Canoe

For real this time.

With all the boat threads, I felt compelled to post our new boat.

The wife unit and I have been camping more since the Kung Flu screwed up our vacation plans. I wanted to get back to fishing a bit and this seemed like the best option for me alone, the two of us or the two of us, our two dogs and our adventure cat.

It's a 1968, 17' Clipper Pioneer in amazing shape for it's age. Better built than a lot of new, cheaper canoes.

It's got floatation tanks, 2 seats and a portage yoke, weighs about 90 lbs.

Clipper is still in business in our area and they checked it out before I bought it. Apparently it's in great condition and it would cost me about $2200 Canadian to buy now. I paid $700.

I haven't been in a canoe since boy scouts but I'm pretty sure I still know how to work one.

Wow nice score!

does it scratch the roof laying like that? Those wheels are "interesting" on the suburban 

It's on the factory roof rack.

The wheels came with the truck. They suck mightily. 

I will be getting new wheels and tires in the fall as these tires are about done. Probably something like a Cragar Soft 8.

Congrats on the score. You can’t go wrong with a quality canoe.

When we were first married and the kids were little we camped a lot but a canoe was out of reach for us at the time so we used to rent them. One day driving home from work I saw a canoe chained to the fence of a small used car dealership in the country with a for sale sign on it. It was a Scott explorer and he wanted $400 for it. $200 more than I had in the bank at the time but he accepted my offer of $200 down and $100 every two weeks for the next month. I had no idea if it was a good deal (it was) but it Was the only way I was going to get one. It’s seen a lot of use close to home and in northern Ontario  and we still have it today, 30 years later. 

Scott has a 12’ version of the same canoe in Kevlar and it’s 32 lbs. I’ve been eying it for a few years now

Dude, is there a hidden message in those thread tags?  Because it paints a weird picture.

Wubba-lubba-dub-dub.

Very nice canoe.  I can't compete with my Old Town Guide, for which I paid $50 after the guy offered it to me for free, along with some nice paddles.  It had a small hole in it, of which he was previously unaware.  Easy fix, and we've since gotten our money's worth many times over.

Enjoy!

When my wife and I were newly married (1975), we came across a wooden Old Town canoe in a nearby boat store for $350.  The thing was immaculate and was for sale so cheap because of an impending divorce.  I felt that tainted the darn thing and at that time $350 was significant jack.  So we passed.  Also didn't have a good place to store it indoors as we were living in married student housing.  

In reply to ShawnG :

Oooh cragars are nice ! 

I have to do some work on mine this year. It's an Old Town Guide 119, and the stock plastic molded seat sucked. So, I removed it and installed two oak boards in the stock mounting holes, but lower. It turns out that I'm not a fan of the way I did it. It works, but it would be better if there was a little more width to the wood for the stadium seat to strap into.

I only have an action shot, taking by my wife, who is more interested in scenery and landscapes than she is in me, apparently.
 

Whoops, I remembered my brother took a picture, too.

Went for our first boat float today. Surprisingly there were no fights.

Just a little local lake in a neighbouring city. 

Now I need to get the dogs trained to ride in the boat.

About 5 years ago when my wife and I were trying to figure out a couples hobby she mentioned she liked being on the water. She couldn't stand the thought of sitting in a kayak so I talked her into renting a canoe at the local state park. We clambered our way into it, neither of us having ever been in one before. I shoved off and we made it 20 feet before her vertigo kicked in and she screamed get me back to the shore. We moved up to sail and now power boats instead but I would still love to try a canoe again. They seem like such a cool way to see the world. 

We really lucked out and managed to have perfect weather for it.

It was nice and warm but overcast so the sun wasn't beating down and there wasn't much wind.

Boy Scouts is a good way to make people hate canoeing. You go camping in the spring and fall so you're trying to go canoeing in rainy, windy, garbage weather which just makes everyone miserable.

Today was the driest I've ever been in a canoe.

I've owned mine since the 70s. It's a 16 foot fiberglass, made by one of my dad's students.

Interesting backstory. My dad was teaching a sculpture class at UCF. This guy turned in a set of fiberglass dirt bike fenders for his final project.

He had already pissed off all of the other professors. My dad gave him an A.

He moved on to making the canoes, and pedaled one to us. After that, he started building small catamarans, and eventually progressed to large ocean-going catamarans and trimarans.

After all those years, I finally rigged it out with a trolling motor, and bought a depth finder and John boat trailer.  I got a 2.5 Mercury 4 stroke with the trailer, but I would need an outrigger to run that. 

I was planning to start fishing the Indian River lagoon on a regular basis.

Life got in the way, and set me back about a year. Then I bought my first Miata, and went to an autocross. Now I'm on Miata number 2, I've competed in about 45 autocross events, and the canoe sits in the backyard. 

I feel bad now. 

Nice!

I'm always on the lookout for a Kevlar canoe. After spending 2 weeks in them up in Quetico (Canadian side of Boundary Waters), I'm set in my mindset that I'm not dealing with aluminum again. I've even figured out that, if you're going to be in it for an hour at a time or more, you need to make sure that you have leg room or padding for your knees. I think I want a Wenonah Champlaign, but I need to try Northstar, which rose from the ashes of Bell, and Souris River canoes too. 

It's cool to see there's still some appreciation for canoes. Kayaks and paddle boards are the popular paddle craft right now. I see them all of the time, but rarely see a canoe. 

Canoes will always be an option. Their combination of light weight, cargo capacity, minimal paddling effort, portability, versatility, etc. is unmatched. 

The canoe is probably one of the earliest and most durable inventions made by humans, and I would think that the canoe is the oldest form of manufactured transportation.

Floating Doc (Forum Supporter) said:

The canoe is probably one of the earliest and most durable inventions made by humans, and I would think that the canoe is the oldest form of manufactured transportation.

Probably started with caveman sitting on log and progressed to caveman sitting in hollowed out log.