toller wrote:

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).

In the future, you might want to check http://www2.fpl.fs.fed.us/. They
say that cherry is indeed "very resistant to heartwood decay"--I did not
know that.

I
can easily bend the strip to the required size. So, what I plan is to
install one 5/16" piece to the canoe by screwing it to the other half of
the
gunnel. Then I will glue the second 5/16" piece to the first, holding it
in place with screws and some clamps.

1) Does this make any sense? Will the cherry strips ever relax, or will
they always be under tension?

They'll relax to some extent, but there will always be some stress unless
you pre-bend them. Kind of like an overloaded bookshelf--it will sag and
take a set but when you take the books off it will still spring back some.
I presume you know to use a long scarf joint between the new pieces and the
old.

2) Is Titebond2 adequate, or should I use epoxy?

On a canoe, I'd use resorcinol myself, but epoxy should be fine. I wouldn't
trust _any_ PVA glue on a stressed part of any boat. Having your glue let
go at sea can ruin your whole day (apologies to Thucydides).

Oddly, one 5/16" strip is much more flexible that the other, eventhough
they came from the same 3/4" piece of wood and look identical.

Wood is strange that way--properties are not always uniform. Just make sure
it's all heartwood if you're looking for decay resistance.

--
--John
Reply to jclarke at ae tee tee global dot net
(was jclarke at eye bee em dot net)