Canoe Mounts

[Will Derness]

Since I've made it a standard practice to bring a GPS unit with me, mounting it on a nearby thwart for non WW cruises makes it far more useful to me.

Mounting my devices has been accomplished by using a clamp on system from RAM Mounts. It has worked pretty well but the clamp/device combo is quite a bulky package.



My first stab at shrinking the load was to simply mount a ball on the thwart and eliminate the large clamping unit. This worked quite well, but I worried about having permanently mounted items which are higher than the gunnels. Rack accidents while loading came first to mind.




Happening to visit their site one day I discovered a magnetic mounting option for their product line.



That got me thinking about how to adapt that to a canoe and it struck me that for wood thwarted canoes I simply need a iron plate attached to thwart.



After doing some research, I happened on magnetic car mounts for cell phones which include thin magnetically receptive plates that are glued to the phones. During sea trials on a 4 day, 3 night overnighter I used this mounting system and it performed quite well. I discovered I could easily pick up the GPS and look at it closely but immediately and securely return it to the mount. However, the 3M glue used on the plate failed on day 3 from too much water intrusion, it was a rainy 4 days.

Some months later, after a couple of failed other attachment techniques, I settled on epoxying the magnetically receptive plate to the thwart. It required removing all the 3 M adhesive from the plate and roughing up the plate to receive the epoxy, but it seems to have worked out well. Awaiting first sea trial with copious water on the plate.

 

[yknpdlr]

In most cases I use a GPS when canoeing only to maintain and monitor speed during races and training for races, routing data is not needed since I am very familiar with most local racing routes. On the other hand, during the Yukon races it is critical to have an accurately loaded route for staying on my planned route around islands and to stay in known fastest current. My favored GPS is the Garmin GPS 60csx, which has a very easy to mount handlebar style clamp that works very well on the bar thwarts on most canoes I paddle (I am usually a bow race paddler). Only a stubby phillips screw driver is needed to mount and unmount (I can easily carry a stubby in my PFD pocket). The newer Garmin models (62 and 64) use a bracket that must be held on with cable ties. I hate that because since I paddle in multiple different boats, I need to carry a side cutter to clip off the cable tie and carry extra ties to mount.

Here is a photo of my dual 60CSX mount during a Yukon race. One is on compass mode tracking my route, the other is in map mode. Each display different instantaneous information panels for me to view. The race required SPOT tracker rests in my food bin.

 

[Boatman53]

From the location of those mounts I guess you don't portage by yourself. That one ball looks like it would be digging in my shoulder. If they are both removable via the magnetic plates then that's different.
Jim

 

[Will Derness]

From the location of those mounts I guess you don't portage by yourself. That one ball looks like it would be digging in my shoulder. If they are both removable via the magnetic plates then that's different.
Jim

The hard mounted ball on the thwart, despite its look in the photo, does not interfere with lifting and carrying the canoe on my shoulders. However, trusting the epoxy will be successful in holding tight the metal plate in a watery environment, the ball that is machine screwed to the thwart will be removed and the only thing remaining on my thwart will be a thin metal plate.

The pic below shows the magnetic ball mount on top of the metal plate. Look closely and you can see the metal plate underneath. Simply lift the ball assembly off the plate to remove everything except the plate.

 

[Will Derness]

The magnetically receptive plate came in a package of 8 for $10; 4 rectangular and 4 circular. Might as well make use of these plates. So I pulled out my tandem/solo canoe out and epoxied 2 plates on for use in either tandem or solo set up.

The quick release feature of the magnetic plate makes it very easy to overcome a glaring sun on the display; simply pick it up and get the shading you need to read the display. Then put it back securely in place with virtually no effort. Quicker to put on at the put in and quicker to take off at the takeout; I like the magnetic connection.