Canoe cockpit luggage?

[JeffOYB]

I want a canoe cockpit. Fabric pouches for drinks snax phone easy access. Lay out fishing lures. Make a sandwich. Maybe a bit of flat surface. Snap on. Buckle clips cinch it snug. Maybe located at sides. Maybe in front. Maybe wrap around. Zippers? Waterproof pouch option? Do such things exist? Like a handlebar bag for canoer

 

[gumpus]

Seems like a backpack made for fishing might suit your needs.
https://www.walmart.com/ip/Wild-Riv...2572833?wmlspartner=wlpa&selectedSellerId=0&a mp;adid=22222222227017092242&wl0=&wl1=g&am p;wl2=t&wl3=40969951952&wl4=pla-78912678512&wl5=9017364&wl6=&wl7=& wl8=&wl9=pla&wl10=8175035&wl11=online& amp;wl12=22572833&wl13=&veh=sem&gclid= EAIaIQobChMI5PnSw8LC3QIVCqtpCh3rLw-GEAQYAyABEgIJovD_BwE
They make thwart bags for,canoes,but I don't find them very convenient and I prefer a day pack. Just FYI Cooke Custom Sewing does make one padded canoe seat cover that includes a zippered pouch on each side. I have one and it is very well made like all of their stuff.
https://www.shop.cookecustomsewing.com/product.sc?productId=27

 

[Guest]

I want a canoe cockpit. Fabric pouches for drinks snax phone easy access. Lay out fishing lures. Make a sandwich. Maybe a bit of flat surface. Snap on. Buckle clips cinch it snug. Maybe located at sides. Maybe in front. Maybe wrap around. Zippers? Waterproof pouch option? Do such things exist? Like a handlebar bag for canoer

There are all manner of thwart bags, none of which I have found very useful. Wilderness Systems made a Fishing Console for some of their rec kayaks. Fugly, and not very customizable.

https://www.wildernesssystems.com/us/products/kayak-konsole

I am sure you can make something more tabletop-ish if that’s what you have in mind, with design features that meet your desires.

I have a piece of waterproof Packcloth with nicely sewn edges and snap rivets on the sides, made for another project but (don’t ask) cut and hemmed several inches too short.

It is large enough to stretch across the mid-section of a wide solo just in front of my knees and extend a couple feet towards the bow. It may get used or that purpose eventually, with some clips for map case and etc attachment, but it would not be rigid and making a sandwich on it might be an adventure.

I use a “utility thwart” on all of our solo boats, just at the edge of the partial spray cover.

P1220461 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

P2010497 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

P2160528 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

P3200676 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

Those are installed with machine screws and drops because I always want the sail mount available. But you could easily make a flat “tabletop” out of varnished ¼” birch plywood (or better stick) and use a set of universal yoke clamps to attach it between the gunwales. Customized with pouches for drinks and electronica, something stick lure hooks into, sunglasses bungie, deck hooks for a compass, clips for a map case, etc.

That would resolve the rigidity issue, and make it really easy to attach the custom features; simply screwing in pad eyes, deck hooks, webbing loops or clips.

Of course there is always this for drinks and etc.

PC280250 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

I am psyched to see what you come up with.

 

[Prospector16]

Here is what I do - see the canoe on the left and all the small dry bags on the rear thwart. From left :
- water bottle
- 3L dry bag with headlights
- 5L red dry bag with electronics including solar panel, cables, chargable batteries
- 5L yellow dry bag with day's supply of food while paddling
- 10L dry bag for odds and ends. Map. Mini tackle box that gets adjusted every morning. antacids. mini med kit.

Fixed link:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/rKLXFtekyByzD2gk6

 

[yellowcanoe]

Can’t see google photos unless you change your settings

 

[Prospector16]

Dang it I tested it with another browser not logged in - let me try again.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/rKLXFtekyByzD2gk6

I will also go edit the above to remove the flawed link.

 

[Prospector16]

The only 2 things I think I am missing for my cockpit is a good mount for phone / GPS, and another mount for a paper map. GPS / phone mounts I'm going with RAM mounts. By far the best supplier I know of here in Canada is https://www.gpscity.ca/ram-mount (no affiliation). That part is easy. I've tried a few things so far for map mounts and have not yet found something that works well.

This may not be what the original poster was looking for but I find it works well. It only takes a few seconds to get what you need out of a bag when you have a system with smaller bags like that where each bag is a different category of item. And each person may have a different categorization system.

EDIT: it is also easy to portage - you just clip them all together and then onto a bigger pack if you want. Away you go.

