We took a road trip in October of 2024. I had seen a few finished 15 foot Hiawatha canoes for sale and it became a borderline obsession. Having built about a half-dozen wooden paddling craft I could certainly build one, but I am living in an old house that requires a substantial amount of renovation. I didn’t want to tie up too much time building one of these beauties. Shortly before the trip to Florida, I found a listing for a finished boat in Titusville. We made our way around Florida, visiting various friends and family, and stopped in Titusville. The gentleman selling the canoe had it hanging in his garage, but it was obvious from the condition of the hull, at least on the outside, that it had been sitting upside down in the weather for many years. There were spots on the outside where water had passed through the fiberglass, into the wood, and even mildewed in many places. The old glass would need to come off and new epoxy and glass layed on. She was solid and I decided that, even if I could not remove the blemishes, it was still a sound craft. She would make an excellent lake boat.

We bought the thing and carried it home to North Carolina, where it sat on my front porch on horses until now, June 2026, but at least she was out of the sun and rain.

Fast forward to June, 2026. I started by sanding the fiberglass with 60 grit sandpaper. After about 20 minutes, it became clear that this could take all summer. Applying a heat gun, I started to peel back the glass about an inch at a time.

This was working, but it was still slow going. I wondered how well-adhered the glass was and began to pull it back cold. To my surprise and delight, the breakdown of the epoxy due to UV exposure was enough to allow me to rip all the remaining glass of cold.

In about an hour, the boat was laid bare to what was left of the epoxy. The staining from water and mold can be seen in this photo. Time to put on some 120 grit and see what can be done. To my surprise and delight, the epoxy came off fairly easily, but the stains and water damage sanded off just as quickly. I settled down to the task at hand and resigned myself to sanding until the hull was clean, changing sanding discs about every ten minutes. The wood stripping held up very well. The builder had done a fantastic job with the build and it became obvious that this boat will look like new when she is varnished.

The sanding revealed fresh grain that will come more alive with every subsequent coat of varnish. Much needs to be done before the varnish, but this is probably the most time consuming and critical step and all indications are that she will be as good as new.

This photo shows how badly stained the wood was along with the freshly sanded hull that will take the new epoxy and fiberglass. The rub rail, which had not been saturated with epoxy nor varnished, had oxidized. The oxidation is coming off quite easily and the beautiful red cedar is exposed with very little work.

I will add to this post as progress continues, in the meantime enjoy this timelapse.