new to me solo

[gumpus]

Well I sure wasn't shopping for another solo canoe when an unusual boat that I had never seen turned up in craigslist and I ended up taking it home. It's a 1994 Blackhawk Shadow SS Special. 15'8" (I think). Shallow V hull. It has the plain end flotation tanks like other Blackhawk Shadows but has ash and mahogany trim like some of the fancier and more expensive solos like Zephyr and Ariel. It needs some TLC but is in nice shape overall. I picked it up last night and have already had it out once and so far I like it. The cane seat failed at the take-out so I need to take care of that. I spent a few hours scrubbing the interior with non abrasive cleaner and a stiff brush and it's looking much better. Have retightened all fasteners and will soon sand and refinish the wood. What fun!

 

[Gerald]

That's a nice looking boat you've got there. Enjoy it.
Gerald

 

[coldfeet]

Very cool looking, nice, enjoy.

 

[Jim Dodd]

Great Score !

 

[Steve in Idaho]

Very nice! Much as I don't need another solo canoe, I'd have to jump on that if it came by me too.

 

[Ken_C]

Looks like a very nice find!!!

 

[gumpus]

Gerald, coldfeet, Jim, Steve and Ken. Thank you for the kind words. You are all welcome to paddle it if you find yourself in the SW Michigan area. My buddy sent me an old Blackhawk brochure with the specs. I'll post a few pics when I finish cleaning it up.

 

[deerfly]

I love the looks of that canoe, what a great find.

 

[Guest]

Congratulations: You have found a seldom seen Blackhawk SS Special, and become one of a very few owners of that particular model of Blackhawk.
I have one myself, and since I purchased it, I had never seen another one; not even in pictures.
I'm it's second owner; it belonged to a Blackhawk employee who got it in lieu of some part of his salary, when Blackhawk shut it's doors.
When I got it, it had "never" been paddled. I've used it a couple of times, but only on deep water lakes, and as a result it is still in pristine condition.
Mine is the same color as yours, and has the same ash/mahogany trim. It also still has all of the original stickers attached.

I have 7 other Blackhawks besides my SS Special; an Ariel, Nighthawk, 2 Shadows, Covenant, Zephyr, and Proem.
Previously owned a Shadow 14, Starship & a Combi. Unfortunately, I don't have a good photo of my SS Special.


Jester

 

[coldfeet]

Wow! Sweet looking Joker!

 

[gumpus]

Congratulations: You have found a seldom seen Blackhawk SS Special, and become one of a very few owners of that particular model of Blackhawk.
I have one myself, and since I purchased it, I had never seen another one; not even in pictures.
I'm it's second owner; it belonged to a Blackhawk employee who got it in lieu of some part of his salary, when Blackhawk shut it's doors.
When I got it, it had "never" been paddled. I've used it a couple race fully but at same timeof times, but only on deep water lakes, and as a result it is still in pristine condition.
Mine is the same color as yours, and has the same ash/mahogany trim. It also still has all of the original stickers attached.

I have 7 other Blackhawks besides my SS Special; an Ariel, Nighthawk, 2 Shadows, Covenant, Zephyr, and Proem.
Previously owned a Shadow 14, Starship & a Combi. Unfortunately, I don't have a good photo of my SS Special.


Jester

Nice. I've had a few Blackhawks in my past including a Zephyr, Ariel, Shadow 14, Combi 14.9, and Combi 15.8 Now I've just got a Kevlar Combi 15.8 and the Shadow SS. I'd be curious to hear your comments about the Starship since that's one I've never paddled...plus I passed a perfect one for $1200. Looks like they are heavy (I don't need any 50 pound solos). I enjoy the shallow vee design of Blackhawks and how it makes them carve turns so gracefully but at same time I have zero tolerance for poor performing canoes. I'd like to get another fixed seat Zephyr some day even though it's too small to carry a dog. I know a guy with 3 Zephyrs including an unpaddled one with Birdseye maple trim. Yum. The original owner of my SS decided to leave the Blackhawk stickers off since he liked the looks without stickers...funny how Blackhawk put stickers on some boats but not all of them.