 

[yellowcanoe]

And nothing at all in the kayak save a couple of foam rolls! tee hee... Now come clean what did you paddle?

 

[Prospector16]

The compartments in the kayak were pretty full - that was our first time using it actually since I bought it off kijiji last fall. My teenagers took turns in the kayak. I did not get in it the whole trip. Actually I should post it in trip reports ...

 

[Steve in Idaho]

I seem to recall that Old Town offered a "workstation" for the Pack. It was a fabric (stiffened?) platform that, IIRC, was attached at four corners with fastex buckles to the gunwales, just ahead of the seat. If I wanted that sort of thing, I would just make one. You could include battens in sleeves for stiffness, and it could still be rolled up when not in use. Could also add a net pocket for drink container, pouches, etc.

 

[JeffOYB]

Thanks for the ideas! (...And that looked like a well-organized family boat trip in that linked pic!) I'm liking the idea of installing an accessory thwart in front of my feet -- a 6" wide piece of wood, say, w drink holder and socket-mounts for GPS, phone, and a handy flat surface for fiddling w stuff. I suppose the "desk" would be located above my feet so I can reach it. I like the idea of it being easy to remove and installable in other boats.

For now, I've just started jiffy testing w a carpenter's tool-belt and a fanny pack. Here's a pic. I haven't used it yet.

(Lately when I canoe alone I'm on my neighborhood river which is a crazy place only a foot deep and jampacked w obstacles so I prefer to have nothing in the boat w me so i can just get out and fling it around. Ideally a solo boat wd be about 15 feet long w rocker. Mine works, has worked, on this river for decades but is comical sometimes.)

I used to have a bike water bottle cage and that was very handy. It disappeared but now is reinstalled. It's hard to see next to the black fanny-pack. I could put one on both sides of the seat.

It might be neat to have a cooler that didn't tip over -- that is, was lashed in place. Maybe a soft one.

Someone else shared a link to "saddlebags" for bench-seats for sale at the BWC online catalog -- they look good, too. I have boats like that, so will take a look at them for suspending pouches from those kinds of seats.

 

[Guest]

Someone else shared a link to "saddlebags" for bench-seats for sale at the BWC online catalog -- they look good, too. I have boats like that, so will take a look at them for suspending pouches from those kinds of seats.

We have tried a variety of thwart bags, underseat bags and side seat bags. I will now complain about almost all of them.

The thwart bags, if hung from a thwart close enough to reach into, dangled against my ankles and were in the way of getting my feet in and out. Underseat bags were in the way of kneeling and, worse, required a blind grab and tactile grope around for what I was looking for. Side seat bags were somewhat less of a kneeling issue, but were hard to peer into, and like the underseat bags had zippers.

Anything with a zipper was problematic for me, in part because zippers can eventually suffer from grit and saltwater, but also because most required two hands to open, one to hold the bag, one to pull the zipper. Anything with a waterproof zipper definitely needs two hands.

One style bag that did work well was a thwart bag, retrofitted to hang from the inwale, kinda like your tool belt.

My wife still uses an “Otter Pocket” bag, which is basically a nylon envelop (without the fold over flap) hung via cord between deck hooks on the inwale. An even better version was a “NutSack”, a DIY thing made by a friend, much the same design but using bungee instead of cord, so it was easier to stretch open and look into, and a fine weave mesh material instead of nylon, so it better drains water (the OtterPocket after a hard rain became a mini-swimming pool, and I stuck a couple drainage grommets in the bottom).

My favorite catch all bag for canoe use is the simplest and least expensive, a small soft side cooler. There are hundreds of soft side cooler designs and dimensions, so lots of personal choice. The best of those I have found have been:

A 6-pack sized soft side cooler that has a hard plastic liner and plastic lid with lip inside the fabric skin. The lid has no zipper, but the lipped lid closes snuggly via a Velcro tab. It only takes one hand to open, I can see inside at what I am looking for, it is waterproof (at least in terms of rain or bilgewater), it floats well, it has an outside mesh pocket and a carry strap. Since it holds my “essentials” it is easy to set beside my chair in camp (the OtterPocket or NutSack are less handy in camp use).

The other soft side cooler has become my usual “essentials bag”. That one is a long narrow cooler, 16” long x 6 wide x 6 tall, with an opening at each end. It was designed to hold 12 cans, loaded from one end and retrieved from the other.

The 6 x 6 dimension is really convenient; it fits under the seat or between my feet and legs and is easy to pull towards me to extract whatever I want from either end. It is slender enough that it works even in narrow boats, and in the decked canoes between the foot pedals. I love the design of that slender cooler and have been looking for another one (Polar Jacket 12-can Dispenser) for years.

