Looking for some help/guidance to install a footbrace in my solo. Bought a Wenonah adjustable footbrace last year, and I hope to install it before my first trip this upcoming June. I do not want to drill holes in the hull, and my biggest concern is measuring each side accurately. I am the first to admit that I am beyond mechcanically bankrupt when it comes to putting anything together-licking a stamp challenges me. Any and all suggestions would be greatly appreciated-thanks in advance!

Timely post: I just did the same thing this weekend.
Two weeks ago, I rigged a temporary footbrace for 20 mile overnight/20 mile return . It made a huge difference- with power, stability, and all-day comfort. I decided a permanent footbrace was a must. I also chose the wenonah adjustable because it's light/simple/ and Ive used it before in other (borrowed) canoes.
Initially, I had similar thoughts to you and didn't want to put any holes in the hull. Ragged made a super-awesome CNC footbrace mount from alum and walnut that uses plexus cyanoacrylate glue.
This was more project than I wanted to take on, though. (My kevlight Magic already has the seat mounts riveted in on both sides because it was a livery boat)

Alan Gage has posted here and on other forums about his preference for rivet mounts, in that they are simple, stable, and easily removed/filled/repaired on composite boats. He builds his own expedition-specific canoes so he knows what he's talking about.

So yesterday, I measured carefully, and put four holes into the side of my canoe. Pilot hole, and then step-drill up to the 3/16" rivet size. I they fit tightly and popped in easily. They are above the 3" waterline, but I smeared a little silicone caulk on the inside/outside of each one. I had to put the rails 'spanning' one of the foam ribs, so I just shimmed the stern end of each rail out with some washers. It came out great, and no regrets.

Notes:
Beware that if you use the supplied rivets without washers, they will stick out into the channel enough to where you can't slide the plastic bracket onto the rail.
Also, the pinched flat end of the crosspieces likely won't be at the correct angle for your specific install- I had to bend them both down a bit with pliers to make it glide smoothly.

I'll be at the snake river race next weekend if you want to have a look.
Good luck with your install!

With the Wenonah I don't think you can get around drilling holes. Northstar makes an epoxy mounted footbrace. I'll be installing mine this week. If you decide to go with the Northstar call them. I talked to the guy who installs them for Northstar and his directions are very different than the provided instructions.

Like Muddyfeet said I'm a big proponent of just pop riveting them in place. It's a 10 minute job that can easily be reversed later on. I can't think of any good reason not to rivet them. Minor aesthetics are not a good reason not too in my opinion but yours may differ.

Figure out where you want them positioned and mark the first one. You base this location on your leg length in relation to seat position on how much adjustment you want. Sit in the boat to help figure this out.

To get the second track to match the location of the first measure from the center of the seat. Go from the center of the seat at a diagonal to measure the distance to the first one you marked. Then transfer this measurement over to the other side and mark it.

To get the height consistent I just find a block of something the same height as I want my bar and set it on the bottom of the boat. Rest the bar on top of it so that it extends out to the sides of the boat to mark the height.

Then drill 4 holes, dab a little silicone, and pop those rivets. Done.

Alan

Measure twice. Drill once.

Muddy-that looks nice. I have read Ragged's post, and I could not do that with a gun held to my head.

Alan-it is just aesthetics. I may just end up drilling, but man, I want to keep that hull clean!

Thanks for the suggestions, folks.

Here's a footbrace I put on a Magic several years ago. The tracks are a bit overkill, but they have held up well. You will notice that they are bolted to wooden blocks. In a post on the old Solo Tripping web site Charlie Wilson reported that when he was at Bell they used an adhesive called Plexus, specifically Plexus MA 300. I got mine from Jamestown Distributors. I think it was 5 or 6 years ago and they show no sign of coming off.

Bill

quote Frenchy19: "Muddy-that looks nice. I have read Ragged's post, and I could not do that with a gun held to my head.


