Drove over to Blue Mountain Outfitters in PA on Friday and brought this one home. This is basically a Bell Northstar duplicate hull only 3 inches longer at 16'9". First paddle this morning and I am very happy with the size and how easy this one paddles from the solo position. I bought a third seat to replace the kneeling thwart if I want to take this one on an extended trip.
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2016 Northstar Polaris
- Thread starter Nodrama43
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It's great having Ted Bell building canoes again. Looks like a great purchase you should enjoy for a long time.
G
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Nice canoe.
OK, truth be told, you managed to escape BMO having bought only a new canoe and a seat?
Nah, come on, what else did you find there?
lol......two seat backs, 3 sets of kneeling pads, a huge sheet of closed cell foam for kneeling pads, sunglasses "keeper" strap that floats, two cans of vinyl bond, and a BMO hat.... They have a left over new Merlin II, a couple of Northwind Solo's, A beautiful Wenonah Argosy in burgundy flex core lay up and I have never seen so much gear. There is nothing like that place in Ohio for sure. They had a good half dozen other canoes I want also.....but I only had room on the roof of the Cherokee for one...
My wife wants to start paddling solo also. I am pretty sure where we will go to look at boats.
My wife wants to start paddling solo also. I am pretty sure where we will go to look at boats.
Good looking boat, happy paddling. Its tough getting out of a good canoe shop with just a new canoe. I got the "keepers", a Fox paddle and Helinox chair.
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Yeah. That is one gorgeous boat!
G
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Nor in most other States.
When you go back for the wife’s solo have a look through the two lazy susan bins on the far left end of the check out counter. All sorts of small outfitting parts and pieces; speciality rivets and connectors, clips, buckles, grommet straps, pad eyes, deck hooks and other hard to find stuff. Sometimes I go to BMO just to stock up from those bins.
And don’t forget the adjacent wall of rope, line and bungee. That is all high quality stuff at reasonable by-the-foot prices, and the staff knows the specifics of each type of rope and line. I do wish they still stocked the marine quality bungee cord with reflective threads; that was the best bungee I have ever used.
I was amazed at the amount of gear they had. I really like that Argosy as well..... I need to take some lessons though so I can actually feel comfortable in a small narrow solo canoe.
G
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I do like my BMO hat, especially the dark bill for glare reduction.
I gotta ask about the “vinyl bond”.
My memory is that that Vynabond is no longer available. I do enough outfitting that I preferred the larger can size of VynaBond and when the availability became limited bought what I thought was one of the last 1oz “toothpaste” tubes of Harmony stuff.
My understanding was that Vynabond actually formed a chemical bond with the vinyl surfaces; essentially that the solvents in Vynabond, which could eat through an RX hull if applied too wet and thickly, reacted when applied between two vinyl surfaces. I have to wonder if those user misapplications is why Vynabond disappeared?
I’m curious about the results folks have had using the generic (or other) Vinyl adhesive for adhering D-ring vinyl pads to Royalex canoes.
I have begun using G/flex for vinyl pad adhesion and I have not had a failure yet.
I never had a failure with properly applied Vynabond either. I did do a poor installation job on a couple of D-rings, waiting too long for the Vynabond to dry (the eat-the-boat parts still scares me) and not using a heat gun immediately before installation to reactivate, but those popped off in hand on a test pull the next day and were successfully reinstalled.
I have found that adding a little perimeter bead of something around the pad, G/flex with a tiny brush or Plumber’s Goop, helps prevent water, sand and grit from infiltrating the edges of the pad.
My preferred method for installing vinyl pad D-rings:
Trace the area with a pencil.
Alcohol wipe the area.
Realize I have wiped off the pencil marks and should have alcohol cleaned first.
Re-trace.
Test how I am going to hold and manipulate the pad into place, especially if working on an area with much curvature.
Coat both surfaces if using Vynabond, or just the boat circle if using G/flex. Heat gun the pad and hull if using Vynabond.
Stick that puppy in place and hope I got it smooth and properly aligned if using instant-stuck Vynabond.
Cover the pad with a square of wax paper.
Lay a couple of large zip-lock bags of sand atop the wax paper covered pad.
Come back every half hour, remove the sandbags and wax paper and check to make sure none of the pad edges are lifted.
Press the edge down with my fingers if it is lifted and hold until stuck.
Recover with wax paper and sandbags.
Repeat.
Go to bed, have nightmares about melting pad sized hole in my boat*
Remove the sandbags and wax paper, paint a perimeter bead of G/flex or Plumbers Goop around the edge of the pad.
*What actually can happen with too much/too wet Vynabond is that it can dissolve enough of the Royalex layers to get down to the foam core, where the remaining solvents turn that foam into a soft, spreading goo.
A story to illustrate. A paddling board acquaintance had expressed doubts about Vynabond solvents eating RX hulls, despite a legion of stories. He was installing some D-rings and swiped the area with acetone, which is safe enough as a cleaning wipe and flashes off quickly.
Unfortunately he didn’t put the cap back on the acetone. Even more unfortunately he left the can sitting in the canoe. Most unfortunately he bumped the canoe before leaving his shop.
The can tipped over and dribbled acetone into the hull all night. Take a guess what happened.
Not sure why I was thinking Vinylbond..... or Vynabond etc.
I went over to my barn and pulled out the cans I bought. One is VinylTech 2000 which is for installing the stuff on the RX Swift. The other is Rubatex contact cement that I will use for the kneeling pads. Also thanks for posting up your process for installation. I am waiting on the Fall Line bags to get here and will get the rigging done. I want to have it ready for another West Virginia trip the week of August 8th. Speaking of trips I am definitely going to float/fish the river there at BMO. I might need another canoe by then as well.
I went over to my barn and pulled out the cans I bought. One is VinylTech 2000 which is for installing the stuff on the RX Swift. The other is Rubatex contact cement that I will use for the kneeling pads. Also thanks for posting up your process for installation. I am waiting on the Fall Line bags to get here and will get the rigging done. I want to have it ready for another West Virginia trip the week of August 8th. Speaking of trips I am definitely going to float/fish the river there at BMO. I might need another canoe by then as well.
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I have an Argosy (Royalex). Aside from a little oil-canning, it a great boat! I have two Dagger Sojourns also (also plastic) that don't nearly oil-can as much but handle similar to the Argosy. Excellent boats! But you right...at first it took me a little getting used to. And still today, not the best boats to fish from
I know this thread is a little old, but...I'm considering a Polaris as a dedicated solo. I'm a bigger guy (6'7", 290#) and looking for a new tripping boat. How big are you, and how does it paddle from the solo position?
Thanks!
Thanks!
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I'm also interested in this also as a canoe outfitter actually recommended a polaris to me for solo use before. I'm also a bigger guy at 6ft 2in, 230 lbs.
Sorry to get back to this so late. In my opinion the Polaris would be a fabulous boat as a solo for a large person. I am only 5'7 185 lbs. and from the solo position I had no problems controlling the boat. I bought it with the thoughts of using it as a tandem with the wife and a solo for me alone.....but things changed. My wife went kayaking with a friend and then we bought two Kayaks for when we paddle together....AND.... I bought a Swift Raven for my dedicated solo river boat. So the Polaris is brand new collecting dust on the shelf. It has seen about three hours of lake paddling and I am going to probably sell it to someone who will use it.
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srobocop sent you a PM. Get back to me.
yes me too. The wood trim adds 400.00+ to the cost over aluminum but it sure is purdy......
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