Stolen Vertige X

[Uncle_Skwid]

Canoo Peeple:

My Esquif Vertige X was stolen from Lynchburg, VA last week. It's a blue boat with all stickers removed. (No esquif logo or factory pinstriping remains. It's all scraped clean.) It's a blue boat with about 900 gentleel-ish miles on it. I mean, it ain't beat to heck but it's well-broken in. Outfitted for a solo paddler with a pedestal and straps. 60" nylon Esquif float bags in bow and stern. A good smash lower down on the bow. Standard cuts and bruises. Lots of mini D-rings glued the length of the hull. (Some of them getting loose.) Recently stained poplar thwarts. It's essentially outfitted solo for long trips.

I have no idea why in the 21st century human beings have not evolved beyond stealing. Pictures below.

View attachment KK98RcWP7_-weoKmREvs9lwfgz3jAFMFiFr-65BdvsjdL7A_ayL2Kt3sFBC3Wn4BJ5e6IP_G6pGtrJAu86_FIa_dmZJWvYwMa9BA

Pretty distinctive trademark.


View attachment yfD7XOumqm9uNiDqvOVW2SBu8m5sBKPyFyVwFvJWkmLrdwnJTV3yPKsgbpet-azwziuf7TjLLq6vLQmseZXj030HjIR7Xu7maEw1



View attachment eePZGTPXER7yH6unTgTw9OrzsckWHMiJSwO3h-UiO0mTkX7qN2c3nxjAUaEM-_WfX4v5VJWhKBzQuauNGdzbfliPuU5iGbchc-RR

Freshly sort of cherry stained poplar thwarts...


Thanks for keeping your eyes out.

Peace.

 

[snapper]

Obviously, that sucks! Sorry for your loss. I hope you're back in your paddling partner again in the near future.

Until next time...be well.

snapper

 

[Jim Dodd]

Good luck ! Not much comfort, but I know of at least two friends in the past that recovered their canoes. Yours is pretty distinctive ! Visit local paddling shops and put the word out. I'm sure you know that ! Again Good Luck !

 

[Boatman53]

So sorry to hear that. Was it on top of your truck at the time, or on the shore?
Jim

 

[Guest]

Yours is pretty distinctive ! Visit local paddling shops and put the word out. I'm sure you know that

Or check the local pawn shops and area Craigslists. With the custom thwarts, stripped logo/lettering and unique nose dent* that is a very distinctive boat.

I’d like to think that paddlers are more honest than the population at large, and even a thieving paddler wouldn’t dare show up anywhere in a 3-State area in an easily identified stolen boat. The Vertige X is not an especially friendly novice canoe; I’m picturing a crackhead selling it to a fishing buddy who promptly drowns his rod and tackle. Karma.

I look at the Maryland/Pennsylvania/Delaware and eastern shore Craigslists once a week or so. And I-95 corridor eastern Virginia and NC Craigslists once at least once a month. Sans logos I doubt it would be sold as an Esquif Vertige, but I’ll keep an eye peeled for the likes of “Blue canoe” or “14 foot solo canoe” Do you know the HIN, or have your name/contact info (hidden) in it somewhere?

*About the nose dent. When you get the boat back you can push most of that dent out by slowly and gently heating up the RX. I have successfully used a halogen flood light (actually a pair on a tripod) positioned about 18-24 inches away to slowly heat the damaged hull area.

The RX doesn’t need to get much hotter than you can lay your bare hand on, and once the RX on the inside gets warm you can just push it out with a gloved hand from the inside and chuck a brace or some sandbag weight in the bow to hold it while it cools.

 

[Uncle_Skwid]

Jim: It's been an interesting week. Boat was on my Jeep where it stays quite a bit. Probably too much. (I often run to the river for lunch and do a quick loop up around an island downtown. Especially in the summer. Or I've got a downtown 10-miler I do after work when I have later light and the woman who manages me works till seven and picks me up. Or I head to the mountains for a 5-mile stretch that enables me to jog my shuttle but paddle out in the dark.) But so I had just returned from a magnificent sunny almost San Diego temperature-type four day weekend in WVA (where I had in fact dimpled the bow on some low water pleasantries--in fact, I caught the moment of impact in a still shot from GoPro which I'll attach for the heck of it if I remember by the long-winded post's finale--), and the entire Jeep was stolen. They swiped the whole thing. I believe the dastardly bandits swiped a key when they swiped my Yeti Hopper about three weeks ago, because I started locking everything up. Anyway, long, uninteresting story about going from leaving keys in the ignition to locking my junk tight. Thankfully I had cleaned SOME of my gear out though the buzzards did get off with some paddles, helmet, dry bag, PFD, etc... all replaceable items and not heart-breaking and things insurance will cover. The boat is not so easily replaceable. Not at all. As I'm sure boaters can appreciate. No longer made and I don't see many out there. (A lot like the Dagger Caption for those familiar.) Plus I'm a rather meticulous outfitter and I put pieces together slowly. Every gear bag has its rightful size and place and I had this boat dialed in for long distances and the boat is not at all afraid of whitewater. Ready for the Grand Canyon in January. Sigh.

