canoe tubes:
– cut the old shock cord
– use a thin rod, fish or water pressure from garden hose to push the shock cord (from the cut end) out past the rivet – there is enough space for it to pass if it is not knotted.
– insert the bushing and tie a stopper knot on one end of the new shock cord.
– feed the other end of the shock cord through the tube (starting from the end with the rivet) and then thorough all of the other tube pieces. It will pass through all except the last one easily.
– use the thin rod/fish or water pressure to push the end past the rivet on the last tube,
– stretch the cord to the desired length and lock it with visegrips after it emerges from the end of the tube past the rivet.
– fold the tube sections to make sure there is enough cord and appropriate tension
– when you’re sure the length is correct, insert the bushing, tie a stopper knot and unlock the visegrips so that it snaps back into the tube (leaving enough that the end of the shock cord still emerges from the tube)
– confirm that the stopper knot is holding.
– once you’re satisfied, stretch the cord back out of the end, cut the excess and let the remainder snap back inside.
– you’re done!
Hi Paul, you’re absolutely right.
Changing the bungee is straightforward if you have a rivet-gun.
Inside the rod is a stopper-knot, a plastic bushing, and the rivet keeping it all tensioned. Drill out the old rivet, replace the bungee, and pop in a new rivet. Have some vice-grips handy to clamp off the stopper-end of the bungee while popping in the rivet.
The MEC and Marine Supply Stores will sell custom lengths of bungee off their spoils.
Nice job on repair advice, Rob. We love Pakboats, and over the years have only had two things go sour. 1) a small patch needed after hitting a rock HARD. The repair took about 30 minutes, that’s all. 2) A broken seat. This was an early model seat, made from Chinese wood. Alf Elvestad specified American white ash after that—no problems. Admittedly, the break was likely caused to a paddler who put his knee on the frame (and full weight) while exiting the canoe. Epoxy and fiberglass saved the day.
PS. We’ve used Pakboats along side same length Royalex canoes. We find them equally fast—or maybe, equally “pokey”. No matter: they are lighter than Royalex, more capable in big rapids, and they fit in a bag.
Cliff