Camp hosted Homecoming last weekend. It was great to meet a lot of old friends again. Sadly, it all ran by too fast.

Saturday evening, my wife and I were sitting on what is now called Junior Point, enjoying the warm September evening. Out of the distance, we saw a canoe approaching. At one point, I realized that this canoe was "Grace", being paddled by two young paddlers.

There were four wood canvas canoes in working order this weekend, and they were sitting on a new rack just about the steps to the waterfront, and they were getting a lot of use this weekend. It was especially great to see the young kids getting such a kick out of using these canoes!

The End of the Week Long Marathon

The survey of Pioneer Camps's wood and canvas canoes identified 4 boats that could be returned to service with only minor repairs and refinishing. This last week was spent getting these canoes ready for next year. It also gave camp staff and opportunity to learn some of the skills necessary to maintain their fleet. Chris Milne has started to develop a log of the work done on each boat and a schedule of future maintenance so that this can be worked into the camp's overall plan. This last process is perhaps the most important in the success of the overall program. Hopefully, the log will start to include the history and stories associated with each boat as well.

The first canoe was the '60th Anniversary' Jamie Thompson. It was fully restored by Doug Ingram in 2002 and only needed some minor repairs to the canvas and repainting. However, to save the original artwork done by Doug ment masking the details which took a couple of hours. Unortunately, cracks in the paint where the canvas meets the outwale has allowed water to get in and begin to rot the canvas. This boat will probably need to be recanvased in a couple of years but it is structurally sound. After a new coat of paint and reinstallation of the stem bands, it is ready to go back into service.

The second canoe was another Jamie Thompson that had been restored recently. The structure and canvas were reasonably sound but it needed a one broken rib repaired (3 breaks in one rib!), minor filling of scratchs and gouges in the canvas, and repainting. This is pretty typical work for camp boats and will become an annual process for staff at the beginning of each season. The work on this boat gave staff the chance to work through basic sanding, filling and painting. The canvas is in reasonable shape and should last for at least a couple more years. During the future recanvasing the broken rib should be replaced. As is usually done, the stem bands were removed for refinishing and reinstalled with fresh silicone sealant. Some of the screw holes needed filling in order to give the screws some 'bite' but this is to be expected. Chris Milne had a chance to see how good a paint job he could do. Of course, after painting there was a couple of hours of picking wayward bugs out of the fresh paint.

The third boat was yet another Jamie Thompson that need a little more TLC. A couple of years ago, someone had begun a restoration. The inside had been refinished and new canvas installed. The canvas needed to be re-stretched before filling and during this process, we discovered the ends of the inwales, tops of the stem, and tips of the decks showed the beginnings of rot. A careful application of epoxy and then thickend epoxy was applied and this should stabilize further deterioration for a bit. Ultimately, this problem will need proper attention. Almost all of Pioneer Camp's canoes have some rot at this critical structural point. As the whole fleet comes back into service, each canoe will have to be rebuilt at this point. Fortunately, a new storage plan is in the works which should reduce this deterioration in the future. Once the stem repairs were made and the canvas restretched, it was filled. Young Shawn Deerborne spent most of one afternoon helping with this process. The filler now has to sit for 3 to 4 weeks to fully cure before sanding and painting.

The final canoe was the most challenging. It is a Chestnut, perhaps a Pal, but is interesting in that it has a mast thwart and in fact the camp has the orginal centerboard thwart and mast. They may actually integrate this boat into their advanced sailing program. The canoe required repair to one one rib, some repairs to planking, sanding and refinishing the interior and outwales, recanvassing, and filling. Camp staff and campers came in to help as time allowed and by the end of the week, the canoe was in the rafters with the Jamie Thompson, waiting for the filler to cure. It will be back in active service in the spring.

Just to get things started.

This is "Grace". Grace is an old Chestnut "Pal" model, 16' canoe.

Grace sitting on the front canoe docks, twilight and half moon. Can it get any better than this?

Here she is paddled by Chris Milne just after being presented to the campers.


Grace had a lot of work done by me, Doug Ingram. The old varnish was stripped, 3 new ribs were installed, a lot of planking replace, the hull sanded, revarnished, new canvas and filler, trim sanded to bare wood and new varnish, broken gunnel repaired, stem and gunnel ends repaired, seats were re-caned, new paint, and finally, Manitoba Pioneer Camp and the name Grace were painted on the hull.

Moirah Harvey helped out by painting the name on the canoe. This work also me the opportunity to share with her the story of how I met her dad at camp. She had never heard the story. What made this even more interesting, is that she was cabin mates with my daughter this session!