“Need” a new solo!

[Idiot Savant]

Great looking canoe, Woodpuppy.

You don't need a wood or strap yoke to carry a 45 lb. canoe on short trips to and from the vehicle. Just carry it on your shoulder, or with the edge of the solo seat on your shoulders/neck, or overhead with two straight arms.

If I really wanted to use a strap, I'd probably just wrap it around the hull rather than installing it permanently with more screws and holes. There are lightweight fabric yokes with V shapes for your neck that wrap around the hull. They are popular with the pack canoe crowd. I believe Placid and Swift still sell them.

Personally, if I use a painter bundled up on the decks with bungees attached to a grab loop, I'd prefer to orient the bundle longitudinally rather than transversely, with the loose end sticking out the front. If your canoe is upside down in the water, it's easier to pull out the painter from the front of the bundle rather than trying to remember, when perhaps in waves or otherwise frantic, which side of the bundle I have to pull. It's also a little easier to release the rope from the nose, in my opinion, when just using the painter to pull or attach the canoe to shore or vehicle. It's easy to experiment with orientation with those scuppered decks.

Thank you. I took a long break from paddling, then, when I got back into it, I was going through my old gear and came across something that bewildered me. Had no idea what it was for. Now I know. It's a strap on yoke.

 

[Woodpuppy]

Revised bow & stern bungee painter keeper orientation. Note the hot pink whipped ends for easy identification.

 

[Odyssey]

I love the woodwork. Very nice. I was going to suggest using 2 paddles in the traditional way to portage this canoe, but you've got this covered with the bungees I suppose.

 

[Woodpuppy]

I love the woodwork. Very nice. I was going to suggest using 2 paddles in the traditional way to portage this canoe, but you've got this covered with the bungees I suppose.

I’ll give it a shot! I always take at least 2 paddles.

 

[Woodpuppy]

Still haven’t managed to get my new baby wet… tomorrow!!! Meanwhile, outfitting continues.

This evening I installed a portage strap. Used a broken drill bit and torch to melt through the strapping and then took a big breath and drilled four holes in my gunwales.







I used a piece of pink paracord to manage the rolled up strap. I had it leftover from an expedient stampede strap on my daughter’s bucket hat. After the boat trip she wanted it off, so into the crap drawer for future use it went. Guess what? The future is now.



The strap works great. My old trick of balancing the front edge of the seat on my Tilley-padded head didn’t work with this boat, where the seat is behind center. It was too over balanced forward. But I pretty well nailed balance point with this strap!





I may get froggy tonight and make web loops for all the seat and thwart bolts as extra tie down points. But I am definitely getting it wet tomorrow!

P.a. Maybe I’ll clean my garage while off work…

 

[Alasgun]

Thats the thing i miss the most after getting rid of the ocean boat; working on the endless projects it afforded!
You can only do so much to a canoe, but as im learning on here; a lot of folks have multiple canoes so maybe i’d just need to get me a truck load to ensure “enough projects”!

That’s one fine looking boat!

 

[Jatfomike]

You’re killing’ me! you’ve had it a week….you live in Florida…..and you still haven’t gotten it wet!

 

[Woodpuppy]

Thats the thing i miss the most after getting rid of the ocean boat; working on the endless projects it afforded!
You can only do so much to a canoe, but as im learning on here; a lot of folks have multiple canoes so maybe i’d just need to get me a truck load to ensure “enough projects”!

That’s one fine looking boat!

Sounds like you need to build a cedar stripper!

 

[Woodpuppy]

You’re killing’ me! you’ve had it a week….you live in Florida…..and you still haven’t gotten it wet!

You and me both. Trying to wrap things up and schedule out fieldwork for the new year before my break- I’m off through Jan 3 so IT WILL HAPPEN!

 

[Tsuga8]

I'm just catching up on this thread. Congrats @Woodpuppy ! We've had parallel paths....after months wait, and more months weight after a Phoenix with aluminum instead of wood trim showed up, I finally got my Phoenix on Nov 19. However, despite snow on the ground, ice in the water, and a blustery wind, mine was in the water within 30 min of pick-up. I've had it out half a dozen times now, though I think we may be fully iced by Xmas.



