Sponges

[alsg]

How many keep a sponge in your canoe? Fancy brand with chamois cover (NRS/Skwoosh/Harmony etc) or just a plain old big sponge?

 

[Jatfomike]

I usually have one bungeed down on a thwart......I get cheap 3 packs at the hardware store, they work pretty well...I will also use it to wipe out mud/crud before I rack the canoe to go home.....

Mike

 

[Marten]

I use a big one crammed in a cut off milk jug that serves as a bailer. The jug fits snuggly under the seat of my Prism solo. Very handy for quick wipe downs.

 

[Odyssey]

A big cheap one from a bulk buy package is crammed under a pack strap whilst paddling. She slops up the water in the bow from her wet foot entry and tosses the sponge back to me when it's my turn. Very little bilgewater sloshes around this way and none to rain on me over the portage.

 

[Mnoutdoorfunguy]

We keep a sponge in all of our boats.
They are used to wipe down the inner and outer of the boat, mainly to help prevent the spread of invasive species.
We pick up a lot of trash, so they essential for us.
We have used grout sponges, the fabric-covered sponges, etc.
The best one that we have found, for durability and absorption, is the Armaly brand Autoshow Soft Grip Sponge.

 

[Cruiser]

I bought a pack of ShamWows to serve that function, I find them a lot more convenient. I lay it out at my feet in my solo and any water that finds it's way into the boat gets absorbed quickly, once in awhile I just wring it out, it is also good for wiping stuff down. I just lay it on the hull to dry at the end of each day.

 

[Sweetfancymoses]

We own a chamois covered sponge but have found it not very useful for our purposes. When we go tracking up the river with a lot of in an out with wet footing boots on, there is so much bilge water that the sponge doesn't cut it anymore. We use a cut off vinegar jug as a bailer. We can scoop up most of the sand and mud along with the water.

 

[sweeper]

Home Depot Drywall sponges, in my throw bag/bail bucket

 

[recped]

I was introduced to the bilge sponge about 20 years ago, I never paddle without at least one.

Initially it was just a cheap sponge on a rope, then I bought a purpose make sponge but it wasn't very good, next I bought a sponge and made a micro-fibre cover for it. The next one I found in the car washing section of Canadian Tire, it's quite good (had to sew a cord loop on it)..

My latest version is made of some real Sea Sponges I bought online from Greece, more expensive than a man made sponge of course, I just need to sew a cover for it.

Although I carry a pump and have a traditional bailer of some sort the sponge gets the most use because neither a pump nor a bailer (nalgene, javex bottle, pot etc.) will get the last inch or so of water in the bottom of the boat.

 

[goonstroke]

I'm also a sponge fan. I get the wash-your-car type, nothing fancy because they sometimes run away.

When I forget and leave a wet one in my car for a week I get a nice muskeg smell.

 

[Seeker]

If I carry one, it's just a cheap carwash kind... sort of a figure 8 shape, natural colored, maybe 4"x8"? something like that. Tie a piece of paracord around the waist, and the other end goes on the handle of the bailer.

 

[TrailBlaser]

Standard carwash type sponge stays under the seat until needed.

 

[Guest]

I’m with Goonstroke, Seeker and TrailBlazer; big sorta figure 8 car washing sponge. I keep them very separate from the actual car washing sponges. I once found a family member washing their car with a canoe sponge, too late, the embedded sand scrub left an interesting finish.

If I’m not sure I just buy a new car washing sponge, and the old ones move on down the line, first as clean sponges dedicated to washing shop project boats, which itself gets them gritty, and eventually relegated to canoe sponge use.

We own a chamois covered sponge but have found it not very useful for our purposes. When we go tracking up the river with a lot of in an out with wet footing boots on, there is so much bilge water that the sponge doesn't cut it anymore. We use a cut off vinegar jug as a bailer. We can scoop up most of the sand and mud along with the water.

We have a chammie covered sponge, and found it similarly unsatisfactory. The one we have doesn’t pick up near as much bilgewater as the large car wash sponge, and is way less effective at picking up the little bits of pebbles and sand that accumulate off footwear. I don’t so much mind a little bilgewater, but that abrasive rock and sand crud grinding between my hull and gear needs to go. Mud too.