So here's your Blackhawk quiz Joker. The Shadow 15.8 is 15'8" long while the Combi 15.8 is 15'9" long. What's up with that?

 

[kona]

Just seeing this thread. Beautiful boat.

Also curious how different the ss shadow might paddle from the starship. Probably moot since the ss is so rare.

Maybe the ss has a higher sheer?

 

[Fredb]

Congratulations: You have found a seldom seen Blackhawk SS Special, and become one of a very few owners of that particular model of Blackhawk.
I have one myself, and since I purchased it, I had never seen another one; not even in pictures.
I'm it's second owner; it belonged to a Blackhawk employee who got it in lieu of some part of his salary, when Blackhawk shut it's doors.
When I got it, it had "never" been paddled. I've used it a couple of times, but only on deep water lakes, and as a result it is still in pristine condition.
Mine is the same color as yours, and has the same ash/mahogany trim. It also still has all of the original stickers attached.

I have 7 other Blackhawks besides my SS Special; an Ariel, Nighthawk, 2 Shadows, Covenant, Zephyr, and Proem.
Previously owned a Shadow 14, Starship & a Combi. Unfortunately, I don't have a good photo of my SS Special.


Jester

hey there, with all those blackhawks can you let me know if you would recommend a Zephyr for a 200# 6 foot tall guy who mostly wants to do day trips and an occasional weekend. Brochure says ideal is 250# load and maximum is 450#. the latter sounds high. Also what is that blue and yellow kneeling set up in one of your photos. I have bad knees and could use nice support like that.
take care, frederick

 

[Glenn MacGrady]

hey there, with all those blackhawks can you let me know if you would recommend a Zephyr for a 200# 6 foot tall guy who mostly wants to do day trips and an occasional weekend. Brochure says ideal is 250# load and maximum is 450#. the latter sounds high. Also what is that blue and yellow kneeling set up in one of your photos. I have bad knees and could use nice support like that.
take care, frederick

Fred, welcome to site membership! Feel free to ask any questions and to post messages, photos and videos in our many forums. Please read Welcome to CanoeTripping and Site Rules! Also, please add your location to your profile, which will cause it to show under your avatar, as this is a geographic sport. We look forward to your participation in our canoe community.

The post you are replying to is five years old and, unfortunately, that member has passed away and his boats sold off. One of the canoes seems to have a factory composite kneeling pedestal lined with some thin minicell foam, which Blackhawk featured in some of their canoes. You can carve a kneeling pedestal completely out of minicell yourself and there are a few commercial ones available on the market. Some members here have also made their own bottom-mounted tractor seats out of composites such as fiberglass, Kevlar and/or carbon.

 

[Fredb]

Hi Glenn, that is sad to hear about the member.
Thanks for the suggestion and ideas. I will look into the bottom mounted tractor options. Any suggestions for seeing how they performed this modification? I can do a generic search if necessary. Also, if you are familiar with the Zephyr, is my 200#s just too much for this boat. One i am looking into has a fixed seat (not the ICS) and so may not work great as a dual kneeling/sitting canoe. sliding and hight changing seat makes this much easier. Love your opinion if you have one to offer.
thanks again, frederick

 

[Glenn MacGrady]

Hi Glenn, that is sad to hear about the member.
Thanks for the suggestion and ideas. I will look into the bottom mounted tractor options. Any suggestions for seeing how they performed this modification? I can do a generic search if necessary. Also, if you are familiar with the Zephyr, is my 200#s just too much for this boat. One i am looking into has a fixed seat (not the ICS) and so may not work great as a dual kneeling/sitting canoe. sliding and hight changing seat makes this much easier. Love your opinion if you have one to offer.
thanks again, frederick

Frederick, I don't have a Blackhawk nor have I ever even seen one. I know that most were designed by Phil Siggelkow and Pat Moore to be narrow, sleek and efficient paddling canoes, and hence most were reported to have quite "tender" stability for newer paddlers. I'd advise trying before buying to see how it handles your weight and how you like its stability characteristics.

