DIY Canoe End Bags

Canoe end bags are the pyramidal-shaped floats that are inserted into the ends of a canoe to prevent it from sinking. They came about as canoe paddlers tackled wilder and wilder white-water streams. Commercial end bags are typically complex and intricately installed flotation units that stay with the canoe for its lifetime. Canoe end bags can be completed as a do-it-yourself project, resulting in effective and easily installed units that can be relocated to another canoe.

Things You'll Need

  • Canoe
  • Tape measure
  • Straightedge
  • Pencil and paper
  • Permanent marker
  • Cardboard
  • Scissors
  • Two 30-by-38-by-48-inch blocks of plastic foam
  • Dovetail saw
  • Power drill
  • Marine grade vinyl fabric
  • Vinyl-to-vinyl epoxy adhesive
  • Two 1/2-by-20-inch carriage bolts
  • Hammer
  • Knife
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Instructions

    • 1

      Lay a tape measure on the inside bottom of the canoe and slide it up into the prow until it reaches the end. Mark a line on the inside walls and floor of the canoe at 30 inches. Trace this mark onto the top surface of the gunnel, or handrail surface. Measure and record the vertical distance from an imaginary horizontal line just under the gunnel to the bottom of the canoe at the 30-inch mark.

    • 2

      Place a large piece of cardboard across the end of the canoe and extending back beyond the 30-inch mark on the gunnel. Trace the outline of the canoe end on the underside of the cardboard. Cut out the corner outline template with scissors.

    • 3

      Lay the canoe corner template on a block of plastic foam and trace the outline of the corner dimension of the canoe. Use a dovetail saw to cut and carve the block of foam into the shape of the template. Rotate the carved piece of foam and measure and mark the depth distance that was recorded earlier. Cut off the bottom of the carved block of foam at that degree of thickness.

    • 4

      Slide the foam block into the end of the canoe and, in a series of tests and carvings, model the block of foam to fit comfortably inside the end of the canoe and under the lip of the gunnel.

    • 5

      Measure and mark two drill hole locations on the outside of the canoe's hull. Make them both 6 inches down from the gunnel and sufficiently far back so that the distance between the holes, measured through the canoe, is 18 inches.

    • 6

      Use a power drill to drill 1/2-inch end bag attachment holes in the canoe's hull. Reinsert the foam block into the canoe end and mark the location of the attachment holes on the block. Use a 10-inch-by-1/2-inch wood bit to drill a hole through the foam block, drilling through both sides. Use a hammer to pound the 20-inch carriage bolt through the foam block. Remove the bolt, reinsert the block into the canoe and test that the bolt passes through the holes and the block.

    • 7

      Wrap the foam block in marine-grade vinyl-covered fabric and seal it with vinyl-to-vinyl adhesive. Feel the location of the attachment holes in the foam block and punch through the vinyl fabric with a knifepoint. Do this on both sides of the block.

    • 8

      Insert the wrapped end bag into the corner of the canoe. Maneuver the block back and forth while fitting the carriage bolt through the canoe's hull and into the block. Work it through the block and out the other side of the canoe. Bolt the carriage bolt in place with a lock washer.

    • 9

      Repeat the entire process on the other end of the canoe.