Portaging Stabilibily Enhancement Device - University of Waterloo Project

[robb.nelson]

Hello all,

I recently joined your forums as part of outreach for my 4th year design project. We are atteming to design a device that assists in the loading/carrying/unloading of a canoe, including self-stabilizing and a load transfer from the shoulders to the back.

To gain some necessary community insight/experiences we have made a short survey on Google forms to help us identify some key aspects of the design problem to better steer our concept development.

The link to the survy is below:

We really appreciate anyone willing to take 5 minutes and fill this out.

Disclaimer: none of the information submitted will be sold for anything, we are merely trying to gain insight into a community we aim to help.

Thanks alot!

-Robb

 

[Gerald]

Done.

Gerald

 

[BWCA66]

Done, good luck.

 

[goonstroke]

You have my two cents (either kind).

Stability is good, but what we really need is an anti-gravity device. Best of luck in any case.

 

[Boreal Birch]

I hope the Government of Canada is not paying for this study. Maybe this is this some sort of scam that us older folks are suppose to be aware of.

 

[yknpdlr]

Have you ever seen the Knupac, a canoe portaging backpack sold in the 1980's?

 

[Odyssey]

Done. Notwithstanding the diverse paddling community and it's experience, skillset, physical abilities and tripping pursuits this is an interesting engineering experiment. For many portaging might be the most difficult part of canoe tripping, and investigating the possibility of designing a "portage aid" device should be worthwhile if only to answer questions posed by many paddlers, "Is there a better (simpler easier) way?"
Good luck with this study, but I don't know of any improvements on a) peak physical fitness, b) learned and practised technique, c) lighter canoe if needed, d) a properly balanced load. These might be ideals we all aim for and probably differ for everyone.