Another simple catch all is the DougD favorite for use with bench seats; some mesh netting suspended pouch-like between the side of the seat frame and hull.

None of those favorites, Otter Pocket, NutSack, soft side cooler or seat side mesh pouch, is waterproof. Those things I really need to keep absolutely waterproofed go in a small dry bag or Pelican box, or go in a tiny waterproof bag inside the soft side cooler.

Back to the solo canoe “table”; that rigid platform, in combination with a simple soft side cooler, would seem the best of both worlds. I am intrigued by the fishing lure aspect, having a little strip of minicel affixed in which to embed hooks when changing lures or rigs. That naked hook bit always bothered me when fishing from a canoe.

 

[gumpus]

Hey Jeff, are you saying that your canoe didn't come with a cupholder and a shelf?

 

[JeffOYB]

nice! thoughtful designer w that molded feature -- i could maybe add something like that w cut'n'glued foam.

thanks for all the good notions. i suppose we all jury-rig and adapt. i like the idea of maybe having glue-backed D-rings to go w a soft-cooler. that 16x6x6 shape sounds good. it's amazing how fast the 6pack size fills up.

 

[Guest]

nice! thoughtful designer w that molded feature -- i could maybe add something like that w cut'n'glued foam.

thanks for all the good notions. i suppose we all jury-rig and adapt. i like the idea of maybe having glue-backed D-rings to go w a soft-cooler. that 16x6x6 shape sounds good. it's amazing how fast the 6pack size fills up.

That float tank molded feature is OK in a tandem for the bow paddler. I’d still rather have something of my own design up front in a tandem.

Most soft sided coolers have a sewn webbing loop or nylon D-ring where the carry strap is attached, so securing them in the hull is easy enough.

If I could find another one of those 12-pack dispenser coolers I would buy a second one in a heartbeat. The one I have is going on at least 10 years old and has been repaired a time or two.

 

[gumpus]

That float tank molded feature is OK in a tandem for the bow paddler.

There's an identical workstation in the stern. It works best if you sit backwards in the stern seat.

Hey Jeff, the designer's name is Phil Siggelkow and he was one of the legends that created sport canoeing. His enthusiasm for canoes would just light you up if you could have met him.

Just for fun the attached pic shows the D-ring set-up in my Merlin Ii.

 

[Guest]

Lay out fishing lures.

Customized with pouches for drinks and electronica, something stick lure hooks into, sunglasses bungie, deck hooks for a compass, clips for a map case, etc.

I got curious about that “something to stick hooks into” accessory component to a utility thwart/mini-table. Something to stick a hook into while changing lures, flies, etc would be a handy comfort when fishing from a small boat.

I have not fished from a canoe in years, but I never liked having a loose hook or lure lying precariously on a thwart or seat side until I put it way. Especially when they fell off into the hull underfoot. Even when tying off a new fly or baiting a line, having something to hold the hook hands-free safe would be advantageous.

I got out my (eeesh, disgustingly unused dusty) tackle box and a little scrap strip of ¾” thick minicel.

Oh, I like that; you can stick any size hook or lure, even two of three points on a treble, into the vertical edge of that little ¾ inch tall minicel strip, barbed or unbarbed, and the hook stays there securely, with the eye held nicely visible/accessible along the flat top edge of the minicel.

As a test I put the hooks into the minicel scrap and took them out a few dozen times. Easy peezy in and out, and lots of room left for additional pokey hole damage to the minicel edge. Even if it goes in the same-ish hole the hook stays secure.

If that minicel hook holder was a sacrificial lamb that got contact cemented in replacement every year or two it would still seem a fishing boon.

I expect there must be some manufactured “Hook Holder” device or material, but a waste scrap of minicel seems to work perfectly.

 

[JeffOYB]

i still frequently ponder this idea for luggage for canoes. bikers have a jillion options. what if we cd stick pouches here and there and they'd stay put but also peel off to take em outta the boat... everybody is juryrigging all this stuff. well, a few companies mold the cup holder... if i go to the fuss of fabricating my own variety of pouches, who knows, maybe others would like them. i used to make bike bags... basically our attach options are: clip for gunnel, strap for thwart, d-ring patch for inside the hull... seems like someone cd offer a range of nifty items.

 

[TrailBlaser]

I am leaning towards a waterproof (drybag) duffle bag to use along with my standard canoe pack on trips that don't have a carry.

 

[Big Al]

Mike, I have been think about a spray skirt. Where did you get this one?