Easy come easy go, I suppose. So but the police have recovered the empty Jeep. I did get that back, though I could care less about the Jeep and I've offered it up as a reward for the boat. I'll give you the dang Jeep, just bring that boat back and allow me to break four fingers of my choice.

Mike: I appreciate the certainty. WHEN it returns I will definitely work on the bow. And oh yea. I've worked out the RX on that exact bow and with this hit was considering skid plates. That bow sees a fair bit of abuse and needs to be massaged and filled in a little. Again. Sigh. She's a happy boat and we've seen some water together. The halogens are a great idea. I haven't heard of nor tried that, but it sounds easier than the heat gun/boiling water/scalding hands methods. And yes, my name/number/city/state are in the boat but only markered into the stern for when we get dramatically separated, she and I. Unfortunately not scratched in or hidden in her cavities. And as such thus probably removed by any competent thief. Nonetheless I feel like I would recognize ole blue from about three miles away, as karma sinks the tackle boxes and expensive fishing rods down towards the center of the earth. I feel they'll need to paddle a good distance from the east coast to not get harassed. I mean, how many people actually paddle a Vertige X solo in, say, the US?

And by the by, a friend in NC is coincidentally selling his X as we speak. It's not mine and I'll check it out in a few weeks at the Summersville Festivities. (I'm not crazy about how many times he hammered out the stern. All that tandem weight smack dab on the rear end.) Many people have noticed his X for sale and called me. He's a buddy and that boat belongs to him. It's outfitted tandem for he and girlfriend and she is now gone so, well,

no more tandem for E.

As to the bow dimple and since the tune has headed that way and since I find it a beautiful way to remember ole blue: here's the moment of impact. Thankfully I was loaded lightly for a two night trip but so yeah, it was still a wham slump ouch and then an application of GoPro that can be kinda cool sort of sometimes for certain incidental captures. May she live forever wherever good boats spend eternity.

View attachment oMNxb4P_ijMuzvU18r6fAa0vlr0yEhlwiz-FeNkfgLLNWM2U3SBT31Xd8BAR3KLNdeF9HhfMtOGvQJGwLTmZ11VfiTF0IuaI3qmt

 

[Boatman53]

Wow the whole story is even worse. I do hope your boat turns up.
Jim

 

[Guest]

the entire Jeep was stolen. They swiped the whole thing.
They swiped my Yeti Hopper about three weeks ago
the buzzards did get off with some paddles, helmet, dry bag, PFD, etc

dang, that’s a bad month.

About using a halogen lamp to heat up the Royalex; the advantage over boiling water or heat gun is that you can slowly warm up the plastic over a largish area. A heat gun is too concentrated and requires a lot of cautious waving around, and boiling water too fast at first and then cools too quickly to heat the Royalex through and through.

With a halogen flood light you can move the light closer in or further away, who cares if it takes 45 minutes, you are not holding a heat gun or racing while the boiling water is still warm. Just heat the area until both outside and inside of the hull are warm/hot to hand and the dent will push out easily.

You will still have some white-ish wrinkles, but the returned shape will better accommodate a skid plate.

 

[Uncle_Skwid]

So L-burg's finest stumbled over my boat last week while investigating a murder over in the rough section of town. I was sitting on my favorite stool at the local Irish pub when I got a picture from the detective of a blue boat half-buried in some brush. "It says B. Holmstom on the side." he wrote. "Could this be your boat?" I nearly fell off my stool.

Apparently the boat was thrown off the Jeep and stashed down in the woods behind an unsavory apartment complex. They caught the thief five weeks ago and he admitted to stealing my Jeep but refused to give up the whereabouts of the boat. (I offered my services: ten minutes and some pruning shears, but apparently that sort of thing is frowned upon in civilized societies.) Terrell Moss is a sixteen year old punk living a far harder life, I am certain, than you or I. I attended his preliminary hearing and it looks like after breaking into three houses, stealing four cars, two handguns, $5000 USD worth of other people's crap, they're going to send him to summer camp.

Regardless, other than a small crack through the vinyl on the stern where he tossed it off the Jeep and some squirrel or almost beaver looking gnawings on the pedestal (I assume the rodents were gnawing on the sweat I've left behind over the last few years), she's in pretty good shape. Not really any worse for the wear after sitting in the woods for four months. Even the Vinyl D-Rings still feel tight. I'm already sanding and repairing the pedestal and we should be ready to leave for Grand Canyon in one week. So it looks like after nearly four months apart my boat and I will be reunited on a three-week trip down Grand Canyon.

And what a fitting end to a strange tale. My wife is calling it the pre-adventure adventure. Life: you just can't make this crap up.

