Adjustable removable canoe footbrace without drilling

Is there a removable, adjustable canoe footbrace that can be installed without drilling holes to canoe hull?

I don’t know if this one fits my criteria:
https://www.wenonah.com/Items.aspx?id=29

I can call Wenonah to ask tomorrow.

Or is there a DIY idea that fits my criteria? I have seen some online, but all those required drilling holes.

This is for Grumman 17’ standard canoe. I may want to move the footbrace back and forth, from stern to bow, so it has to be adjustable.

Thank you!

Heavy portage pack tossed on the bottom for your feet? It’s adjustable and doesn’t require drilling…

Sorry, couldn’t resist. Evidently I’m in one of those moods.

Thanks @Sparky961.

Sorry, I am new to canoeing and not familiar with canoe terms. I take that you were joking?

I am buying this for rowing my canoe. The rowing rig has been made and works very well. I just need an adjustable footbrace that can take the pressure from rowing.

@zzffnn said:
Thanks @Sparky961.

Sorry, I am new to canoeing and not familiar with canoe terms. I take that you were joking?

Indeed, I was. I’m sure there are others that will chime in with a more useful/helpful answer soon though.

As a Canadian, I have to add that the idea of rowing a canoe is quite foreign to me.

I see the need for it. My canoe club friends have a Mad River with slotted gunnels that has a foot brace attachment. I thing though they said the model was no longer made.

Thanks @Overstreet ,

Slotted gunwales? That sounds interesting and DIY friendly!

@Sparky961 said:

@zzffnn said:
Thanks @Sparky961.

Sorry, I am new to canoeing and not familiar with canoe terms. I take that you were joking?

Indeed, I was. I’m sure there are others that will chime in with a more useful/helpful answer soon though.

As a Canadian, I have to add that the idea of rowing a canoe is quite foreign to me.

It (rowing a canoe) is just me being a redneck :slight_smile: which is probably foreign to most people anywhere.

The guy who bought my Wenonah Voyager put a rowing rig in it and loved it.

@zzffnn said:

It (rowing a canoe) is just me being a redneck :slight_smile: which is probably foreign to most people anywhere.

Yes, we remember.
https://forums.paddling.com/discussion/2938029/rowing-grumman-aluminum-canoe#latest

Screwing through the hull is no big deal. Put holes above the water line. Pan heads on the outside, think low drag, with 5200 sealant on the holes. Don’t recommend flat heads. Dimpling aluminum isn’t as easy as it looks. With adhesives these days you could probably “glue” a foot brace in the boat.

Back in the day when Grumman canoes were new we put a removable slat floor in the boat and put braces on that. Yes, it was heavier but well we were being redneck engineers………………………

I agree with Overstreet. Drill away. It’s the easiest method, the strongest, and it’s really no big deal to put a few holes in a hull that already had over a thousand holes drilled for the installation of rivets! I wouldn’t even worry about getting the mounting bolts above the water line (any kind of sealant will prevent leaks, especially if those mounting bolts are tight), but they probably will be above the waterline anyway after you decide how high to put the brace above the floor. Use round-headed bolts (slotted for a screwdriver, not totally smooth and round as in carriage bolts), with the round heads on the outside. Placing washers on the outside will allow you to get some extra hull area clamped against the mounts for you foot brace, making a stronger setup, but don’t worry too much about that - I don’t think you can over-stress the hull with a foot brace.

One simple way and costs next to nothing.
A piece of 3/4 " aluminum tubing; 20"long plus or minus. (iron pipe is ok, but much heavier)
Thread a piece of rope through it and then tie one end to the left side of your seat and then tie the other end to the right side of your set.
Adjust the length as required

Jack beat me too it. You may want to add a block of wood or foam to keep the tubing up off the hull. you can drill a hole through the wood and run the tubing through. or use plumbing strap to attach it to the tubing. More redneck engineering. It could at the very least be used until you found a more elegant solution.

Or you could add a thwart ( cross bar at just below the gunnels (top edge of the side of the canoe) and have the foot braces drop down from there. I had a canoe with the thwart in just the right place that I did this too. I made it so the foot brace was removable. To be adjustable you would need to add two thwarts far enough apart with two tracks between them that the foot braces could slide along.

@zzffnn said:

@Sparky961 said:

@zzffnn said:
Thanks @Sparky961.

Sorry, I am new to canoeing and not familiar with canoe terms. I take that you were joking?

Indeed, I was. I’m sure there are others that will chime in with a more useful/helpful answer soon though.

As a Canadian, I have to add that the idea of rowing a canoe is quite foreign to me.

It (rowing a canoe) is just me being a redneck :slight_smile: which is probably foreign to most people anywhere.

Rednecks are everywhere! Some of us are in disguise.

The rope-anchored brace is something I talked about with this guy via email a couple of weeks ago, and suggested it as a way of figuring out proper fit and to get on the water trying out the boat, but not as a permanent solution. Maybe that’s just my take on this, as I have zero patience for things that are far too ungainly in use to justify not spending a few minutes making them better, but think about this. Most of us have seen more canoes set up for seated paddling that have a foot brace (or two) than we can count. Has anyone ever seen such a foot brace that was just improvised with rope and a bar? Not many, huh? (I’ve never seen one at all). There’s good reason for that, and that reason is just as good in this case where the canoe is to be rowed.

Sorry Jack. Nothing personal!

@Guideboatguy said:
The rope-anchored brace is something I talked about with this guy via email a couple of weeks ago, and suggested it as a way of figuring out proper fit and to get on the water trying out the boat, but not as a permanent solution. Maybe that’s just my take on this, as I have zero patience for things that are far too ungainly in use to justify not spending a few minutes making them better, but think about this. Most of us have seen more canoes set up for seated paddling that have a foot brace (or two) than we can count. Has anyone ever seen such a foot brace that was just improvised with rope and a bar? Not many, huh? (I’ve never seen one at all). There’s good reason for that, and that reason is just as good in this case where the canoe is to be rowed.

Sorry Jack. Nothing personal!

I guess you don’t get around too much (nothing personal here too !)
I got the idea many years ago when I saw a paddler who has won and placed in the USCA nationals many times, show it to a fellow paddler who had borrowed a canoe that didn’t have a foot brace

The OP does not want to drill any holes in his boat and this was one solution.
Perhaps you could help him out with a better way

You’re right, Jack. If he really wants to avoid drilling holes, that’s a logical way to go. A couple of us took the approach that he could re-think the idea of not drilling holes (which he has already done for the oarlocks, for example), and recommended differently on account of that, but you stayed with the OP’s original idea.

Thank you, gents. You are all very helpful.

Drilling more holes would be my last resort, as I suspect ropes would be good enough for me. I tested my DIY outboard rowing rig a few days ago and roped wood boards worked reasonably well; only the right side got loose at bottom. - adding ropes there should fix it. I asked here, because I want to see different design configurations.

I understand my aluminum canoe can take lots of screws in lots of places. Indeed, I just drilled 6 holes on it yesterday to install/try a second outboard rowing rig design and to secured my first outboard rig (which revealed 2 loose c-clamps out of the total 6 clamps in my test - so I replaced those 2 with screws).

I prefer ropes, also because we may have 0-2 rowers on the canoe facing either stern or bow. My two DIY rowing rigs allow that flexibility (and I have tested the builds in person). I may have to drill at least 6 holes and install 3 sets of rails, if I do it that way.

Ropes are more flexible, if they work well enough for me (I will test them).