Search results

Untold in marketing and sales pitches is those relatively short solo canoes relate better to kayak paddlers crossing over from the dark side to try theiri hand in a solo canoe. There is little to no learning curve to use a familiar kayak paddle in a canoe that amounts to being an open deck...

I absolutely agree. although I use my carbon bent much more than my wood straight paddles, it is because most of my solo time on the water is spent training and conditioning to go fast than simply cruising just for fun. There are so many more and different kinds of strokes and linked strokes to...

built from this image

I just had a large new garage built at camp last year with a wall of canoes on cedar post racks, made by the same local carpentry guys who make all of my camp inside furniture the same way. Since this photo I have installed a second set for canoes I have for now stored in another shed by the...

Equally, or even more true with a straight blade. After the strong power applicaton phase is complete at the hip, there may be a very sllight extended rear carry through before the blade is sliced up and outward as it exits smoothly without any splash and is feathered through the air to make...

A seemingly small factor indeed for most considerations, except of course during a tight race when 350m over an 8 hour period may or may not make any real difference in a finishing sprint, all else being equal. But rarely is all else equal. More than 110 paddling hours in a 1000 mile river race...

those who do well paddling with a kayak paddle as is required in the solo-rec race class, will use a relatively short paddle in almost vertical format. e.g. Joe Moore, owner of Placid boats, has won almost every solo-rec race he has ever entered. I won over him just once when he suffered an...

No serious racer would ever think of racing with any paddle other than a bent, especially a carbon bent. It only takes observaton, much less partication in one race to know that.

I have no doubt that a single blade paddled on one side only, even with very efficient and rapid rare inefficient necessary correction strokes will be significantly slower overall than rapid hit/sit and switch technique. I can't imagine being competitive in any race in any canoe by paddling on...

I feel confident with my roof top system, mainly due to the widely spaced Thule crossbars and the gunwale blocks holding the canoe firmly in place. I traveled from the Adirondacks to Whitehorse from Dawson City back home again, carrying a carbon C4 (with the addition of a rear hitch tie-down...

It is amazing that with almost any moderate velociity of headwind, your paddling speed will drop off by an average of .5mph. I think this perception and increased effort maintains the average to only .5mph, unless the headwind is very high, and then the increasingly wetted hull surface friction...

Which is the reason I do not like too frequent hit and switch hut calls during races. As I have stated previously, depending on the race team (C2, C4 or voyageur) coordination, the boat tracking, the weather, and the ability of the stern paddler to control overall straight ahead track with all...

Alan, thank you for the extreme effort in collecting that detailed paddling data. Do you have any idea of your stroke rate single and double? I assume you are also very accomplished using a single blade while rapidly correcting single side paddling, not hit and switch. Do you have any comparison...

My favorite twisty stream if Brown's Tact durin the 90 mile race. Most times I am in a multi seat canoe (C4 or voyageur) with me in the bow seat. When I begin my bow draws around a tight bend, the stern paddler must match with an opposite draw to pivot the canoe into the right direction to roll...

Thanks, Art for posting this. i have asked my. 90 mile team to watch it. I remember Charlie Wilson mentioning much of this to me years ago. Imagining the catch going into semi-solid jello and then pulling the canoe past the stationary paddle with paddle blade kept as vertical as possible...

The problem of fasstening a pad to a seat with straps or even using duct tape, is not so much of a problem with a rectangular bench seat or the like. But when it comes to a molded curved bottom tractor style seat on a movable rail or for a floor mounted solo seat, it is not so obviously easy.

Many on my marathon Yukon team have discovered something even more ofensive than a sore bum from hard sitting. We call it "monkey butt". it is a painful chafing between the butt cheeks that sets in after many days-long paddling hours. A lubricating and antibiotic cream applied each morning...

No serious canoe racer would not use anything except a carbon bent single blade.

My first voyageur canoe had hard plywood seats with a thin (very thin) insulating pad on top. (original classic voyageur canoes had only a narrow flat wood bar thwart to rest your butt on). Difficult to take for an 8+ hour race. We looked forward to the ADK-90 portages as a welcome break from...

A woodstrip boatbuilder I know installs thwarts and seats attached with a stress from one side to the other. When I removed the six seats and thwarts from my 34' voyageur canoe for refinishing, after I reinstalled them it flopped and twisted like a wet noodle. Pat told me to put some tension...