My First Canoe, Old Town Sportsman 119

As some of you guys may know, I'm new to canoes, but not to paddling, I've been kayaking for years, but I'm at a point in my life where kayaks don't work for me anymore. That said, I really don't want to stop paddling and fishing from micro-craft, I enjoy it too much. Enter the humble canoe, the solution to my problem. On my wife's suggestion, I found and purchased a slightly used Old Town Sportsman 119. I read a little about it, and I know it's not the best solo boat out there, but it was in budget and only an hour away so I went for it.

I used some of my kayak stuff to rig it out for the initial lake run and figured I assess everything and make changes from there. Here's the initial rigging.

First she got a good bath, then a rub down with 303 Protectant. (Please excuse my sweat on everything, it was 90° and about 60% humidity. )

Next I dropped in my fishing box from my kayak.


I added a 1/4" Amsteel stern line with a slip ring.


Continued in the next post...

Rusty

I added 1/4" Amsteel bow line with a float. I also added my GoPro on the front thwart rail.



The box dropped in pretty good.



I have a few things I definitely want to do to it after the initial paddle.

First I want to change the seat. The stock seat is comfortable for an hour or so, then it VERY not. It locks your hips into position and won't let you shift at all. I'm eyeing an Ed's Canoe set up or probably do something custom myself. I spend all day/night in my boat at times, it has to be comfortable.

I want to lace the boat. My stuff was sliding around all over the place this weekend every time I'd catch a boat wake. I'm use to my stuff being lashed down on my kayak. I'll probably never need float bags, but I'll be camping and fishing all the time in it and I'll need to secure my gear.

I'm going to add a removable thwart with an accessory rail closer to me. The one that's on there is too far forward to be really useful. It'll probably get the camera and possibly a transducer arm if I decide to add a fish finder.

I think that's about it for now, I'm sure the plan with change and alter as I go, but that's it for now. I'll document all my changes in this thread.

Rusty

Welcome, ROB!
First thing I want to say is - make no apologies for your canoe. Up until a few years ago, I would have assumed that the Discovery 119 is a very limiting hull. But then I follwed a guy who was in one going down a stretch of class 2+ (some say 3) here. And yeah, he was kneeling with a single blade - but he got through the whole stretch of several serious rapids in control and dry.

It may be slow and heavy compared to our favorite canoes, but it's a competent pocket solo, and a very useful boat. It's what you do with it that matters.

Looks like you're off to a good start. I like Ed's contoured bench seats. I find them quite comfortable. Unless you plan to kneel all the time, you should consider a foot bar or foot pegs.

Steve in Idaho said:

Welcome, ROB!
First thing I want to say is - make no apologies for your canoe. Up until a few years ago, I would have assumed that the Discovery 119 is a very limiting hull. But then I follwed a guy who was in one going down a stretch of class 2+ (some say 3) here. And yeah, he was kneeling with a single blade - but he got through the whole stretch of several serious rapids in control and dry.

It may be slow and heavy compared to our favorite canoes, but it's a competent pocket solo, and a very useful boat. It's what you do with it that matters.

Looks like you're off to a good start. I like Ed's contoured bench seats. I find them quite comfortable. Unless you plan to kneel all the time, you should consider a foot bar or foot pegs.

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Thanks for the warm welcome Steve. I'm honestly really happy with my canoe after last weekend, of course I don't know any better either. I've rented tandems a couple of times, but this past weekend was by far the most I've ever paddled a canoe. I've spent countless hours in a pirouge in my youth, but that's a different animal entirely, although, it's also paddled kneeling. That's as close as I've ever been to actually canoeing.

It handles better and is much faster than any kayak I've had, I've always had big kayaks that get blown around a lot though. My wife was a little upset this weekend, hehe, she's always been able to leave me in her wake. She's got a really light SOT 10' kayak and she doesn't carry any gear, so it's maybe half of it's load capacity and she can make it sing with a double blade. I was just using my typical kayak stroke and rhythm in the canoe and she couldn't keep up at all. It's going to make a fine fishing vessel for me and will probably never see class III rapids. I don't think we even have any class I runs down here, lazy rivers, bayous and lakes will be the life for this little boat.

Since my discovery is the Sportsman it has kayak style foot rests in it already. Currently there's no option to kneel the way the seat is designed. I'm a little up in the air about the seat, I'm gonna let that one simmer. I do have a few things on the way to add that I think will help. Most of it is to mimic my fishing set up on my kayak, mainly cockpit storage. I am ditching the idea of the removable thwart, I don't have that much track stuff I want to add once I started thinking about it, I'm just adding a couple of small tracks to the gunnels for my paddle and camera. I'm toying with the idea of using small tracks and eyelets to facilitate my anchor setup up, but it's just an idea at this point. Those could also serve as light mounts fore and aft, I will be going out at night. The plan is to add a little here and there until it does what I need it to do.

I will be especially interested in how you do the anchor setup. I've been considering the same for one of my solo canoes that I do most of my fishing in.

Rusty Ole' Bucket said:

I read a little about it, and I know it's not the best solo boat out there,

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If it fits your particular needs it IS the best boat out there.

