u/GooserNoose

Hey folks. I have this older Canadian made fiberglass canoe. I believe it's from the 70s or 80s. It's in decent shape. There's a few small thin cracks in the outer coating on both ends (not necessarily in this area), like spider vein type, nothing serious. One or two dime-sized chips along the center keel through the outer coating, exposing some fiberglass. Doesn't leak. It's stored indoors.

Today when I took it out on the water, I heard a crunching or crackling sound from the hull, directly underneath the left side of the front seat. It did it twice for a total of maybe 2 or 3 seconds.

It held up fine and I inspected it back on land. When I press on the area in question with both hands, it makes the same kind of crunching noise. It's not loud, severe, or any more flexible than any other part of the hull, but it does make the sound consistently in that one area.

Any idea why this might be and what, if anything, I should do about it? The canoe otherwise feels stable and performs fine. I had a mental image of the boat snapping apart in the middle of the river, but I used it for about an hour after it made this sound with no issues.