The members here whom I recall making their own floor-mounted tractors seats are @Alan Gage and @stripperguy, who have posted pictures of their seats in older threads here, which can be searched for, and who can be reached by private conversation if they don't see their tagged names in this particular thread.

 

[Alan Gage]

I've made a few sliding seats, mostly following the same basic design, of a floor mounted pedestal that allows me to quickly and easily switch from sitting to kneeling. I primarily seat and only occasionally kneel.

Here is a link to a page showing one of them. The frame in the link was made with foam and carbon but I've since switched to making the frame from wood. It's a lot easier and there is hardly any weight penalty (use thin and lightweight woods). My first prototype was actually made from plywood and it worked fine.

Solo expedition build

And now for that seat which is finally coming together. Here's the pedestal itself. The two end pieces are 3/4" foam covered with carbon and the webs are 1/4" carboned foam. I added some small wood blocks so I'd have something to screw into and for backers to attach the webs to the ends. The...

www.canoetripping.net

Alan

 

[Fredb]

thanks for the advice Glenn. Helpful to know. I am a quick learner but appreciate the caution. The one i am interested in would have to be purchased without trying, so if i get it, i will either figure it out with some inevitable dumps, or pass it on if i can not.
supper helpful to have the

I've made a few sliding seats, mostly following the same basic design, of a floor mounted pedestal that allows me to quickly and easily switch from sitting to kneeling. I primarily seat and only occasionally kneel.

Here is a link to a page showing one of them. The frame in the link was made with foam and carbon but I've since switched to making the frame from wood. It's a lot easier and there is hardly any weight penalty (use thin and lightweight woods). My first prototype was actually made from plywood and it worked fine.

Solo expedition build

And now for that seat which is finally coming together. Here's the pedestal itself. The two end pieces are 3/4" foam covered with carbon and the webs are 1/4" carboned foam. I added some small wood blocks so I'd have something to screw into and for backers to attach the webs to the ends. The...

www.canoetripping.net

Alan

thanks, Alan, much appreciated. where did you source the seats (Zre)? Looks great and may solve the issue of getting my legs under a gunwale mounted seat. Now i just need a wood shop! working on that too. I think you describe the various attachments methods, but it looks like combinations of epoxy and fiberglass (Seat to tubes, tubes to tubes), screws (tubes to pedestal), and not sure what you use to attach the pedestal to the boat bottom.
thanks again, frederick

 

[stripperguy]

Frederick,
Welcome to the forum
If you search my screen name and Red Kite you should find my seat pedestal approach
I allow fore-aft adjustment using 3M Dual lock, kind of like Velcro on steroids
The pedestals themselves I made from carbon wrapped Divinycell H80 foam, epoxied directly to the hull with thickened epoxy and reinforced with some more carbon and epoxy.
I can comfortably sit (on a carbon seat made by Alan Gage) or kneel with one foot or both feet under the seat.
Not sure what level of skills you have, but all of the above is fairly easy to accomplish with basic hand tools and some patience

 

[Alan Gage]

thanks, Alan, much appreciated. where did you source the seats (Zre)? Looks great and may solve the issue of getting my legs under a gunwale mounted seat. Now i just need a wood shop! working on that too. I think you describe the various attachments methods, but it looks like combinations of epoxy and fiberglass (Seat to tubes, tubes to tubes), screws (tubes to pedestal), and not sure what you use to attach the pedestal to the boat bottom.
thanks again, frederick

I built a small mold and made my own seats. The pedestal, once constructed, is simply fiber glassed to the hull. A small dab of thickened epoxy to hold it in place and then, once that's setup, I add a filet around the feet and then small patches of fiberglass.

Alan