After much deliberation (and procrastination) my Dad and I finally ripped, sawed, pried, hammered, cussed, tore, cussed, ground, drank and eventually successfully removed the bottom and chine from my 1995 built Don Hill 16' Standard. It originally had a plastic shoe on it as well. The rot was so bad in some spots that you could push your finger through the plywood.

This boat served me well for 14 years guiding and playing on Northwest rivers. Solduc, Bogechiel, Upper Clackamas, Santiam, Mckenzie, Upper Willamette, Deschutes, Owyhee, Rogue, North Umpqua, Middle Fork Salmon, Straits of Juan de Fuca and even a couple of lakes.

The UHMW shoe worked very well for a long time, especially when you had to drag the boat across the parking lot to avoid a ramp ceremony. However, like some of the folks are saying in other forums, it eventually caused rot from the working screws through the hull, both in the chine and plywood.

After many conversations with Ray, Cy, Randy and my pocket book I decided to replace the bottom with a 1/2 plywood sheet and white oak chines as well as new battens. To top off the bottom there is a layer of cloth and about 5 coats of epoxy resin, two coats having that Wes System carbon powder stuff in it.

Everything went relatively smoothly (one broken chine to do over, my bad) as far as a repair like that could have. I think I could have built a whole new boat in the same amount of time it took to repair this one.

Thanks again to Randy for materials, being flexible and to Ray and Cy for talking me into the cloth and resin route. Lord willing and the creek don't rise, the boat will go another 14 years...