How many canoeists do we have here?

DOC-CANADA said:
Codger, I have never sailed a single canoe (yet), but long ago I bought a book called 'Sail Your Canoe' by John Bull. In it he describes the set up for different kinds of sail rigs and daggerboards etc. Maybe one day, not dead yet.

We did sail tandem canoes quite often, though, and man, could we get some speed up. One time on the Gibson River, one of my buddies tried to troll a lure and all it did was bounce along on the surface. Had we hit a rock, I think the bottom of the canoes would have ripped off. I kind of think I have a picture of that somewhere. Have to look a bit harder.

Doc
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I've seen a few antique canoes over the years that were purpose-built for sailing. My adventures were more along the lines of taking advantage of tail winds. I never used a real sail or a daggerboard, just a deeply held paddle and an impromptu rigged sheet, such as a military poncho. At the same time as I was learning to canoe at the military academy, we were learning to sail little plywood dinghys. It doesn't seem too unnatural to combine the two when conditions are right.
 
Codger_64 said:
russamurai, A very nice canoe! I've always had wood & canvas envy, but know that I would kill one in short order. I just frequent too many rocky streams with shoals and drops! More pictures of that one please?
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Codger, the Merrimac is a suedo wood and canvas,( glass boat) but they are purdy.
 
two questions:
I have a 2man 14' mad river canoe. noticed it has lots of bow in the air if I am in the rear seat alone. Is there any way to ballast it to make it useful as a one manner?
second, how do you guys manage pick up vehicle on a solo trip down a river or creek ? seems it would always take a second driver to deploy the pick up vehicle
 
Ahhh! Ok. More durable than the canvas covering? Or can I break it just as bad on the rocks? I agree it looks nice from that picture. If I didn't know better, I'd be tempted to put ash gunnels on my OT. But... silk purse / sows ear...

:)
 
deltablade said:
two questions:
I have a 2man 14' mad river canoe. noticed it has lots of bow in the air if I am in the rear seat alone. Is there any way to ballast it to make it useful as a one manner?
second, how do you guys manage pick up vehicle on a solo trip down a river or creek ? seems it would always take a second driver to deploy the pick up vehicle
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If your seats are flat, sit in the bow and face the stern to paddle. That puts you closer to center. Or you can put weights in the front for ballast. Rocks or water containers work.

I use a livery service to take me to the put-in and leave my truck at the take-out when I can. If not, I have the livery pick up my truck at the put-in and deliver it to the take out on a specified day. Normally costs $20 for the one way.
 
I have a short bed f150 and a 14' mad river canoe. someone said I can get a canoe cradle that fits in the trailer hitch and has an arm that comes up to bed height with a u-shaped cradle to hold the canoe
. does anybody have experience with such equipment?
Codger_64 said:
You really need two ropes both front and rear, not one. Tie them in a triangle arrangement. /_\ That stops the shifting. And the trucker's hitch will not usually loosen unless you use rope that stretches. Even then, they are easily retightened.

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I leave the twin ropes on each end attached to my canoe for painters to aid in lining around obsticles or in mooring. Of course they are rolled up and secured to keep them tidy and not be an entrapment hazard.
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A bed extender won't gain you much.
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This Yakima might help.

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I carry mine like this except with the bow down on the toolbox and with plenty or ratchet straps.

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deltablade said:
two questions:
I have a 2man 14' mad river canoe. noticed it has lots of bow in the air if I am in the rear seat alone. Is there any way to ballast it to make it useful as a one manner?
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On some trips I end up solo paddling a "gear boat" for our larger groups or inexperienced paddlers, which consists of a 16' two-man canoe...one of the joys of being a stronger paddler. I personally find that I have much better control and comfort if I ballast the craft evenly from bow to stern and kneel in the center. I typically paddle from a kneeling position anyway even when I'm at a seat (more control, lower center of gravity).
 
