My Swift Mattawa

[Mihun09]

It ain't the best quality Swift ever made, but it might be a bit unique. It is a bit small for us, a longer boat would be better, but the new Swifts all have tanks which makes gaining 10" of length with a Kipawa somewhat a waste of time and money. This boat doesn't have tanks and we utilize that space. It is Kevlar Fusion with the funky Carbon/Kevlar integrated rails. It had the sliding seat from the factory but we found the seat wouldn't stay in place, it squeaked and moved so a few years ago I removed all the slider hardware, made up new rails and screwed the seat down.

The seat is going to change again, although I lack the time and materials before our first trip next weekend to make the mods prior. I have already built a new seat, just need some cherry for new rails and really need a set of the 8" bolts Swift used for the front drops. It is difficult enough finding 6" seat hardware let alone 8" and nowhere on the Swift site do I see where they sell hardware. If the front bolts ever broke I would be screw**.

The kevlar rails are starting to fray as it enters it's 8th season of duty. I don't recall ever seeing an epoxy finish on them and likely Charlie is the only one who would know how they originally finished it, heck, he may have had a hand in building this boat, SWI-C8055-1107. It might be prudent to coat the rails with epoxy or what not to contain the fraying, so, Charlie, any recommendations for this?

After the trip I'll add photo's of how I change the seat configuration so it can be paddled solo backwards. Although I have the kneeling thwart it gets in the way of packing and I want to be able to do early morning sojourns on the Marshall Lake trip in August.

The Cherry decks are glued in place.

 

[Guest]

It had the sliding seat from the factory but we found the seat wouldn't stay in place, it squeaked and moved so a few years ago I removed all the slider hardware, made up new rails and screwed the seat down.

The seat is going to change again, although I lack the time and materials before our first trip next weekend to make the mods prior. I have already built a new seat, just need some cherry for new rails and really need a set of the 8" bolts Swift used for the front drops. It is difficult enough finding 6" seat hardware let alone 8" and nowhere on the Swift site do I see where they sell hardware. If the front bolts ever broke I would be screw**.

I like it. I do not own a single boat, bought new or used, that I haven’t taken apart and put back together to suit my personal preferences.

8 inch SS machine screws are tough to find, even at speciality hardware purveyors. I’ve found 8 inch SS carriage bolts, but those leave some needed flange adaptation atop the gunwale.

Esquif might be a possibility; the bow seat on their (very deep) Miramachi used 8 inch machine screws, and with Royalex gone they might have an unused stash.

 

[sailsman63]

Are those front bolts machine screws? I can't zoom, as photobucket apparently no longer has that functionality, but from here they appear that they could be carriage bolts, in which case any reasonably stocked fastener center may have them. One supplier, that does ship if you need it, is fastenal. (US based company) They do have 8" SS carriage bolts, but their machine screws top out at 6" in any material.

 

[Bothwell Voyageur]

You could always glass rails to the sides of the hull instead and fix your seat to there. The easy alternative would be to drill and rivet aluminum angle along the hull as Souris River River and Wenonah do for their sliders and fixed seats.

We have a Mattawa. It is fine for the two of us but add a 35kg dog and things get too tight. But then again we pack with less gear than the two of you. I paddle it solo using a foam pedastal between yoke and stern thwart.

The space gained by a longer hull is way more than the numbers suggest. Length adds volume in the centre of the hull not the ends. If found this out paddling a Novacraft SP3 Prospector. They weigh a ton and are 6" shorter than the claimed 16ft, apparently due to shrinkage. They suck! Not enough room for a 10 day trip and poor handling on lake waves.

 

[scoutergriz]

did you buy that boat used? it looks to be heavily modified

 

[Mihun09]

did you buy that boat used? it looks to be heavily modified

Nope, the only modifying has been on my part on the bow seat. The funky rails and mishapen decks are straight from the factory. They have demo engraved in the factory serial number plate but when I bought it there wasn't a scratch on the hull. Not ever used but perhaps they had to hack it off the mold and fumbled the integrated rails a wee bit. I picked it up like new for $2500 in 2008 at the Guelph Lake sale. The two holes in the rails in the fuzz photo are for the kneeling thwart placement.

