Composite or strip plank Old Town Penobscot 16?

[bark-eater]

I was day dreaming about the Northern Canoe Trail and which canoe would be "best" for a solo attempt. I keep coming back to the idea of a light weight "pole-able" solo canoe. I spent a couple summers with a derelict Royalex OT Penobscot 16, ever so slightly hogged, wide and heavy, but controllable solo paddling and fun to pole around. I still have the hull and its first in line for new wood work, but it remains hogged, wide and heavy. I could take the lines off my hull, reduce the beam, lift the sections to give a little more rocker and loft and fair the results but actual boat design is not part of my skill set. Are there any other similar and proven canoe designs out there?

 

[yellowcanoe]

Not a good idea. If you this is the first time lofting you may have a horrid result that is unsafe. There are many canoe designs that are as good or better than the Penobscot and all can and do work. Even a rec kayak has worked( till the paddler got to the Allagash and the kayak was turned away due to length width restrictions).. The NFCT is not that big a deal requiring a certain boat. I have done bits and pieces in a Raven, Merlin II, RapidFire and and Argosy ( MFCT is near my home)
Just get a decent small tandem or large solo..You will like light weight when you get to Mud Pond Carry ( not cartable two miles)

 

[bark-eater]

It's been a while since I've had the Penobscot in service, but I did like poling it. My swift raven, while I can stand up in it, makes poling an entertaining party trick.... Realistically I need to focus on a family camping rig right now. I'm eyeing an 18 ft Grumman on craigslist so I can take the whole kit and kaboodle family comfort camping, but this day dream is about a Penobscotesque pole-able solo.....

 

[riverstrider]

Having done most of the trail in sections, and most of them downhill, I'm not sure I'm the best source of opinions, but if I had to through-paddle the NFCT, my boat of choice would be a Kevlar MR Explorer set up to paddle solo, and also with a kneeling thwart. It doesn't do anything exceptionally well, but it does a lot of things pretty well, and is a good poling boat. My Explorer has done most of the trip with me...but it is Royalex. When I did the Mud Pond Carry I used my Kevlar Hemlock SRT...which can be poled, but I don't recommend it. I think a Penobscot hull would also work well, but I don't know many lightweight versions of that boat.

-rs

 

[bark-eater]

I came across a couple mentions of the Bell Northwind in Royalex being a similar hull, I'm not sure if that has any correlation with the current generation composite Northwinds. When I get around to rebuilding my hull, I will pull the lines off and and at least fair out the hog. I have a beat up kevlar Malachite hull with the trim fully rotted off, but I think it may be a little to age brittle to bounce off rocks. I won't be building anything new until the the lawn fleet is rebuilt and, or passed on to the next contestant.

 

[Steve in Idaho]

Pole-able solos would include the Mohawk Solo 14 and the Mad River Freedom Solo. Not going to do much in the way of upstream work in pushy current or rough water, but I have tried both briefly, and deemed them usable with a pole. Depends on if you want to do more than downstream in easy water, with some brief easy upstream. Otherwise, I would think you really want a tandem you can paddle solo. That gives you a lot of easy targets. My personal favorite is the Millbrook Coho. Not quite as fast as the Penobscot, but a bit more maneuverable - and currently in production (custom order) in kev/glass. Mine has no seats, but I use a removable min-cell kneeling pedestal that stuffs under the yoke while I'm standing.

 

[bark-eater]

Steve,

Any thoughts on the Milbrook Souhegan for a boat that will do more solo paddling than poling? I'm assuming these are flatter bottomed than the Penobscot.
[FONT=&quot]COHO[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]A general purpose boat with an slightly asymmetrical shallow arch hull. Slightly rockered, very stable. Originally designed by Ed Hayden for poling.[/FONT]

• Length: 15'6"
• Width: 35"
• Depth: 12.5"
• Weight: 46 lbs.

[FONT=&quot]SOUHEGAN[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot] This is a slightly smaller version of the Coho. Symmetrical hull. Originally designed by Ed Hayden for poling. Very stable. 3" of rocker in each end for the first 3' to 4'.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Length: 15'4" Width: 32" Depth: 12.5" Weight: 44 lbs. [/FONT]

 

[Steve in Idaho]

Steve,

Any thoughts on the Milbrook Souhegan for a boat that will do more solo paddling than poling? I'm assuming these are flatter bottomed than the Penobscot.

I wish I had access to a Souhegan to compare. The only way I see that happening involves either an airline ticket or buying one myself.

