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PostPosted: March 13th, 2023, 1:00 pm 
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Joined: June 28th, 2001, 7:00 pm
Posts: 2900
Location: Freeland, Maryland USA
(Apologies in advance; long, detailed and photo heavy. No surprise there)

A friend asked if there was a “universal” spray skirt. Not really, but some by chance some covers will fit agreeably on other canoes. The snap stud CCS partial spray skirts from the soloized Penobscot.

ImageP3070814 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

Fit well on the soloized Northstar.

ImageIMG_1216 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

Yea!, my two favorite tripping with sail canoes can use the same covers.

Likewise the CCS partial skirts from the Wilderness.

ImageIMG019 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

Fit the Yellowstone Solo

ImagePB260044 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

That of course involved pop riveting matching studs on the Northstar and Yellowstone Solo hulls. Not an ideal solution unless you already have socket matching studs, and the required rivet tool nose piece that fits inside them. And, much as I like snap-on CCS covers, when putting them on snap pressing 30+ spray cover sockets into their respective studs can produce thumb-achy issues. If you have ever used a snap stud cover on a cold day you know what I mean.

I wanted partial bow and stern spray covers for the Courier rebuild, without the need to pop rivet dozens of studs, and had just the thing.

ImageP3080041 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

Those are prototype Mad River IQ System stem covers. One piece covers, prior to MRC marketing them as 2-piece with a waterproof zipper, which was a leap forward for slide-into-gunwale-channel installation ease. The one-piece covers were not worth the effort to “slide” on; forcibly pulling an inch-at-a-time, this side then that side, a not worth it struggle to fit inside the boltrope channels.

(OK, it was worth the effort once. Friend Tom, in a valiant attempt to help install those impossible covers laid on his back near the canoe and helped guide the boltropes through the IQ gunwale channels. Only later did he discover that he had been rolling around in dog shit at the landing. “That’s an interesting cologne Tom, what is that, eau de Poodle?”

Those protype spray shields were at least thoughtfully designed in other ways; 45” long with five sewn-in ached stays, long enough to cover float bags and prevent pokey things falling inside the canoe while upright, and occlude lacing lines getting snagged when capsized or strainered.

ImageP3080048 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

The IQ covers have cord locked tensioning lines, allowing the stem tip back to be pulled back so it is held tight under the deck plate lip, with Velcro keepers for securing painter lines.

ImageP3080045 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

Those repurposed IQ spray covers fit the float bagged Mohawk Odyssey.

ImageP6300013 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

And the soloized Explorer, also with through hull lacing.

ImageP7040001 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

That rudimentary repurposing attempt created near “universal” spray covers, at least for 15-ish foot solo canoes. “Rudimentary” because the cover attachments hastily ill conceived, small PVC pipe connectors hung on short cords, tucked under the already there lacing cord.

ImageP3080050 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

A fugly solution at best. I tried using bungee balls, with bungee and later with cord, but balls tucked under the lacing cord did not hold as well and needed more slack in the lacing than the pipe connector toggles. The less slack needed the better.

ImageP3090002 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

There must be a better solution than those ugly oversized pipe toggles, maybe something adjustable. In an ah-ha moment I practically shouted “I HAVE THE ANSWER!”.

Not only do I have the answer, already I have all the parts and pieces needed. Off with the ugly white toggles, on with a superior solution. Parts and pieces:

16 lashing hooks
https://topkayaker.com/index.php?main_p ... cts_id=425

16 heavy duty cord locks
https://www.amazon.com/Crown-Spring-Cor ... 132&sr=8-2

16 ten inch pieces of braided cordage (the cord locks have a better grip on braided line)
(From the scrap rope box)

ImageP3100019 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

Four tensioning lines in the ends of the stays per side, with deck hooks and cord locks. The lines, once cord lock tensioned, have a porcupine-ian appearance on top, but I wanted enough slack cord to make hooking it in place easy, and maybe a bit more of a “universal” fit for the Odyssey and Explorer.

ImageP3100020 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

The cord lock tensioning helps arch the stays, so the cover has improved drainage, and the hooks are less obtrusive and better secured to the lacing than the ugly plastic toggles.

ImageP3100024 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

It occurred to me, not for the first time, that the modified IQ covers are much like a Northwater Spray cover, just inelegantly simplified stem-splash for canoes with through hull float bag lacing.

https://northwater.com/products/canoe-spray-deck

Another plus to J-hooks and cord locks; releasing the two cord locks and freeing two J-hooks at the ends took seconds, and the cover flopped over to reveal the carry handles.

ImageP3110034 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

The remodified spray covers still fit the Odyssey and the Explorer; with the cord lock tensioning for better arched stays the improved cover fits those canoes better than before.

I expect someone with design skills and sewing abilities could craft something that would fit the stems of multiple solo canoes with through hull-float bag lacing, with an arched stay or two for some directional drainage. Sail battens are readily available in a variety of lengths and widths.

https://www.sailrite.com/Recmar-Plastre ... X6EALw_wcB

Maybe a daisy chain of webbing along the spray cover sides, so the J-hook and cord locks could be attached anywhere along the line matching the through-hull lacing locations.

I occasionally see used canoes that years ago had stud-snapped spray covers, with the studs still installed below the outwales. Useless without the old cover or matching sockets on a replacement cover.

Or are those studs useless? I wonder if there is a way use sockets to snap small cord loops to the existing studs, and fasten the hooks around those?

The already-there studs in the hull would, as always, remain, but the snap fastened cord loops for the cover hooks would be removable, and could be left attached to the covers with loosened cord locks.

I want to try similar modification with another IQ cover. We have a protype one-piece IQ “belly cover” for tandem canoes that was all but impossible to slide into place. MRC made the same zipper addition to later iterations of that cover that were easy-peezy slide in place and zip closed. A zippered one here on an IQ gunwaled Revelation.

ImageP6100010 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

With five arched stays spaced along 72” length those made a functional belly cover for rain and spray, but the long unused zipper-less version is completely useless without some modification.

And now I know how to modify that belly cover for functionality. Makes me wish we still owned a big tandem. Not a 70lb Royalex one.


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