The front bow hardware is machine screws like the rest of the boat, but truly 8 inches long. The carriage bolts through the thwart is what I used when I removed the slider seat and put in my own rails in place of the original, due to dropping the seat an inch further than stock. If I could get 8" hardware for the new seat mods it would make it easier on me in the long run. Otherwise I will make new rails for the seat to sit on, likely laminated like I do my seats. Stronger and lighter that way.

The factory kevlar felt skid plates are worn smooth and the hull has a few scratches, one chip of the gelcoat. There is a "groove" where I ran over a submerged log and it flexed the kevlar in the foam bottom area and remained that way forever. All the rails weren't finished well but it was the only boat I could afford at the time and it has served well in the past 7 seasons. Canadian granite is unforgiving and near impossible to see in our coffee coloured water out here. It faired much better it's first year as I only plied Guelph and Puslinch Lakes.

The new seat is cherry rails done with 4 1/4" laminates, the webbing, I wanted to match the original brown 2" that Swift uses but could only get 1" so I just wrapped it side by each to get it to match the stern seat. Came out pretty good.

 

[Mihun09]

You could always glass rails to the sides of the hull instead and fix your seat to there. The easy alternative would be to drill and rivet aluminum angle along the hull as Souris River River and Wenonah do for their sliders and fixed seats.

We have a Mattawa. It is fine for the two of us but add a 35kg dog and things get too tight. But then again we pack with less gear than the two of you. I paddle it solo using a foam pedastal between yoke and stern thwart.

The space gained by a longer hull is way more than the numbers suggest. Length adds volume in the centre of the hull not the ends. If found this out paddling a Novacraft SP3 Prospector. They weigh a ton and are 6" shorter than the claimed 16ft, apparently due to shrinkage. They suck! Not enough room for a 10 day trip and poor handling on lake waves.

I will not drill holes in the only kevlar boat I can ever afford. Well, not through the hull at least. For now the new side drops will work for Marshall Lake, I can then engineer something else if needed.

Yes, we tend to pack more but technically it only looks like more since everything we have is bulk. Once camp is set up the two canoe packs are empty. Looking at the boat today and wondering where in heck we are going to fit the danged chainsaw that Christy refuses to leave at home.

We had a Jensen design 18 foot SR at one point and it took a load but it didn't turn worth a darn. Going upstream in current on a twisty little stream, the Wanipigow from Wallace to Siderock, banging off the banks since with a load it just wanted to go straight. Maybe a 17 foot Prospector?

 

[scoutergriz]

I just found it strange because it appears that the flotation tanks were cut out- there looks like a seam where they would have been, and I've never seen swift glue wood deck caps on like that. I wonder if it was for proof of concept.
I've got one of their Kevlar fusion Kippawa prototypes (#05), and other than some vacuum bag port bumps, there is nothing else different than the production models, although it was a bare hull and they needed to install the seats, gunwales and thwarts which actually worked out very well as they adjusted everything to fit me and my paddling style

 

[Mihun09]

I think the shadow of a tank you are seeing is the edge of the foam rib in the bow. Evenly placed ribs plus the diamond of foam in the bottom.

I recall some talk this may have been one of the first production boats with the integrated rails, which is why it is kind of fugly. Regardless, I like the boat, she has been good to me and different is better than all the same all the time.

Karin

 

[Bothwell Voyageur]

You don't need to drill holes. I think I would think twice about that too. Just epoxy a wooden rail to the side of the hull at seat height. Then add some strips of glass tape above and below to reinforce them. The seat would sit on top of these rails.

I thought boats could not be sold without flotation; something Esquif had problems with on their Twintex hulls.

Maybe you need a smaller chainsaw!

 

[Mihun09]

It is only a 16 inch saw, which might be a bit small for some of the deadfall we know needing to be cut out. In the longer run, anyone going up the Broadleaf will benefit.

I would think the foam in the belly and the bits in the rails would qualify as flotation but having swamped it for fun, I know it doesn't float well.