Recent content by tketcham

For canoe tripping we use a Littlbug Senior twig stove for boiling water, frying, and having a small fire for ambience but for boiling smaller amounts of water and cooking, especially simmering, we use an alcohol stove. It's a MiniBull Bongo Pro (plus turbo ring) with a Big Gulp Remote reservoir...

This our new Swift Prospector 13 solo on our Subaru Crosstrek. This is the first time I've had the canoe out since I picked it up over at Tupper Lake a couple weeks ago. Thought I'd take advantage of a warm April day to test it out. First impressions are not always worth paying attention to but...

No worries, I wasn't offended. I was going to explain in my earlier post but didn't. I guess I didn't explain well enough that the bolt that slides into the plastic knob probably has a squared section (right below the round head) that fits into a corresponding inset in the knob, just like a...

I figured that would look funny. I'm going to do a lot more rasping and sanding than just those ends. The yoke is beefy enough for a Royalex tandem expedition canoe but the yoke is being used with an UL solo so I'm going to carve away a lot of excess material. And yes, it will be lighter in...

I checked and a standard SAE 1/4 x 20 nut fit onto the bolt just right. I bet one of those 1/4" carriage bolts (or similar) would work well. The hardware store might even have some of those specialty stainless bolts and I've seen those keeper washers as well.

Here's what the bolt assembly looks like. It looks like the bolt head (probably with a square underside) fits into the nylon handle. I didn't try to pop it out of the handle to confirm. The friction keeper washer has a small nylon inset. Those pencil marks are where I roughed in an area that...

If your yoke is long enough to reach across each rail at midpoint I don't see why you couldn't drill out holes or channels in the yoke to retrofit with something from a hardware store or perhaps from Swift. Yes, the bolt length would have to accommodate the yoke thickness and have sufficient...

This discussion at BWCA.com provides some background... Some history of Curtis/Bell/Hemlock tandems Scroll down to read Charlie Wilson's reply.

My bad, the Curtis tandem I have is the 16' Northstar; Kevlar with gel coat. I bought it used and it had minor scrapes and gouges and I haven't put much additional wear and tear other than bouncing down shallow sections now and then. It's not a rock bashing canoe but gel coat helps absorb the...

Well, that isn't the prettiest layup I've seen, that's for sure. But I've owned famous brand composite canoes where the interior epoxy layer has voids and one had a few places where the fabric edge was raised up. I sanded down the sharp edges and called it good. You could always run a bit of...

I don't think there's any one canoe design or layup that is the best overall because we all have different perspectives based on experiences and expectations. And our lives change over time so what might have been the best canoe when younger isn't going to be the best canoe when older. Plus, a...

I think you misunderstood what I was trying to convey. I put the stern forward because it extends further out from the roof racks when the widest portion of the canoe is centered between them. By having the bow to the rear of our hatchback the canoe doesn't stick out as far, there's less canoe...

I've been orienting our 18.5' Odyssey with the stern forward because when we center the widest section of the canoe between the two roof racks the stern section extends much farther than the bow section. Might not matter much with a sedan but with our hatchback it makes a big difference.

DNF

I think you may be blurring the line between standard features and extras, especially if a particular canoe isn't a whitewater or pack specific model. If the canoe you're talking about isn't, then most people may not want the extras you want and why should they have to pay for things they won't...