Recent content by M Clemens

I don't recall seeing an Indy with aluminum trim, this may be a retrofit. Many were built without float tanks (as was mine and this one). On the original wood trim, the deck served as a carry handle and a stiffener for the gunnels toward each end (pic below). Perhaps the person who did the...

I had a 97 Osprey, my wife really liked the extra width and the stability it provided. All Ospreys were Royalex. $700 is a fair price IMO, as long as there isn't a lot of wear in the stems, or ugly skid plates. The Osprey came in both two and three seat configurations, the nice part about the...

If you search this site there is a long thread about the fix for this by Black Fly.

You make a valid point; when you think of all the kayak and canoe kits, SOF's and stripper builders there are, the Coast Guard would be inundated with busy work. It is nice to have a number on the hull, though, for the police report in the event of theft.

I just found out Old Town has apparently dropped the Next from its solo canoe offerings to focus on the Sportsman 119 and the Discovery 119. What a shame.

Slipstream Watercraft recently came out with their own yoke designed for their thin and delicate wood gunnels with injection molded plastic clamps. I have been using one for both my 36 pound Lady Bug with wood gunnels and 30 pound Dagger Tupelo with aluminum gunnels with success. If my Swift...

Would be interesting to see the HIN prefixes in Canada's system; their convention seems to parallel ours. There was a recent discussion in the Swift Group on Facebook regarding their non-adherence to the US code, which they changed in 2019 (character 10 still seems to be an issue).

I thought it may be advantageous to have a searchable (Canoetripping.net comes up in a lot of google searches) source for HIN reference material, as so many folks reach out for information. Source code as follows from the CURRENT Code of Federal Regulations: 33CFR Part 181 Subpart...

You've definitely put a lot of work into her. If I could make one small suggestion: having narrowed more than a few Royalex hulls over the years, I've found the stresses on the gunnel rivets to be pretty severe as you pull the gunnels in, at least quite a bit more than the designers had...

I can't remember the last time a Northstar came up for sale. I sold a Hemlock Eagle last year for $1600, but it was Kevlar. I've also sold a Swift Algonquin 16 in Goldenglass for $750 and a Malecite in FG for $700, both mint. There may be some collectible value for Curtis fans, but a 67 pound...

Still thinking about going. Haven't been since 2019 when Hemlock, Colden, Savage River, Stewart River, and Northstar represented. Would like to test the Illusion and June Bug. Hear tell there will be over 300 canoes there this year?

The Illusion is on my want list. I'd be curious as to what other hull you would best compare it to from a performance perspective.

I don't know, can't say for sure. I do relish mornings like this one today though, on Canadice Lake. No wind, no waves, no worries.........

Several Curtis Dragonfly canoes were listed on FB Marketplace over the past few years between $1200 and $1600. The only Kevlar one I have seen was a Colden listed at $3000, not sure what it actually sold for. They definitely have a following though. I just sold my Kevlar Curtis Vagabond for...

I remember asking this question back in 2020 in the old forum, which displayed the active user count. It wasn't clear how it was calculated, but seemed to indicate that a minority of members generate the new threads.