Rib removal on the 14' Peterborough Muskrat canoe

Old Town Charles River

While the paint is drying on this Old Town Charles River, the time has come to bring in the 14' Peterborough Muskrat  to the shop.

Peterborough Muskrat

I removed the old fiber glass covering and the damaged top row of planking a couple of weeks ago. There are three broken ribs to replace and a lot of split and buckled planking. The planking issues are definitively due to that the canoe had been fiber glassed the last time it was repaired.

There are several methods to remove a damaged rib. As I don't want to damage any good planking which is easy to do when prying out the old clinched tacks, the method I am using here is as follows: I first make a series of cuts with a utility knife along the length of the rib.

It is now quite easy to break apart the rib.

When all the wood is removed  cut off the tacks and push out the remainder of the tack.

The rib is removed without any damage to the planking.