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Freedom Solo maintenance and upgrades

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The Freedom solo was in the shop for some routine inspection and maintenance. And upgrades.

Love that canoe, but the painter loops were too small, my hand wouldn’t fit inside that rope loop, and the slender line wasn’t hand comfy with just a couple fingers wedged inside.

P1200048 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

It was high quality UV resistant rope from MRC though; those stem painter loops have been on the FS since 2005 and were just barely starting to get crusty when I cut them off. And yes, those undersized painter loops have bugged me for 15 years, despite all of our canoes with spray covers having painter line toggles.

P1200050 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

P2160522 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

Replaced OEM line with a longer loop of Blue Water rope, with the knot tied off and slid inside a piece of reinforced garden hose. Long enough to tug/pull/drag the Freedom Solo with the loop held in any orientation.

P1210075 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

P1210077 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

Carry thwarts or deck plate “handles” are great, but often hidden below a spray cover. Even without a spray cover having a comfy painter toggle available for out-of-boat oopsie swimming while holding onto the stern of the canoe, or dragging it up some steep hillside on hands and knees, is a comfort.

Before the canoe went back outside to birdland I re-installed the inverted deck plate nest occluders. Partially deflated Dollar Store mini-beach balls with a piece of cord attached work better than anything I have yet found.

P1250093 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

The piece of coat hanger wire with the loop in it? If you’ve ever tried to blindly thread a line from the bow grommet of a float bag through a drain hole in the deck plate, up in the narrow stem where your fingers don’t fit, and tie it off you know how much fun that can be.

Thread the tie down line through the wire loop

P1250095 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

Poke the wire through the deck plate drain hole from underneath, pull out the bitter end of the line and tie it off. (Put the wire loop away where you can find it next time. Don’t ask how many of those wire loops I have in the shop, sometimes its quicker to make a new one than to find the old one)

P1250096 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

P1250098 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

Housing apologies my house wren friends, who can build a new nest in a day’s time; there is no room at the Deck Plate Inn on my rack.
 
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