The Dry Suit

A dry suit is glorious. It is an expensive body suit that covers from toes to neck. Swimming is a dry event. It adds flotation no matter how much air is burped out of it. There are tight rubber gaskets at the wrists and neck, the latter making it feel like someone has a stranglehold. 
When the sun is out and the temperature is over 60 degrees it is hot to wear. Yeah, Goretex, breathable fabric ... it's still hot. When the water is 35 degrees and the air 60, it's better to bake. If it gets too hot, stop and go for a swim. That'll cool you off in about 60 seconds. 
The Vermont Paddler loves his dry suit. It extends the canoe, kayak and standup paddleboard season by months. Two years of use and finally a germ of a thought came to mind; isn't there some maintenance involved with this $800 piece of gear? The search was on and quickly an article came up on Paddling Light, a site devoted to lightweight canoe and kayak travel. Simple enough to tend to the fabric and zippers, but what of the gaskets?
There's an article on Cerberus that is pretty comprehensive. These folks do canyoneering where they also hit the water, often on purpose. Scrambling up sharp stone walls using ropes and such is way more abuse than the typical Vermont paddler will inflict on a dry suit.
Still, good tips to keep from tearing the essential gaskets and how to reinforce high-wear areas on the suit. If you have a suit and you require gasket replacement, Canoe Imports is the best choice in the northern half of Vermont, if not the state.
See you on the water.

Vermont Canoe Survives

Hurricane Irene ripped through Vermont last summer and swept through the Vermont Canoe facility. The exceptional builder had the usual troubles of a labor-intensive start-up business before the storm. Now this.
Add the fact that their website now links to an international Internet information services business and it looked like they were down for the count.
Not so says owner Rob Scharges.
"Our production capabilities have been significantly scaled back because our production area was destroyed by the flood waters of Irene, but repair is as strong as ever," he said. "We are working on a plan for the future of production. Currently, though, canoes can be built on a special order basis."
Scharges still hangs around with Mad River Canoe founder and designer Jim Henry and began Vermont Canoe after Mad River was sold and moved to one of the Carolinas. Nice that the tradition of building canoes in the Mad River Valley continued.
And still continues. Vermont Canoe is doing repairs on fine canoes to fill the time until they can resume production. Repair has always been part of the business, including restoring wood and canvass canoes, but now it is the bulk of the business. They will repair any brand of canoe or kayak.
Facebook is about the only way to find Vermont Canoe on the web at this writing.
"Our website provider literally disappeared overnite last year. Closed up shop, no notice and left a bunch of us high and dry," Scharges said. "We will put a site up again, but it will be a few more months. In the meantime, we direct folks to our Facebook page."
Best of luck, Vermont Canoe. You do beautiful work.

Chittenden County Boat Repair

Paul Kempner has a small side business of fixing busted up canoes and kayaks. With a heated shop, he can repair wood and canvas, Royalex or composite canoes, kayaks and paddleboards.
He doesn't care if you cracked it, or put a hole in it, had a tree land on it, folded it in half, backed over it, or dragged it behind your car. He has fixed them all.
Paul will also buff out scratches, clean up gel coat chips and replace rotted gunwales or seats. He can fabricate hard or impossible to find parts in whatever wood you desire. His work is excellent.
He likes to create customized kayak outfitting, particularly for sea kayaks. Still not convinced? Pick-up and delivery are also possible and he works on a time/materials basis. Need more convincing? He'll take homebrew in trade.

Paul Kempner
114 Cumberland Rd
Burlington, VT 05408
Phone: 658-3979
pck200@hotmail.com

Skywoods Canoe Company - Wood and Canvas Restorations and Creations

Here's a great resource for antique wood and canvas canoes. Scott's work is really nice and his repair and restoration calendar fills up quickly, so get in there and get that old beauty ready to paddle. Or maybe have a new one built. - Ed.
Skywoods Canoe Company was founded by Scott Barkdoll in 1992 and specializes in the restoration and building of wood-canvas canoes and other small wooden boats.

At Skywoods we have restored over 300+ antique wood-canvas canoes in the last 15 years. We also build new wood-canvas canoes. Our canoes have won 1^st, 2^nd, and 3^rd place at the Les Cheneaux Islands Wooden Boat Show in Hessel, Michigan and Best Classic Small Craft at the Antique and Classic Boat Society Boats on the Boardwalk Show in Traverse City, Michigan. We relocated to Shoreham, VT in 2004.

Most of the wood used is cut and processed locally. We prefer and emphasize the use of native American woods which are easily renewed and not endangered.

Great attention is given to detail and to the care of each individual boat. As much history as is possible is obtained on each boat and care is taken to try to restore the boat to original condition even if multiple restorations or alterations have taken place.  

We carry a full range of restoration materials and information as well books, knowledge, and references about the history of wood canvas canoes.