G
Guest
Guest
I hesitated to bring up these kaya. . . . eh, decked canoe conversions, but I took some Pamlicanoe photos doing fall maintenance, and can’t resist singing the praises of those hulls converted into solo decked canoes. Or at least singing the praises of the P145; an unappreciated hull design.
I heard y’all scoffing at our Pamlicanoes. I’ve said it before and it is still true today, a soloized, raised seat Pamlico 145T makes an excellent little solo decked canoe. And it sails like a champ, with slight but continuous bottom rocker.
PA260039 by Mike McCrea, on FlickrA friend who knows boats and ran a paddleshop selling boats for a living first proclaimed the wonderfulness of the Pamlico 145 as a solo. He was right! That is a first generation P145, the later versions kinda suck, and even the first gen’s make poor tandems. But as a raised seat solo, different story.
Used Pamlico’s, with a rudder, are way easier to find for short money than any “real” decked canoe. And they are easy to soloize, all of the parts and pieces are already there, except a slab of minicel to raise the solo seat.
Or almost all the parts and pieces. The P145 has a clamp-on utility/sail/paddle keep thwart.
PA250011 by Mike McCrea, on FlickrI left the side rails in, repositioned a bit, so the raised solo seat still slides adjustably fore and aft. Minicel knee bumpers on the cockpit coaming of course.
PA250015 by Mike McCrea, on FlickrOnly two ex-hardware hull holes to plug in the soloization, where the bow foot braces used to be. I could have left the pedals there, but they were not needed, and were in the way of gear storage space under the bow deck. The old holes were covered inside with a G/flexed vinyl patch and outside just with tinted G/flex. Plugged 15 years ago, on a poly hull. I flamed the hull first, and those patches over poly are still going strong. Gawd bless G/flex on poly hulls.
PA250016 by Mike McCrea, on FlickrGuess I should have washed the inside too.
PA250018 by Mike McCrea, on FlickrWilderness Systems/Harmony sold a center seat skirt for the P145. I’m not much interested in wearing a skirt, but I do like having a storage cover for in-camp use. I added a couple of extra pad eyes, paired above and below the deck at the cockpit tips, to provide spots to hook the storage cover bow and stern above the deck, and tie downs to augment the D-rings in securing floatation bags below decks.
PA250027 by Mike McCrea, on FlickrSerendipitously that inexpensive P145 cover fits some of our other decked canoes as well. Oak Orchard still sells Pamilco and etc storage covers. $30 well spent.
https://www.oakorchardcanoe.com/detail.php?product=3685
The P145 remains my wife’s favorite decked “canoe” (she figures she can really “hurt” the poly hull that much) and it sails wonderfully. 14’ 6” long x 28” wide, 13” deep and a tolerable 60lbs, with rudder, after raised seat soloization and other outfitting additions.
(One of my unicorn boats has long been a Pamlico T145 Pro, the kevlar composite version, same design, just 10+ lbs lighter. I’ve seen exactly one for sale in the last 20 years).
The soloized Pamlico 160T is a beast. Even losing one seat it weighs almost 80 lbs. 15’ 6” x 33” and voluminously deep, 16”. But it holds a big boy paddler and a ton of gear. Well, not a ton, rated capacity 650lbs.
Like the P145, the Pamlico 160T has the same continuous rocker and, once soloized, sails like a champ. It is beamy enough to use either the mid-sized or full sized Spirit Sail, even with the seat raised to 10” high deep for single blading.
PA270045 by Mike McCrea, on FlickrThe P160 has a permanent utility/sail thwart; the long, wide cockpit needed a bit of cross member stiffening. Seriously, gawd bless G/flex and poly hulls.
PA270047 by Mike McCrea, on FlickrThere, I went and did it, sang the praises of boats that were once kaya. . . . .eh, you know what I mean.
The soloized P160 may need to find a new home soon. We have composite decked sailing trippers, mostly converted “European-style tandem decked canoes”, enough for the whole family, and don’t use it much. Although. . . . . it does make a fine, poly rugged big-boy loaner boat and decked sailing hull.
If you are interested in a little decked sailing hull/pocket decked tripper, early Pamlico T145.