The figure 8 sponge just gets stuffed into the bailer where it nestles securely. Ubiquitous bleach bottles kinda sucked as a bailer. Mine too quickly got misshaped to near uselessness.

For a bailer gimme a big liquid laundry detergent jug. Thick durable plastic that holds its shape, big comfy handle and unlike a circular bleach bottle the detergent jug rectangle provides both flat sides and corner edges; the latter is helpful scooping out the last bit of water and debris way up in the sharp confines of a stem.

To tie the sponge to the bailer, or the bailer to the canoe? That may be a ground cloth innie vs outie debate. I’m in the tie neither camp.

 

[PaddlingPitt]

To tie the sponge to the bailer, or the bailer to the canoe? That may be a ground cloth innie vs outie debate. I’m in the tie neither camp.

Our canoe club in Vancouver was focussed almost primarily on weekly runs on whitewater. New club members would sometimes show up with bailers tied to a thwart. I would tell them that the club demanded that nothing could hang below the gunwales when the canoe was upside down, as this would interfere with canoe-over-canoe rescues. They sometimes protested. "But what if I lose my bailer?"

I generally replied, without any sarcasm at all, that "What you're saying is that you value your 50-cent bailer more than your $1,500 canoe."

 

[Guest]

Our canoe club in Vancouver was focussed almost primarily on weekly runs on whitewater. New club members would sometimes show up with bailers tied to a thwart. I would tell them that the club demanded that nothing could hang below the gunwales when the canoe was upside down, as this would interfere with canoe-over-canoe rescues. They sometimes protested. "But what if I lose my bailer?"

I generally replied, without any sarcasm at all, that "What you're saying is that you value your 50-cent bailer more than your $1,500 canoe."

Ding-ding-ding, we have a “like”. Exactly that; I have been WTF stymied during a going-very-well T-rescue of a floater boat (friends had the swimmer secured) solely due to an unseen bailer tied to a thwart interfering.

More than once, but the one time I found myself WTF perplexed, and floating into oh-crap-don’t-make-another-swimmer scenario, was enough for a lifetime of tied on bailer avoidance.

Tying the sponge to an unsecured bailer might not pose that rescue issue, but I want to splash the bailer around a gallon at a time without being hit in the kisser by a wet sponge attached on a string.

Gimme a big arse bailer by volume, at least a gallon a scoop, and a free riding sponge. I haven’t lost many (any?) as river litter yet.

 

[recped]

Canoe over canoe, that must be some weird thing that paddlers who travel in groups do.

 

[goonstroke]

...
For a bailer gimme a big liquid laundry detergent jug. Thick durable plastic that holds its shape, big comfy handle and unlike a circular bleach bottle the detergent jug rectangle provides both flat sides and corner edges; the latter is helpful scooping out the last bit of water and debris way up in the sharp confines of a stem.
..

The good thing about the circular bottles (I like the winshield washer juice ones) is that for a bubble-chine boat (I'm thinking of my Wilderness) they match the curve of the hull. So if I'm in a reasonably safe place I can put one leg on the gunwhale so that all the water sloshes over to that side and then very quickly bail it out with nearly full scoops. If I have to bail flat, even with a flat sided bailer, I can't get as much water per scoop.

 

[recped]

I carry a pump instead of a bailer mostly because I'm running a very fully loaded boat plus knee blocks so there is very little space, a Nalgene works fine but anything much bigger doesn't. The lack of space is also why sponges are so critical.

 

[Jackpine Jerry]

recped, I've gotten several of the "greek" sponges from Tarpon Springs,Fl. They are not terribly expensive and come in all different sizes. Good wool sponges last for years too. I use an arizona ice tea jug (1 gal.) for a bailer. Talk about thick plastic... I've used the same one for a few yrs. now. This is also handy for the times "mother nature" calls and you just can't make it to shore in time!
Jackpine Jerry

 

[Mason]

I carry a pump instead of a bailer mostly because I'm running a very fully loaded boat plus knee blocks so there is very little space, a Nalgene works fine but anything much bigger doesn't. The lack of space is also why sponges are so critical.

After having spent a summer in a PakBoat with all the frame members getting in the way of bailing, I'm thinking a pump is the way to go.