I was thinking that a 40# sack of sand or two in the bow would be about right
Raskolnikov said:
On some trips I end up solo paddling a "gear boat" for our larger groups or inexperienced paddlers, which consists of a 16' two-man canoe...one of the joys of being a stronger paddler. I personally find that I have much better control and comfort if I ballast the craft evenly from bow to stern and kneel in the center. I typically paddle from a kneeling position anyway even when I'm at a seat (more control, lower center of gravity).
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Yes Codg, it is a fiberglass number. The boat has an incredible feel and flex to it, very sensitive. I'm by no means an expert, but I can tell you it handles like a dream. Just seeing it hanging in my shop gives me the shivers, its a piece I hope will stay in my family for the rest of its life. The man I bought it from had a dozen canoes including some century old all wood canoes. I wish I had a picture of one in particular he showed me. A 15 foot Herald with 16,000 nails in it! Just imagine the work that went into that canoe! Good God. The Merrimack was a giveaway, I picked it up for $500, I'm guessing its worth much more. The seller was a restorer and was insistent that it went to a young man with an appreciation for wood craftsmanship, and a prerequisite for the low price was showing him a current project. Since I was well on my way to finishing my workshop, I showed him pics, and the deal was done.
Here's a pic of the canoe in my shop in progress... I built a pulley system to lift it up 15ft in the air. The shop is a mess in this pic, but in the next couple months I'll be able to back my Dodge in and lower the boat right onto my lumber rack.

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Cool! I bet you won't treat that canoe like I do my plastic ones!

A note on adding significant ballast to a canoe: Think of what happens when it gets swamped?
 
deltablade
I have a 2man 14' mad river canoe. noticed it has lots of bow in the air if I am in the rear seat alone. Is there any way to ballast it to make it useful as a one manner?
Click to expand...

Nothing should stop most folks from adding a middle seat. At 14" your boat is about26-30" wide. It might be a bit more unfamiliar feeling, but doable for a solo.
Mount the middle seat about @-3"s back from the center. Stow gear fore and aft to best balance from there.
 
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Found a couple of sailing pictures.

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Gibson1.jpg


This is one of our early efforts. Later we lashed a horizontal pole, just down a bit from the apex of the A-frame and rigged a square sail.

Doc
 
Doc, that is semi-sorta the idea I used to rig a sail on my canoe, but much smaller and less elaborate. Googling "canoe sail", "Images" brings up some interesting pictures. I had seen those round spring-frame jobs on eBay and thought they looked interesting. I am going to get a pole this spring and try my hand at poling upstream. I've poled before, but never with a purpose made pole of the length those guys are using on youtube.

John, thanks for sharing the pictures! I love that last one particularly. It reminds me of a lot of my trips on the BNR many years ago with the steam/fog rising off the water early in the morning..
 
This is the normal river level at the Hwy 14 bridge, one of the very few that cross th eBuffalo.

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This is the highest I have floated the river. Actually, when I drove across teh bridge, water was running across the deck. I had to drive to the very top of the river to put in and it was one heck of a ride!
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That was a record flood back in 1983. We wound up running the Hailstone section which is class III/IV in normal optimal flow. This was in teh old COleman with styro billet floatation.

Here is a vid of it (not mine).

[video=youtube;eBeTGoKKHVc]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eBeTGoKKHVc&feature=endscreen&NR=1[/video]
 
Codger - Several years ago I took a group of college students from Springfield MA on a trip down the Buffalo. We passed under that bridge. AMAZING trip!! The most amazing part though was seeing tires, and house siding, and even a 100 lb propane tank stuck in the trees forty feet in the air. We were told these were the remains of the flood you mention.

I did the 9-day trip solo in one of my cedar canvas canoes. I paddle solo all the time and was just fine, but the canoe.....won't do that again! Complete canvass replacement upon return. Y'alls got some damn sharp rocks down there and when I did the river there was a lot less water than shown in that video!

BTW - The surrounding region(Buffalo National Forest and the Ozarks) is some of the most beautiful countryside I've had the pleasure of visiting.
 
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