How Do You Build A Canoe Stabilizer?
An entry-level canoeist may find the canoe slightly tender—the polite nautical term for vulnerability to tipping. Although that tender feeling goes away with experience and more time in the boat, you may want an artificial way to stabilize the canoe. A removable, inflatable sponson stabilizes a canoe when needed. If the canoe capsizes, a sponson stabilizes it for the paddle back to shore. Cut four pieces of PVC fabric into rectangles four feet long and one foot wide. You can vary the length to match the distance between your canoe’s front and aft thwart. Cut four pieces of PVC fabric into rectangles nine inches long by six inches wide. Cut two twelve-inch pieces of vinyl tubing. Brush a one-inch strip of HH-66 vinyl contact cement on one side of each of the four larger pieces of PVC fabric. The strip follows the outline of the fabric; when glued together, it becomes the seam of an inflatable bag. Coat one end of the vinyl tubing with HH-66 vinyl cement. Glue it to one piece of PVC fa
