It’s my impression that, as Mike noted so eloquently, love of canoes seems bounded to the older generation. I’m not 50 yet, but not “one of the kids” anymore; the divide is wide as far as I’m concerned. That said, as far as I know all the great designers are also long in the tooth. As are many of the builders. Do y’all get any sense that there is a next generation in the wings ready to keep things moving?
Jim sold MRC to Kay in 1987. He was not involved in the sale to Confluence.“I recall hearing in the '80's from an industry source who knew all the players personally, how Jim Henry would proclaim (perhaps when slightly lubricated) that he would bury Old Town. Well, OT isn't yet buried but they are only a skeleton of what they once were—now pumping out only a relatively few cheap, heavy, plastic open canoes, along with heavy plastic kayaks.”
I can’t blame owners for taking a buyout when the getting out is good, perhaps excepting private equity firms with no canoe skin in the game.
I hope Jim (Kay?) Henry got a decent price from Confluence. I believe some of the canoe manufacturers gone-by received dang little; thinking of Sawyer, or more recent small niche builders who have folded, sold or are wanting to sell with no White Knight buyer appearing.
What does Old Town Canoe, eh, I mean Old Town Canoe & Kayak, still make canoe wise? Naught but a few heavy poly hulls.
https://oldtowncanoe.johnsonoutdoor...3.2095646802.1649357133-1272925554.1649357133
The end of OT canoes may not be nigh, but there is nothing in that line I would care to own.
“some people just can’t beat the prices of a kayak/canoe from Costco”
Playing the foil once again, if a $200 big-box rec SOT or sit-in, with paddle included, gets folks started, and they become advocates for access and clean water, well, I guess I can live with that.
A bunch of geriatric old farts, barely able to get in and out of a canoe, however vocal, do not a future make.
Jim sold MRC to Kay in 1987. He was not involved in the sale to Confluence.
There is virtually no wear of significance to the abrasion plates except a couple of minor scratches but as can be seen the significant wear is on the keel strip amidships.
Pete, much the same occasional maintenance with various routinely abused vee bottoms.
Wear primarily in the center bottom of solo canoes, most especially highly rockered solo whitewater canoes, is common. All my whitewater solos wear first under the solo seat, especially if that seat is a saddle jammed under thwarts, which prevents bottom flex.
I wouldn't attribute this amidships wear phenomenon particularly to a shallow V bottom. Although the center wear will certainly show first along the ridge of the V, it shows up in the same place on my arched and flattish bottomed whitewater canoes, too. The bottom center is where the rock-scraping deepest draft is, as Pete says, and also because the ends are highly rockered, which gets the stems further away from abrasive geology.
A few years back I did volunteer work for a conservation society that ran canoe outings on a local creek and local lakes. They had a fleet of Royalex canoes which were of pretty good quality, mostly molded by Dagger, Bell, and Wenonah with some rebranded and sold by Galyans (Woodsmans). I did most of the maintenance work on these boats.“Wear primarily in the center bottom of solo canoes, most especially highly rockered solo whitewater canoes, is common. All my whitewater solos wear first under the solo seat, especially if that seat is a saddle jammed under thwarts, which prevents bottom flex.”
That is certainly true of heavily rockered WW solos.
I will admit, even confess, that the stems of our tripping canoes are the first place to show worrisome wear.
“Confess” because I do sometimes drive the bow ashore when wind, wave and water depth makes that an easier option than coming in sideways and wet footing over the side.
And “confess” that the worn sterns are in part from me dragging the canoe ashore for short distances. And in part because I like my canoes trimmed a little bow light, so the stern, skegged a bit, is the area that first grumbles across a not quite deep enough shallows.
On our shallow vee boats the center wear does concentrate at the apex of the vee, on our shallow arch or even flattish bottomed hulls the centered bottom scratches are more diffuse.