Canoe stored on side, Repair?

So I just closed a deal on an Old Town Discovery 164 (Royalex/ EDIT: Polylink) on Craigslist, well it seems the pictures posted were old, and when the owner took the canoe out of storage this is what she found:

She apologized that it was stored on its side and warped and thought the deal was off, but I did some quick research and read (on here from 2009) that sometimes sitting it out in the sun will return it to its shape. I also read about some people using a heat gun with success. She offered it to me as a “Gamble” for $150, so I am trying to assess how high my odds are of successfully repairing it. Anyone with experience fixing warped Royalex/ EDIT: Polylink?

Also, how much effect will this have on performance if I can’t return it completely to the original shape?

Was the discovery series ever produced in Royalex?

To my knowledge, they were all produced only in Three Layer Polyethylene, which OT called polylink 3.

Looks to me like it might be the gunwale that is deformed, which the sun will not likely remedy.

The deformity might improve if left in the sun. Or it might not. I would probably use hot water rather than a heat gun for more uniform heating if you are going to try that.

The canoe is not Royalex. It is triple layer polyethylene. The main difference is that three layer roto-molded poly is considerably heavier and is somewhat more prone to becoming deformed over time.

As for how it will affect performance you will need to paddle it and see. I have known people with whitewater boats with one side bashed in pretty badly that still paddled tolerably well.

Both sides of the canoe are warped - the thwarts are the same length no matter what, so if one side is warped in, the other side has to be warped out. If you are trying to get the hull to pop back into the proper shape, you’ll likely do better if you remove the thwarts first, and see if the whole hull will pop back into shape. If you have metal gunwhales, you may have to re-bend those too.

@Wayne_Smith said:
Both sides of the canoe are warped - the thwarts are the same length no matter what, so if one side is warped in, the other side has to be warped out. If you are trying to get the hull to pop back into the proper shape, you’ll likely do better if you remove the thwarts first, and see if the whole hull will pop back into shape. If you have metal gunwhales, you may have to re-bend those too.

Both sides of the canoe are warped, but I can’t see how removing the thwarts will help anything. Leaving the thwarts in place would help ensure that any restoration of proper shape on one side will be accompanied by a similar degree of improvement on the other side. In any case, this complicates the issue of warming the hull to help restore the shape, since both sides are affected.

Also, the gunwales are not metal. Metal gunwales would not have deformed over an extended time the way these did, right along with the hull. Any force great enough to bend metal will bend it “right now”, and any force not strong enough to bend it “right now” never will cause it to bend. Yes, returning the gunwales to proper shape would be part of any attempt to restore the hull shape, but it’s not because the gunwales are metal. It’s because they are not. It’s quite possible though, that the gunwales are already tending to “spring back” to a more-uniform shape since I believe vinyl is less prone to deformation than poly. Also, I don’t believe any special methods are used to match the shape of vinyl gunwales to the hull in the first place. I think vinyl gunwales simply get forced to take the shape of the hull as they are connected and that’s that, much as is true for wood gunwales. Pete would probably know the answer to that.

https://paddling.com/reviews/product/old-town-canoe-kayak-discovery-164-canoe/ My mistake, the second and third reviews on here state it was royalex. Also I had read a few other data sources say the weight is 74 lbs. Currently on the Old Town website, the disco 158 is 87lbs and the 169 is 91lbs, in 3 layer poly. I thought if it was that much lighter than the current poly models it must be true what I read about being royalex. Now that begs another question, if the old ones were still 3 layer poly was it a different kind that was lighter? If so why did they switch to a heavier material? Or is the old spec data on a the few sites I could find wrong too?

I was previously looking at an Easy Rider 15’8" in royalex and it was 66 lbs… that’s even less weight so I do believe it is possible the discovery is not royalex, but then the weight difference is still strange when compared to current poly models.

I believe the last Discovery in the 164 length was made in 2002, is that correct? So much bad info floating around… I also read on another forum that the Discovery 164 “became” the Penobscot 164, but they have a completely different hull shape as the Penobscot’s sides are flared more according to the OT web site (2 in. vs 5 in. of flair). haha good times on message boards.

Anyway, I don’t too much care which it is made of other than for the purposes of repairing it. Would this work: Turn the canoe upside down with the port gunwale against a fence, tie the bow and stern to the fence in a pulley-fashion, pour hot water on the sides and tighten the bowline/stern line gradually while applying more hot water. I see the benefit of removing the thwart and yoke if bending each side individually, but this way I could use them to maintain proper width at the gunwales. Yay or nay?

Would this work: Turn the canoe upside down with the port gunwale against a fence, tie the bow and stern to the fence in a pulley-fashion, pour hot water on the sides and tighten the bowline/stern line gradually while applying more hot water. I see the benefit of removing the thwart and yoke if bending each side individually, but this way I could use them to maintain proper width at the gunwales. Yay or nay?

That sounds like a good plan to me, but I would add two modifications as a precaution. First, the framework you pull against would likely need more rigidity than an average fence. Perhaps you can put a stiff piece of framing between the two ends of the boat, whether or not it’s incorporated with a fence. Second, I think you would want to do this with the boat either upside-down or on one side. Or, if done while rightside-up, apply the water from the outside only. If water accumulates inside the boat, it won’t take long before you have a lot of buffering of cooler water detracting from your ability to heat the hull (since accumulated water will quickly cool). Also, the weight of accumulated water inside a rightside-up hull might tend to deform the bottom of the boat (probably tend to flatten it out against the ground), and you don’t want to complicate the problem.

Maybe you can attach a garden hose to the faucet of an inside laundry sink so you have a steady, large-volume supply of hot water. Laundry-sink faucets are often threaded for attaching a garden hose. Maybe turn up the temperature on your water heater too, because if you don’t need the increased temperature, you can at least extend your working time.

The laundry tap is a great idea, I can use the hot water feed to my washer! Thanks. And I have some spare 2x4’s I can use against the fence for more support.