But I still can't bring myself to do anything like drilling holes in her! I've actually found that for just car topping, resting the front of the seat (now padded with a CCS pad) on my neck like a yoke is fine, altho my boat is BlackLite and only 30lbs not 45lb. But the balance there is passable. It's light enough I can also grab both thwarts and heft it, convenient in tight spaces (see below). But I also know there's a clamp-on wood yoke that Santa's bringing for longer portages on trips....

I do have a similar garage issue...tho the wife is very understanding as long as her car still fits...thank goodness she has the smallest Prius! (There's a sea kayak under the bottom Wenonah amidst the junk)

Luckily I picked the boat up Sat and had Sunday to work on the garage.

Now we can both get our cars in for winter. In spring the Wenonah Vagabond goes back to mom's house for her use so that will free up a spot for the Phoenix.

I need to outfit my bow and stern lines, and the obvious and elegant answer is yours, but I like admiring that fine deck plate in the bow while I paddle, and don't really want a lump of rope on it. More functionally, when I get into the twisty swamp brush (I went for the Phoenix for the same reason's you did, Woodpuppy), I like the coiled lines below the end cap where it doesn't snag passing twigs. Still chewing on how I'll handle it. Some say add a grab handle, but I'm still scared to drill on this baby!

I agree that the gunnels arrived in need of light sanding and oiling. They've already picked up dirty skid marks from my roofrack foam....but it's too cold to oil now so it'll have to wait for spring.

 

[stevet]

Can't stand to hear about those dirty skid marks on such a beautiful new canoe! Slit some clear vinyl tubing (Lowes) and put it on the gunnels when roofing that beauty!

 

[Woodpuppy]

@Tsuga8 I agree the decks are gorgeous. I likely won’t paddle with the painters affixed all the time, more likely a single bowline tied off to the carry loop and slipknotted to the thwart in front of the paddling station. You could bungee the painters under the decks, there is ample room.

 

[deerfly]

I put the vinyl on my roof rack tubes and cinched with tie straps, so its always there...

 

[Tsuga8]

@Woodpuppy agreed, storing lines under the deck or threading forward to the thwart are potential options. The latter may cause dog tangling issues, but I have yet to see whether he'll ride in front of or behind the seat in this boat.

To bungee it under the deck, I'd have to attach something to the inside of the hull sides above the float tank, or have bungees coming out of the deck scuppers. I saw someone had attached bungee to the face of the float tank facing the seat, which is another option. I may do the bungees like you did but only on the back deck where I don't have to look at them, and keep the bow line un-attached and tucked somewhere, maybe with a biner for quick attachment to the bow loop. It's rare that I run swiftwater these days, and I might use a royalex boat in that case anyway, so it's not that often I need a bow line in a hurry these days.

@stevet - do you take the vinyl off while paddling, or leave it on all the time? I've heard of folks putting it on to protect paddles and gunnels from rubbing against each other. I also wondered if a better coat of oil on the gunnels would help prevent the dirt streaks....

@deerfly that's another good option. I need to reassess my jalopy home-made roof rack next season. I always like some pipe insulation to cushion the boat and hold tension in the straps when going over bumps in the road. I coat the foam in gaff (fabric) tape, which allows boats to slide pretty well until they're strapped down, and holds up for at least a season or two in all weather. I've always felt like boats are more prone to slide on a bare bar when going over a bump, and potholes etc are transferred into the boat without cushioning. What's the friction and cushioning like with the vinyl tubing on there?

 

[Glenn MacGrady]

When day paddling in a central seat solo canoe, I just leave my painters loose on the canoe bottom in bow and stern, attached to the grab handles.



However, that's a bit less practical when painters are attached to nose-dangling grab loops rather than to grab handles. I don't really care for grab loops drilled through holes in the stems of canoes. I find them unattractive and less functional for picking up a canoe than grab handles. Only one of my several solos has grab loops, a Bell. Ted Bell obviously likes them for some reason.

When tripping with a load, I will bungee my painters to the decks to keep them out of the gear.

 

[stevet]

I takeoff the vinyl but I make a small mark on the inside of the hull with a pencil so I know exactly where to put them back so they sit on the gunnel brackets (yakima)

 

[Woodpuppy]

I finally made it out in my boat! I was waffling on where to go; it was between Cascade Lake where I could test the handling as I paddle through the cypress forest, or Lake Hall where I could actually use an ottertail paddle. Lake levels at Cascade, Iamonia, and Hall are all very low. Lake Jackson has drained again. It’s been happening so often over the last year no one cares anymore. The Wacissa is also down. Well, Lake Hall won out. Bonus, it’s only about 15 minutes from my house. A small lake, bounded by perhaps a third of its perimeter by state park, it is a pretty spot. The only public access is through the park and gas outboards are prohibited (though not the case for the private landowners who have boats on the lake, nor the chase Jon boat for the crew club) so it’s quiet and low traffic.

