Building a floor over center ridge in Wenonah Solo Plus

My Solo Plus has a rib that runs up the center of the canoe nearly from bow to stern (see photo) and is presenting some issues for my 100 pound dog. It is raised about 1.5-2 inches which is apparently uncomfortable enough for him to refuse to lay across. First couple of times out, he’d readjust by just wiggling, but the last time out he fully stood up to spin and flop down. Closest we’ve come to tipping so far - no clue how it didn’t go over.

In any case, I simply refuse to not take my dog so I need your help with some solutions. My first thought is to take a section of plywood and it cut it to mold to the sides of the canoe (between the thwarts where hangs out) and narrow enough so that it is supported in the middle by the center rib. I was thinking a heavier foam might work as well, but I’m not sure. Any thoughts are appreciated!

Seen at Tractor Supply…a closed cell foam garden kneeling pad. It’s about 1" thick and approx. 15" X 18" (that’s from memory) and sold for $9.95… Pretty stout foam (dark gray color). One on either side of that center rib should make a nice bed/seat for your pooch. Just offering an idea.

My dad has a slat floor in his 18 ft aluminum because it held the gear up out of the splashed water. Today I’d say that was too heavy. My wife puts some floor mats similar material like the garden kneeling pad in the smooth bottom Mad River for the 85# retriever. She’s also put a dog bed pad like you’d put in a traveling kennel. However he still gets tired of being on one position and gets up turns around and plops down. When he gets hot and wants to go for a swim it gets worse. He stands up and starts to look like he’s gonna jump.

I’m on my second canoe dog and one thing I’ve found is that it is essential that the floor below them has good traction and never shifts around…so a bare Royalex floor doesn’t work and even just a towel is bad since it can slide (so they can’t be confident entering or exiting). I use 2 t-shaped kneeling pads in my canoes with the wide ends butting up to each other so we both have plenty of padded area that doesn’t slip. So I like your idea of adding a piece of plywood cut to the shape of the boat but I might suggest that you then wrap the plywood in foam to help make sure it never shifts…or get a couple of pieces of foam pipe insulation and glue to the edge of the plywood. Or maybe you can just roll up a couple of beach towels so they become long thin cylinders and place them next to your center rib, and then put down a foam pad like a kneeling pad on top of the towels and center rib…since the towels should soften the rib… At least it would be cheap to try. Seems like a nice challenge where there must be a bunch of creative solutions!

I like the first suggestion better than anything involving plywood. If I were doing this, I would prefer to avoid the extra weight, and would aim for having a soft surface for the dog to lie on. Also, plywood will not fit well against a hull that curves in three dimensions unless you are willing to spend an unnaturally long time carving and testing and carving and testing. Once you’ve given up trying to make it fit better, it’s still likely to wobble like a table with one leg that’s too short, and whether you do a good job or a poor job, the areas of contact against the hull will be small, and you can expect high wear at those points.

Plywood might be okay if you put foam, even something like closed-cell Styrofoam, on the bottom side to contact the hull (with a gap provided to fit the ridge). In that case, I’d use quarter-inch plywood to keep everything light.

Use minicell foam. It comes in sheets of various thicknesses. Easiest is to get minicell as thick as the center rib is tall but you can build up sufficient thickness using thinner sheets glued together with contact cement. Minicell is easily cut and shaped. Most boat outfitters use DAP Weldwood contact cement for gluing up and gluing in minicell. Use the stuff that comes in the red and black can that is labelled “flammable” as it is not water soluble.

@pblanc said:
Use minicell foam. It comes in sheets of various thicknesses. Easiest is to get minicell as thick as the center rib is tall but you can build up sufficient thickness using thinner sheets glued together with contact cement. Minicell is easily cut and shaped. Most boat outfitters use DAP Weldwood contact cement for gluing up and gluing in minicell. Use the stuff that comes in the red and black can that is labelled “flammable” as it is not water soluble.

Agreed. Minicell can pad out or level most anything in the paddle sport world.

If you don’t want a permanent glued in solution you can paint traction stripes on the bottom side using the solvent based Weldwood cement that will help keep the pad(s) in place.

Oooo cutting two piece of Minicell foam (one on each side of the center ridge) sounds pretty good. Is it pretty dense? So that when the dog is laying down he won’t sink into the ridge? I was thinking wood simply because he usually sleeps on the hardwood at home (doesn’t care for his fancy memory foam bed) anyway, but then he’d have some traction.

Also, I’ve amended my first idea of using plywood - rather, I’d do some sort of slat system where only 3-4 beams would cross the ridge and be held together by slats that run parallel to the ridge. Would save a lot of weight too.

Might try to put something together this weekend - stay tuned!

Minicell is quite dense. Whitewater open boaters now use minicell foam almost exclusively for constructing pedestals and saddles. It has little “give”.