My Shaw and Tenney Paddle
Posted: Thu Oct 15, 2020 3:55 pm
In the summer of 2018 I purchased a new "auxiliary motor" in the form of a canoe paddle from Shaw and Tenney. Let me tell you it was a work of art and I debated just putting on my wall at home rather than taking it on the boat! However, on the boat it went. Since it was only to be used in emergencies it didn't get much use and stayed inside of the cuddy for the most part. A few weeks ago I pulled it out as I wanted to mount it in the cockpit where I could have better access. The horror, the horror. I discovered a crack in the blade about 4 inches long! I have no idea how that could have happened except that once, when I had the boat at Crystal River the boat flooded and was almost swamped for about 1 week. Now, Kings Bay is salt water. An alternative is that in my klutzy fashion I stepped on it or put something heavy on it. Anyway, I contacted Shaw and Tenney and told them I thought I could repair it. They gave me good instructions on what to do. So, I set about repairing the crack. I used a premium grade marine epoxy. Wonder of wonders, I did an excellent job of repairing it. You can't see the crack, it looks like an extension of the wood grain. S&T also told me I should put more varnish on it as it had started to fade. I spent a day sanding it down and making it as smooth as a piece of glass. I applied varnish on one side and it turned out beautiful. I then varnished the other side and also put it in my garage to cure. Unbeknownst to me ,while it was still tacky, Petunia, my rough coat Jack Russell Terrorist (sic) got into my garage, found a terry cloth towel and proceeded to shake the towel like it was a rat!! In a matter of seconds half of the fibers from the towel and hair from the dog were flying all over my garage. My paddle ended up looking like one of those hideous "flocking" jobs so popular in the 1970's. My beautiful paddle looked like a drowned otter! So, now its back to sanding the paddle and revarnishing it. This time I will insure two things, one, Petunia doesn't get within two blocks of my garage and two, I leave NOTHING on the floor that even remotely looks like something a JRT would want to dispatch! Wish me luck.
