A La Mer du Nord 2025

[Robin]

A very good news to announce today: adventurer and filmmaker Caroline Côté joins us! She will lead the film crew that will immortalize the North Sea expedition through a documentary film.

Caroline Côté is an adventure filmmaker and long-distance athlete. One of the last expeditions she made was Polar Shadows where she, together with polar explorer Vincent Colliard, crossed the Svalbard archipelago in the Arctic Circle in winter on the polar night for 63 days in complete autonomy. In 2023 she broke the women's world record for the fastest crossing of 1,130 km between the starting point Hercules Inlet and the South Pole. She completed several other large-scale expeditions including the double crossing of an unexplored region of Antarctica on full autonomy and the Pull of the North expedition, where she followed the Yukon River for more than two months in a canoe through Alaska.

She choreographed with Florence Pelletier the documentary Traversées (2020) on an expedition in Kuururjuaq Park. She also underwent training in advertising and completed studies in the field of cinema and communication. Filming in remote natural locations with complex environmental peculiarities is her passion and specialty. She has a mission to engage people to learn more about nature conservation and self-improvement.

 

[Robin]

Wonder what size those are, they look pretty big.

I'm guessing they are prospector style canoes; lots of volume for paddlers and gear

The canoes are 16 feet long. The model is "Chibougamau", which is comparable to the Prospector. The forms from the Tremblay canoes were all destroyed in the 80's, but veteran artisans from Tremblay Canoes Roger Jacques and Rodrigue Pelchat built new forms afterwards: it's the ones that we use.

We do it as it used to be before the 60's, without seats so we have more room for the luggage. We will sit on our bags!
And without a yoke, so we will use our paddles to support our shoulders.

 

[Murat V]

For anyone interested, here's a 1923 document for the original Chibougamoo made by Galarneau & Morin which eventually became Tremblay Canoe Co.




These two photos were taken in 1925 at their factory in Roberval, Quebec. Deep hull, tripping designs, often with no seats similar to the traditional bark canoes of the region

Source link: http://central.bac-lac.gc.ca/.redirect?app=fonandcol&id=3519481&lang=eng




Source Link: https://numerique.banq.qc.ca/patrimoine/details/52327/2990464

There's also a rare surviving Chibougamau version (complete with deck decal) on this thread over on the WCHA forums. That one was built with additional half ribs and looks heavy as a tank which is why it has probably survived.

 

[Gamma1214]

...without seats so we have more room for the luggage. We will sit on our bags!

interesting... I might be just enough of a gram-weanie that I try that in a stripper.

 

[Glenn MacGrady]

For anyone interested, here's a 1923 document for the original Chibougamoo made by Galarneau & Morin which eventually became Tremblay Canoe Co.

Thanks so much for the history and pictures, Murat.

I note that the 1923 weights are significantly less than the 2025 weights for every length canoe. I know things could be accurately weighed in 1923, so what construction factors could account for this disparity (assuming all the listed weights are honest)?

 

[Patrick Corry]

Murat, thanks for posting the link to the discussion over on WCHA. The pictures in that link answered a question I posed earlier about my curiosity over how the gunwales would be finished. The pictures clearly show that the Chibougamau canoe has outwales that are not rabbeted over the planking. So that's why the staples are so high on the side of the hull. Typically in finer finished hulls the planking is cut down 3/8"-1/2" below the top of the ribs and the outwales are rabbeted over so the planking doesn't show.

 

[Murat V]

Thanks so much for the history and pictures, Murat.

I note that the 1923 weights are significantly less than the 2025 weights for every length canoe. I know things could be accurately weighed in 1923, so what construction factors could account for this disparity (assuming all the listed weights are honest)?

Listed weights in catalogs are sometimes quite inaccurate, not just with this company. Often they would approximate the weight in 5lb intervals and round down when they should have rounded up. Chestnut used to have a model they called the 50 Pound special based on its weight, but eventually had to change the name as the weight was always higher than promised.

Many early canoes built in Quebec also used more locally available and lighter weight spruce in their construction. A few examples I've come across even had spruce for outwales. As quality, knot-free spruce became less available, builders had to switch to heavier ash or even oak for components. Believe they also used lighter birch for decks, stems and thwarts in some earlier models and then switched to maple.

 

[memaquay]

I think back in the day, any canoe under 75 pounds was considered to be light, hence "feels like 50 pounds".

 

[Robin]

We are very much looking forward to the great meeting of Lake Obatogamau, in mid-July 2025, where the North Sea Brigade will converge with the Attikamekw Brigade, composed of experienced rowers from the Tapiskwan Sipi and Tciman expeditions. Led by Joey Awashish, this brigade will have taken another ancestral path, starting from Opitciwan. We will have the pleasure of sailing together to Mistissini!

Joey Awashish,
Kwei kwei

Just sayin tho
That this summer I'm going to realize a dream, that of going on a boat trip to Mistissini, which will take place from July 4 to July 20, 2025!
July 4th is the date when the people of Tapiskwan came to settle in Opitciwan during the flood 100 years ago!

We will be 10 people
Our crew is already done
We are planning on doing some self financing we will keep you posted!
Also, we will join the expedition to the North Sea!

M I
Veronique ch
Mario ch
Jane carmen
Ashley
Anaskane
Henok
John
Émile
Joseph
Eko e sa ni , mikwetc kaskin etaciekw !

 

[lowangle al]

If I'm reading this correctly it sounds like you will be joining the trip. If so, that's fantastic.

 

[Robin]

If I'm reading this correctly it sounds like you will be joining the trip. If so, that's fantastic.

No, although I would like to visit them on their route, maybe Mistassini in July.

 

[Glenn MacGrady]

If I'm reading this correctly

I'm guessing that Robin is posting translations from the organization's website to keep us up to date as to their progress.

 

[yknpdlr]

A trip I have wanted to repeat for more than 60 years is to repeat a trip I made with my father and mother in my tathere's then International 4x4 Scout. I was probably only 8 or 10 years old at most. We drove north from Ottawa through Senneterre on what was then only a dirt road all the way to Chibougamoo, rented a cabin, hired an indigenous guide and fished he lake for nor;thern pike. i don't know why I haven't repeated the trip yet as I have long wanted to go, but may do so with my wife this coming summer.

 

[kahel]

 

[Robin]

I'm guessing that Robin is posting translations from the organization's website to keep us up to date as to their progress.

Yes, sometimes I use the Facebook/Google translation features, sometimes they already present both french and english versions of the same post. I’m not sure if Joey Haswish’s was a translation or his own version. I wouldn’t be surprised if he is
trilingual.