"toller" wrote in message ...
I have a 10' canoe. The gunnels are a pair of 3/4"x5/8" pieces of what
looks like spruce. (one pair on either side)

One piece has about 2' rotted away. We are still using the canoe, but it
can't be a good idea.

Replacing the entire gunnel would be difficult, both because of the way the
canoe is build and my inability to cut a 10' strip of wood. So, I would
like to replace the rotten part, plus some good wood on either size, for a
total of 4'.

I cut 2 5/16"x3/4" pieces of cherry 4' long. (somewhere I read that cherry
is rot resistance, plus I happened to have a suitable scrap of cherry).

I think you misread, misremembered, or your source was wrong. But the
good news is if you finish the wood well it won't rot. At least it'll
look cool

Epoxy is the preferred glue for boats. It is also frequently used
as a finish to encapsulate the wood to prevent rot.

The fancy way to splice in a repair like that is with a scarf joint.
the simple way is to butt the ends of the repair with the existing
wood and then overlap the butt joint with a short piece underneath
or behind it.

There are lots of good websites that deal with wooden boat and canoe
building and also a rec.boats.building newsgroup where I'm sure
you can get good information.

--

FF