Alan-it is just aesthetics. I may just end up drilling, but man, I want to keep that hull clean!


Thanks for the suggestions, folks. "

If you decide on the epoxy method message me, I can give you the instructions I received from the Northstar rep at Canoecopia. Its easy to do, the measurements are very specific with no guessing

Mark, sorry I haven't got to your email yet, been absolutely slammed with work/life. I'd be glad to help you out, figure out which route you want to go, get the parts in hand and we will give it a go.

Don't drill that beautiful boat!

quote Ragged: "Mark, sorry I haven't got to your email yet, been absolutely slammed with work/life. I'd be glad to help you out, figure out which route you want to go, get the parts in hand and we will give it a go.


Don't drill that beautiful boat!


"

Thanks, William! I do not want to drill, but I do not expect anything nearly as beautiful as what you did with your boat. Let me know what I need to get other than the brace in a PM when you have the chance.

quote Blatz: "

quote Frenchy19: "Muddy-that looks nice. I have read Ragged's post, and I could not do that with a gun held to my head.



Alan-it is just aesthetics. I may just end up drilling, but man, I want to keep that hull clean!



Thanks for the suggestions, folks. "

If you decide on the epoxy method message me, I can give you the instructions I received from the Northstar rep at Canoecopia. Its easy to do, the measurements are very specific with no guessing"

Would really appreciate the information! Is it possible to email it to me? If so, please do @ mdallmann19@gmail.com. Thanks!

quote WHendrix: "Here's a footbrace I put on a Magic several years ago. The tracks are a bit overkill, but they have held up well. You will notice that they are bolted to wooden blocks. In a post on the old Solo Tripping web site Charlie Wilson reported that when he was at Bell they used an adhesive called Plexus, specifically Plexus MA 300. I got mine from Jamestown Distributors. I think it was 5 or 6 years ago and they show no sign of coming off.


Bill "

Looks nice! And thanks for the name of the adhesive-gonna Google right now.

This is for your Shearwater. Do you have the adjustable seat?

quote Blatz: "This is for your Shearwater. Do you have the adjustable seat?"

Yep.

quote WHendrix: "Here's a footbrace I put on a Magic several years ago. The tracks are a bit overkill, but they have held up well. You will notice that they are bolted to wooden blocks. In a post on the old Solo Tripping web site Charlie Wilson reported that when he was at Bell they used an adhesive called Plexus, specifically Plexus MA 300. I got mine from Jamestown Distributors. I think it was 5 or 6 years ago and they show no sign of coming off.


Bill "

Those are very nice looking!

quote WHendrix: "Here's a footbrace I put on a Magic several years ago. The tracks are a bit overkill, but they have held up well. You will notice that they are bolted to wooden blocks. In a post on the old Solo Tripping web site Charlie Wilson reported that when he was at Bell they used an adhesive called Plexus, specifically Plexus MA 300. I got mine from Jamestown Distributors. I think it was 5 or 6 years ago and they show no sign of coming off.


Bill "

Curious...what did you do/use to keep the blocks in place while the Plexus set, and how long did that take? Thanks.

I was going to try to describe it, but this picture probably shows it better than I could describe it. I guess a picture is worth a 1000 words.

Bill

Sorry, I forgot to answer the second question. The Plexus sets up in about 15 to 20 min. Or was that the time it just took to bake the fish I had for supper ? Whatever, it's pretty quick.

Bill

Bill's install looks very neat and clean and I don't mean to disparage it but if aesthetics is the goal then to me it leaves a little lacking. You end up with 4 small blocks of wood (with bolts sticking out of them?) that will be attached to the hull forever. As long as the foot brace is never removed I suppose it's not a big deal but if you ever need to relocate or remove the foot brace you've got some issues. Rivets would be much less obtrusive and can be painted to match the outside of the hull, making them nearly invisible.

