I recently inherited an Old Town Canadienne from my father in law. There are some cracks and dings to the gel coat over the kevlar, but that seems like a pretty straight forward repair. I noticed that there are many dents on the aluminum gunnels, which don’t really affect the shape of the hull where it would be in the water, but does change the shape above the water line. They are in multiple spots on both sides. Wondering if its worth taking the existing gunnels off and trying to reshape the hull in the impacted areas, and then replacing the gunnels with something new.
I’ve never heard of anyone reshaping a hull. Typically when you take off the gunnels and seats/thwarts the hull returns to a neutral shape and then just needs seats/thwarts to get the width right. It would be nice to see pics. It sounds like your boat needs new gunnels. The key is that you can’t order them because the shipping charge is way more than the gunnels, so you need to find a nearby dealer that can order new aluminum gunnels for you (with no shipping charge) or you could consider using the scarf cut wood replacement gunnels from edscanoe.com.
Your gunwales are in tough shape. Can you get new ones that will fit? It looks like you can drill out the pop rivets and replace them. It would help your canoe a lot. I have a Canadiene, and they are worth saving.
The indentation of the hull is being maintained by the deformed gunwale. If you remove the gunwales I would expect that indentation to go away, or nearly so, without any reshaping required.
I would try to pull them back into shape. It won’t be perfect, but it will be quick and easy. Use a piece of 2X4 that extends beyond the bend. Put a couple of blocks, also 2x4, between the long 2x4 and the gunwale. Place the blocks at each end of the bent section. Then use a C clamp to pull the gunwale toward the 2x4. If needed use two C clamps spaced to achieve a smoother curve.
pgeorg is right. You can make some big improvements by straightening the gunwales. I had an old Sawyer Cruiser that was wrapped. Over time I just used blocks of wood and C clamps and then a rubber mallet. It was never perfect but the hull was fine.