 

[Boatman53]

Wow, that's good news, Merry Christmas.
Jim

 

[Alan Gage]

Well that's just fantastic! Even cooler than you're taking your old blue bomber rather than your new red rocket to the Grand Canyon. It's good news for you but think how happy your canoe must be!!

Alan

 

[Muskrat]

Great news on getting her back!!! Messed up world we live in, I don't want to get into it here, from your post you get it. Nothing is simple.

If you need a place to stay on your journey west there's always vacancy here in Kansas City. You can even park in my back yard, in a not soo shady neighborhood.

 

[latremorej]

Great news!

 

[Guest]

Skwid, that is amazing. You are one of the very few people I have heard of ever recovering a stolen canoe. I’m still carrying a piece of paper in my wallet with the hull info and police report number from a canoe that was stolen in 1987. I’m not sure I really want a beater aluminum tandem anymore, but if I ever see it I’m taking it, hopefully leaving the paddlers treading water out in the lake some distance from shore.

some squirrel or almost beaver looking gnawings on the pedestal (I assume the rodents were gnawing on the sweat I've left behind over the last few years

Friends took their sea kayaks up to the northcountry on summer. Porcupines ate all of their bungee and deck lines one night for the delectable ocean salt.

In a similar vein I left two fishing poles leaned against a bush in the Wind Rivers one evening. Next morning I had two handle-less sticks; a porcupine had eaten the hand-sweaty cork handle from one and the rubber handle from the other. Yummy.

Great recovery and well timed for your GC trip!

 

[Uncle_Skwid]

Ya. I'm pretty stoked. It feels like the story is funneling toward some big dramatic point. And hopefully not the Ledge Hole in Lava or big nasty in Crystal.

Muskrat thanks for the backyard offer. I'll keep it in mind, though we're coming up through Phoenix for a stop at my sister's so planning on taking a more southern approach.

Actually my whole psychological demeanor just let out a big sigh of relief. I can't tell you how much more comfortable I am in ole Blue. But then, the psychological tension and range of emotion is all part of a great solo trip. The idea that this thing will either kill you or change you.

Ya. I'm pretty stoked.

 

[Alan Gage]

we're coming up through Phoenix for a stop at my sister's so planning on taking a more southern approach.

Coming across on I-10 I assume? Pretty amazing area you'll be driving through in Southern, AZ. You probably won't be in the site seeing mood but there's a lot to see down there if you are. If nothing else Fort Bowie is a short jump south of the interstate near Wilcox and Bowie and is a nice easy place to stretch the legs; especially close to sunset when everyone else has left and you have the trails to yourself.

I've got a nice story of a friend who did just that. He somehow got disoriented and lost. He climbed into the Chircahua Mountain foothills to see if he could spot the parking lot from there. He thought it he did (he was wrong) and as he started walking back down the trail heard what sounded like hoof beats running up behind him. When he turned to look a mountain lion skidded to a stop 15' away. He stood his ground, trying to look big and tough, and the mountain lion did the same. Finally he started advancing towards the mountain lion and it chickened out just before he did. As he continued on his way he started to wonder if the mountain lion had really run off or if perhaps it was still following him. He kept a sharp eye out and 1/4 mile farther down the trail spotted it hiding behind a bush just up the hillside from the trail. This time he drove it away with rocks. It was after dark when he flagged down a pickup truck on a dirt road. He told them where he'd parked and they told them they didn't know how the heck he got here from there but that they'd give him a ride back.

I'd never been to Fort Bowie but a few days after hearing that story, and at the end of a long day of driving down dirt roads, I spotted the sign from the road and thought it would be a good place for Sadie and I to stretch our legs. The sun was just setting when we pulled in so instead of walking the 1+ miles to the actual fort I slowly walked the closer trails while watching the very active bird life. It's a beautiful area but I'll admit I had a hard time completely relaxing. I'd love to see a mountain lion in the wild but not like that.

Alan

 

[Will Derness]

.............It feels like the story is funneling toward some big dramatic point.

that might be the vein of good Karma you are now riding. Stolen craft returned? That is a rare good fortune. The gods are smiling on you now; a good omen for your trip. Good luck.

 

[Nodrama43]

Cool !!! Glad you got her back.

 

[Cookannapurna]

I hate thieves and cheaters! Its great to hear you got the boat back. Im still waiting for the Ohio police to recover seven fly rods out of my car in 1997, hope springs eternal!

 

[Uncle_Skwid]

Alan Gage I-10 it is! Probably not a lot of time for side excursions on the way, but the return trip will be a more leisurely affair and I'll keep Bowie in mind.

It's actually all dependent on my father, who is riding out there with me. He's a retired speech professor who loves to travel and so therefore managed to land a teaching gig in Flagstaff: a 3-week seminar at some Indian college or other that begins January 3. I launch Jan. 2, so he drops me off at Lee's Ferry then heads off to teach a class while I'm in the canyon. Comes and picks me up at Peirce Ferry after the seminar is over, then we head back to my sister's in Phoenix for my debriefing back into real life.

Road trip with the old man! Should be a good time.