To me the best aesthetics would be a solid length of wood that closely matched the hull (or nicely contrasted) that the foot brace could be screwed to. It would need to be fitted to the hull but it's not that bad of a job. It's more work and still can't be removed from the hull but even without a foot brace installed it won't look terribly out of place.

Again I don't mean to disparage Bill's setup. It looks fine and would work great. It's just one of those personal preference things and to me I don't see a big aesthetic benefit over rivets. But obviously we all see things differently and you've gotta do what makes you happy.

Alan

quote WHendrix: "Sorry, I forgot to answer the second question. The Plexus sets up in about 15 to 20 min. Or was that the time it just took to bake the fish I had for supper ? Whatever, it's pretty quick.


Bill"

Thanks, and the pic is great!

Alan. I do not think your comment is disparaging. In fact, if I could do it over I would do it a little differently. I had an architecture professor who was fond of saying " OK, that will work now lets se if we can make it beautiful". It does work well, in fact I think nearly any foot brace will help you feel more securely attached to your canoe and make you a better paddler, but I've thought about some things to improve its aesthetics. I'm a person who is just not comfortable drilling holes in my boat so that's not a option. Actually, the unit that Wenonah puts in their Canak looks pretty attractive. I think the next time I'm at a dealer who has one I'm going to check it out to see if it could be attached to the blocks I've glued in. Incidentally, the long bolt you see sticking up is the T-bolt that runs in the track and attaches the foot bracket.

BTW, I wanted to thank you again for keying me into the World of Maps web site. I received the Distant Summers Vol. II by P.G. Downes a couple of days ago and I am enjoying it.

Thanks again

Bill

BTW, I wanted to thank you again for keying me into the World of Maps web site. I received the Distant Summers Vol. II by P.G. Downes a couple of days ago and I am enjoying it.

I'm really glad to hear that. I was afraid it was some out of date website and when you tried to order it they'd say it was unavailable.

Alan

quote Alan Gage: "Bill's install looks very neat and clean and I don't mean to disparage it but if aesthetics is the goal then to me it leaves a little lacking. You end up with 4 small blocks of wood (with bolts sticking out of them?) that will be attached to the hull forever. As long as the foot brace is never removed I suppose it's not a big deal but if you ever need to relocate or remove the foot brace you've got some issues. Rivets would be much less obtrusive and can be painted to match the outside of the hull, making them nearly invisible.


To me the best aesthetics would be a solid length of wood that closely matched the hull (or nicely contrasted) that the foot brace could be screwed to. It would need to be fitted to the hull but it's not that bad of a job. It's more work and still can't be removed from the hull but even without a foot brace installed it won't look terribly out of place.


Again I don't mean to disparage Bill's setup. It looks fine and would work great. It's just one of those personal preference things and to me I don't see a big aesthetic benefit over rivets. But obviously we all see things differently and you've gotta do what makes you happy.


Alan


"

You kind of make the point for me. The reason I wanted 4 small points of contact vs 2 long full length strips is in the event I ever wanted to remove it. I could carefully grind off the adhesive, varnish over the spots and they would be almost completely gone, if it looked bad I could even cut out 4 small perfect circles of kev or glass to place over. Full length strips would be 10-15 times the area. Also full length strips would take a lot more time and skill to get the curve just right, and if it wasn't nailed it would look hack, cant really caulk around it. I had a hard enough time getting my little 2" blocks to be contoured to the hull, lots of compound curves up there. If I had a kev light boat with aluminum trim I wouldn't have thought twice about rivets, but mine was a mint Almond pre-ORC Magic with nice would trim, just didn't feel right about blasting some holes in her, have heard of the gel coat chipping as well. This was also before Northstar started up again and the Magics were fetching pretty high prices used so I wanted to molest it as little as possible. As for looks, too each his own I guess, I dig the 4 point setup.

Need to tip my hat to Mr. Ragged. He is helping me with the brace installation, and, as always the work he is doing is incredible. He sent me the following "rough draft" of what each bracket will look like. The wood is cherry...