Steve in Idaho said:

I will be especially interested in how you do the anchor setup. I've been considering the same for one of my solo canoes that I do most of my fishing in.

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Once I have the parts here I'll mock it up before I drill to see if it's actually going to work. I did a quick CAD to explain what I mean.

This is the idea for off the bow (stern will be similar):

Lots of mod pics incoming later but I have a decision to make. To do the anchor points like I wanted to the best place to put the track is right over the Old Town molded logo. Do it? No? Probably gonna do it.

For me, the decision would boil down to: Are you getting paid to advertise for them? If so, check your contract but, if not...

I finally got some things done this weekend, everything that's going to be done for now, except for a little rope work and anchor lead fabrication. I've been thinking about how to set it up and since will it not only be used for rivers and bayous, but also in lakes, and there's also a possibility I may mother ship out into the edge of the gulf. There's the distinct possibility of some real swells. I thought, "tie it all down and make it float better".

First I did the lacing. I used a 3" frequency for the holes, 5/16" drill bit and 1/8" Amsteel black with 1/4" ID vinyl tubing on the inside to form the loops. I used 2 different lengths of tube, 3 1/2" and 4 1/2", depending on where they fell. I also skipped one tubing loop behind the thwarts. I used a single length of rope and laced from the front to the back. I used the 3 1/2" lengths under the front deck and the chair arms. After watching a bunch of recovery videos I think I want some side air bags to tuck under those chair arms, it's no inconceivable that I might end up in swamped in deep water.

Doing some research I found that 4" to 6" was the normal frequency for lacing holes, but I thought that might look kinda big on this small canoe, so I mocked up a few different frequencies in CAD from 1 1/2" to 6" and settled at 3", I just liked the look better, that was the only deciding factor. I laid out the horizontal spacing on some tape, but could never find a way I liked marking the height so I just measured each one, I dropped down below the gunwales 1/2". I'm happy with the outcome.




Here's a shot under the front deck. I realized after I took the photo that the left side first loop was janky, but there was no way I was going to unlace 45 holes for something that's hidden. I added tube to the center length too, seems like it would make it easier to clip to if I ever need it.


Here's what the finished interior looks like.



I used a spring toggle to help me get it as tight as possible under the back deck then followed with a couple of overhand knots.



Next I added a few small tracks here and there on the gunwales for some accessories. I through bolted on the inside and used screws on the outside. Spots for paddles and poles. GoPro will go on the front thwart track.






That's about it except for the anchor set up, I'll cover it in the next post.

Gamma1214 said:

For me, the decision would boil down to: Are you getting paid to advertise for them? If so, check your contract but, if not...

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Yep, you're absolutely right Gamma, OT ain't paying me squat and that spot was perfect for the track. This is a close up of the stern. I through bolted them with a washer and nylock nut on the bottom, everything is stainless or composite. Dyneema (Amsteel) is really slick, so I'm hoping wear will be at a minimum, if not, I'll figure some sort of shield. I won't be using an anchor on every trip either, lots of times the anchor never comes out.

Steve in Idaho said:

I will be especially interested in how you do the anchor setup. I've been considering the same for one of my solo canoes that I do most of my fishing in.

Click to expand...

Steve, here's my initial concept, it seems like it's going to work. I'm going to make an anchor/drag chain setup instead of using a conventional anchor. I'll post the finished product once I'm done with the rope work and the anchor build. I'll be using 1/8" black Amsteel for this too because it's small, light and super strong so I used the lacing scraps for the mock-up.

This is what I did for the mounted hardware on the canoe. I did change my mind on the Z cleats after they got here, I have a track mount cleat on the way, the mock up has a track mount pad-eye in place of the cleat. The Z cleats just weren't adaptable enough and took up a lot of real estate on the gunwales, the track mount cleat can go into any of the 6 tracks on the boat. The setup will require a little forethought about how I'll be using it each time, but I think it will function right or left side, front or back and be easy to swap around quickly to adapt.

So as you can see above, I did drop the front and rear tracks right on top of the molded logos, worked great, only flat spots on the decks. Each of those got a track mount pad-eye. On the front I added another pad eye to the front thwart to help direct the anchor line, then it will go to the cleat. Like my tape anchor?


On the rear, I added a couple of screw pad-eyes in the rear thwart, one each side, to help guide the anchor line forward. I'm hoping it will still pass under the seat arms with air bags in there, if not they can go over the top, they just sit beside the armrest.

This is the route I hope to use with the anchor off the stern, this will probably be the most used configuration. If the cleat ends up being in the way forward, the paddle clips can move to the forward tracks. (track mount pad-eye in place of cleat for mock-up)


That's pretty much it for the anchor concept and the modifications. I have a few mesh pouches to clip into the lacing to hold enough stuff for day tripping so I won't have to carry my big box. They hold some tackle and basic tools within reach of the seat. If anyone is interested in those I can post up some pictures of them, just let me know. I decided to add a seat cushion and see if it helps with the tractor style seat in it before I swap it it for something else. I'll post up the rope work and anchor once I get them done.

Y'all just let me know if you have any questions, I'll do my best to explain my harebrained ideas.