Right out of the gate there was a problem.



The webbing in that strap didn’t hold up to walking from the truck to the dock with the canoe on my shoulders. Luckily I heard that stretching/tearing sound and recognized it in time to set the leading edge of the seat on my shoulders and prevent dropping the boat. The webbing did fine in the garage, but I guess the dynamic load was too much for it. So now that I’ve got holes drilled in my boat, I’m not going to give up. I’ll order a 1.5” cam buckle for the kid seatbelt webbing I have. It is much more supple and densely woven; a better grade of material all around. I’m very glad I drilled my hole spacing for the narrower webbing. The paracord keeper worked like a champ however. So not all negative; I got a lesson in materials.

The boat? Oh I love the boat. It doesn’t track like my others, but it turns easier which is what I wanted. I wonder, would this boat have been frustrating as a first? Would I have learned to master correction strokes faster? When I started paddling my Prism I recalled everyone saying how well it tracked and how hard to turn etc. and I thought they were nuts. I had a helluva time paddling it straight. But in time my technique improved. I learned to turn to my on-side in a 17’ Encounter, which was quite the revelation. The Polaris was my first differentially rockered boat and is stable and wonderful, with or without kids, and turn better than the other boats I’ve had; but it can still be a handful in the twisty stuff. This Phoenix is symmetrically rockered and I can pull the bow or stern around easy as you please. After some initial woah factor kneeling, I tried sitting and am so glad I can sit comfortably in this boat. I think the seat in my Polaris is higher and it is thus more comfortable to kneel in. I was a little concerned the Phoenix would be too high and narrow for comfortable sitting but it’s great. I’m very glad I ordered it with the foot brace, though it’s high enough I’ll probably put the bar under the brackets. I figure I will probably swim at some point, I do need to mind my head in this boat, but it was great fun threading the needle through the lily pads and along the shore. Interestingly, I prefer my altered Clement in the Polaris but the Bruce Smith is better in this boat. I think it is largely that the shaft lengths are more appropriate for the two different boats. I’m higher off the water in the Polaris, which makes perfect sense, so the longer shafted paddle works better.









So the boat gets a stamp of approval, deserving of wearing my one and only Duckhead sticker that I won in a boat weight guessing GAW from Mike McCrae (My phone keeps trying to autoincorrect that to… well you know )



Next challenge? Measure twice drill once… my Harken Hoister arrived and to keep the wife happy (ish) I’ve got to get it installed promptly so she can park in the garage again. Right now the Phoenix is a garage queen, soon she will repose in an elevated position befitting her place in my heart.

 

[Mason]

That's pretty coarse webbing for your buckle. You might try a denser webbing (e.g. seat belt webbing), be more conservative in the hole size melted in, and add fender washers instead of plain washers. You could also try folding over the webbing, and/or a metal plate instead of the washers to better tighten things up and distribute the forces. Nice looking boat!

 

[Glenn MacGrady]

Glad you like your new boat. I would get the strongest webbing possible to protect my head and canoe. See strapworks:

Seatbelt Webbing - strapworks.com

For unparalleled strength while remaining thin, and durable, seatbelt webbing can be used for thousands of projects and comes in a rainbow of colors.

www.strapworks.com

As a two-time former Tallahasseean with family there, I'm curious what this means:

Lake Jackson has drained again.

 

[Woodpuppy]

As a two-time former Tallahasseean with family there, I'm curious what this means:

Lake Jackson is a perched lake, meaning it doesn’t intersect the aquifer- the clays in the basin retard the downward migration of water and keep the lake elevated. Once in a while, or several times in the last year+, the sinkholes in the lake bed activate and drain the lake.

DEP's Florida Geological Survey to Conduct Dye Trace at Porter Hole Sink, Lake Jackson

content.govdelivery.com

Lake Jackson Aquatic Preserve | Florida Department of Environmental Protection

December 2024 UpdateCurrent Lake Stage (Miller Landing station, Lake Jackson) as of 12/2/2024: 81.47 ft (NAVD88)

floridadep.gov