I agonized for some time over which one to get before I settled on the Coho. There is a thread somewhere on the Northeast Paddlers Message Board where I picked some brains of those with experience with both. Bottom line I left with was that the Coho was more suitable for tripping (with a pole) and the Souhegan was more suitable for day/play - or paddling solo. BTW - One of the members there, TommyC1, owns a Souhegan and paddles it solo. I don't remember if he posts here, but he would be a good person to ask. I wanted to go tripping with the pole, and the Coho has turned out to work well for that - but it paddles solo pretty well too. Not quite as well on flat water as the Penobscot, but better on moving, twisting rivers.

It's been a long time since I looked close at a Penobscot, but I do think that the Coho may be slightly flatter. Maybe. Ah heck....I can't remember.

 

[riverstrider]

I wish I had access to a Souhegan to compare. The only way I see that happening involves either an airline ticket or buying one myself.

I agonized for some time over which one to get before I settled on the Coho. There is a thread somewhere on the Northeast Paddlers Message Board where I picked some brains of those with experience with both. Bottom line I left with was that the Coho was more suitable for tripping (with a pole) and the Souhegan was more suitable for day/play - or paddling solo. BTW - One of the members there, TommyC1, owns a Souhegan and paddles it solo. I don't remember if he posts here, but he would be a good person to ask. I wanted to go tripping with the pole, and the Coho has turned out to work well for that - but it paddles solo pretty well too. Not quite as well on flat water as the Penobscot, but better on moving, twisting rivers.

It's been a long time since I looked close at a Penobscot, but I do think that the Coho may be slightly flatter. Maybe. Ah heck....I can't remember.

I know TommyC1, and he and I have talked about paddling the Souhegan as a tripper. His conclusion was as Steve said...a decent day tripper, but primarily in moving water or rapids, and a far better poling boat. I think it has more rocker than the Coho, and less capacity, so it isn't really designed to handle a lot of gear in a lot of water types.

That being said, Tommy has a LOT of solo boats, most of which are superior solo tripping boats, so he would naturally gravitate to any of those over the Souhegan for a trip. None of which is a better poling boat...although he seems to do well if needed poling his Swift Osprey. And in my opinion, if you weer looking for a tripping solo canoe that could be poled, I would probably choose the Coho over the Osprey...and the Osprey over the Souhegan.

-rs

 

[BWCA66]

Interesting how canoe names get reused. Merrimack has been making an "Osprey" since 1954 and a "Souhegan" model since the 80's.

 

[Mrindy]

I've never poled a canoe, but I do have a 16' rx Penobscot and find it to work alright solo or tandem paddling on rivers or lakes. It actually has a bit of a shallow V to rounded bottom, compared with the flat bottoms of the Camper and Disco models. Not sure if that initial stability wobliness would be an issue while standing in it with a pole.

 

[Steve in Idaho]

Mrindy, I used to pole a Penobscot quite a bit. In fact, it was one I progressed to from the Camper, before I moved to the Prospector and then the Coho.

For poling upstream against current on mostly flat water, the Penobscot is actually hard to beat - once you get used to the lively feel at rest. It doesn't want to turn up into the current easily, as you might imagine, but its very good secondary stability makes the aggressive edging needed to turn and control the bow pretty easy to manage. But that's coming from someone who already had some poling time under his belt. The Prospector and the Coho both turn easier and are both drier rides when the water starts to get rough, but neither cut through the water as easily (although the Coho comes close).

As for contrast with the Camper - that boat is easy to stand in at first, when staying on flat water, but when things start roughing up, it's really easy to go too near the edge. I departed from that boat in places that the Penobscot just glided through. The Camper does shine in really shallow water. It seems to need not much more than wet rocks to float it, and actually has more glide when going over minimal depth than any other boat I've tried. The Camper was far easier to turn than the Penobscot, and probably an easier canoe to start out poling in, but as things progressed, the Penobscot was far more efficient and actually a much more stable ride

I recommend that you try it in the Penobscot, but expect it to feel wiggly until you're used to standing. If you are not tackling anything rougher than riffles and small drops, it may be all you need.

 

[Steve in Idaho]

That being said, Tommy has a LOT of solo boats, most of which are superior solo tripping boats, so he would naturally gravitate to any of those over the Souhegan for a trip. None of which is a better poling boat...although he seems to do well if needed poling his Swift Osprey.

Thanks for that, RS. That's good to know. The Osprey (or Kite) stripper is on the top of my list of projects to tackle immediately after retiring.

 

[bark-eater]

Now I have a Raven (taken apart in the garage), and it is narrower than the the Osprey correct? Is the Shearwater a larger Osprey, or a different hull form?

I checked the keel of my lawn art Penobscot and it actually hasn't hogged. A thin cord under tension showed a dead straight keel, so I am going to get those lines off at some point.