Swift Otter Rebuild - Finishing Touches For Tripping

[Will Derness]

About a year ago good fortune befell me in finding a 25 year old tandem canoe that needed restoration. There are some older threads I posted about that restoration.

The Otter is a 15 foot tandem and my favorite length for a solo tripping boat. So I've outfitted the tandem canoe by adding web tie off loops, d-rings, and a mini-cell wedge to tightly hold a blue barrel against the center thwart.

Both the drings and blue barrel wedge are positioned such that they don't hinder paddling the canoe either tandem or solo.




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The lines allow for duffels with carabiners on each end to be quickly clipped to the boat, and will stay high in the hull if the canoe is upside down, not that that would ever happen. The outfitting shown is for solo tripping, if using it as a tandem the lines connecting the drings would be removed to eliminate foot entrapment. The drings located closer to center are positioned perfectly for clipping in a bag ahead of the stern paddler and allows for any kneeling or foot moves that would be needed.



Duffel



Blue Barrel

 

[yellowcanoe]

The Otter is a neat boat. I have regrets about selling mine. No speed kid but a joy to solo or tandem even if its a bit on the turtle speed side. Do you find the flat seats comfy?. Nice stoppers for the barrel!

 

[Will Derness]

T. Do you find the flat seats comfy?. Nice stoppers for the barrel!

Yes, the seats are comfortable, at least for me. Interesting, however is the seat modification I had to make for solo use. The Swift hangers, upon which the seat rests, was designed so the seats tilt down forward ever so slightly. Certainly useful when paddling tandem. However, flipped around for solo use, the seat tilts backward and the front seat edge digs into your hamstrings. 1/4 inch spacers fixed the bow seat to level and that problem is resolved.

The blue barrel wedge is Mike Mccrea's idea, and a clever one.

 

[yellowcanoe]

Canted seats are usually the most comfortable. Thats with the front edge lower than the back. Useful for not only tandem but solo. Your issue is that paddling from the bow seat backwards you have to reverse the drops. Try it over a c ouple hundred miles.. You can always redo the drops.

 

[Guest]

The blue barrel wedge is Mike Mccrea's idea

The minicel wedge idea to trap a barrel against a thwart came from never throwing anything away. In this case an entire Xerox box full of band sawed minicel wedges, complete with one curved side that fits nicely against the side of a barrel.

Those were the leftovers of a production run of making beverage stabilizers for canoe use, so my coffee cup didn’t fall over or my canteen roll away out of reach.



Barrel stops proved a good use minicel wedges band sawed from the outside of those holders. I still have not found a good use for the minicel cylinders that were hole sawn out to make the doughnut shapes.