Canoe

Long years ago there was painting of  a guy in the front seat of a canoe drawing on a moose.  I always thought that is what I wanted to do one day.  We have paddled with in 10 yards of moose a number of times.

[tradgreenhorn]

Ok tradgang family,this is the canoe that I decided to get. Based on all the great info that I recieved, and taking into consideration on my budget. I found a good used old town discuvery 133. It is a very wide canoe to give stabilty,yet durable enough to go down the rivers where I live. Wich means alot of portageing and rocks. Also this canoe should be quiet as well.  Thanks Don

[jeff w]

Enjoy it Don.   Adding a canoe opens up all kinds of new possibilities, you won't regret it.

[bartcanoe]

Good for you.  A nice canoe to get started, but be forewarned, canoes are like bows, you can't have just one.

[reddogge]

Even in our 17'3" Old Town Tripper I wouldn't feel good about shooting anything out of it except a shotgun at flushing ducks which we did plenty of. It was an extremely stable canoe but moved constantly in the water, enough to disrupt a purposely aimed shot from a rifle, bow or pistol. I tried the pistol on squirrels once and it was impossible to draw a bead on one out of the canoe.

[Tom Leemans]

Yes Ron, the birch bark is on my to do list as well. I've done lots of research. It's the materials that aren't too available in these parts. People don't realize just how good a well made birch bark is. Sure it takes maintenance, but that's o.k. with me.

[Brock]

Originally posted by pavan:
Long years ago there was painting of  a guy in the front seat of a canoe drawing on a moose.  I always thought that is what I wanted to do one day.  We have paddled with in 10 yards of moose a number of times.

Jack Paluh...I have two of his numbered printes...and will likely get a couple more if I ever get a place with more wall space of my own.

   

[J. Oles]

Pavan,

What do you think of the Souris River Prospector 16?

I haven't met to many folks who've been in that boat.  I currently paddle a Starfire.  Still looking for the perfect tandem/solo hull.

Jason

I test paddled one. I like the 17.5" prospector model better for us, the over 220 pound club. The Souris River 16 tracks and glides better than the wood canvas Prospector,it has a straighter midhull section. It turns about the same, and it may have a bit more payload. The souris Rivers are really tough, however, it is not bullet proof or totally rock proof. The Red Rock Wilderness store gives the impression that you can ram anything with them. You can, but you will end up with a hole in your bow. You can heel the Souris river over nicely. One thing about all Prospector designs, they are not the best canoe for paddling into the wind, when going solo. The Bell Starfire may be a faster solo than the Souris River, but with less freeboard when going double.  For under 550 pounds total weight the Souris River Quetico 16 is faster and steadier than the Souris River Prospector.  If you are running downstream alot and have to manipulate standing waves and cross currents, I would go with the Prospector.

[AkDan]

build a stripper!

Strippers are basically very pretty fiberglass boats. Kinda like clear glass trad bows. They are quiet, a bit heavy, and take a good deal of time. I have the blueprints to many old designs, I have often toyed with the idea of making a shortened Redbird, they are normally 17.5 narrow tandems, but at 16' one would make a very nice solo.

[J. Oles]

The Souris River on paper looks like a 16ft Starfire with out the radical tumbleholm.

I visited Red Rock early one spring, but the lake were still frozen so I couldn't paddle one.

Dan, lot's of us in Alaska would like to build strippers!  16' seems a little tall  

Jason

[AkDan]

actually mines not heavy at all!  its extremely light for a 14 footer!  There's a ton of factors that contribute to weight, glass and epoxy being as much as size if not more so.   Mine's surprisingly light!

      https://scontent-b-sea.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/t1/2823_1052385911857_3262614_n.jpg

[AkDan]

ps, I wouldn't build it like I did if you're serious about shooting out of it.  In this boat I'm sitting on the floor.   I decided I didn't want the hanging seat and never got around to making a seat that sat off the floor 3-4"es mainly to keep my rear end from being wet so you'll see a missing thwart and seat.  I use a thick pad and a bear creek back rest/seat.  I mainly use this boat for spring grayling and poking around some beaver sloughs every now and than.   I have a pile of plans and am trying to decide which one to build to hunt out of.

Nice looking canoe, for me it would need a kneeling thwart, and a set of shoulder pads.
The Starfire is in many ways like a prospector, but it is a foot shorter and has less payload.  I have had a couple of Bell canoes, the Northwood was my favorite. There is a difference in canoe selection options when you start loading them up with packs and people or game. Here in the lake region freeboard, wind, weight, speed and waves always comes into the equation, which makes our choices for canoes to favor larger kevlar models. You would be surprised at how far we have to carry stuff at times. Shorter canoes do not have the paddling speed that is required for cross Canadian lake region canoe trips.

[Orion]

There are lots of canoes that are named Prospector nowadays.  If they follow the lines of the original Chestnut Prospector, they are deep boats, usually 15-16 inches (compared to 12-13 on most canoes) and have a lot of rocker.  That makes them real cargo haulers and easy to maneuver in fast water.

They are good two-person tripping boats. They generally are not good solo boats.  Unless heavily loaded, there's a lot of free board that catches the wind.  Also, with just one person and little gear in them, they're a bit tippy.  The Prospector is a very good boat.  I've built several in wood and canvas, but there are much better designs out there for solo paddling/hunting.

[J. Oles]

Finding the perfect canoe is much like finding the perfect bow.  There's a niche just about every place you look.

The thing is, if you want to be a canoeist than go for it.  When I first started out everyone pointed me towards "stable" hunting/fishing platforms.  Today, I'll take a tender responsive boat over a barge any day.  Once you get comfortable with boats that have a high degree of secondary stability, there's no reason to trade performance for initial stability.

Heck, I've stood up and shot carp out of a Wenonah Voyager, one of the narrowest boats I know of.

I think the take home message on hunting/fishing canoe is don't be scared away from any boat as long as you also want to learn paddling skills.

Jason

[J. Oles]

Pavan,

I'd like to hear more about your impressions of the Souris 16' Prospector.

There's darn little information about this boat, and I've had minimal luck talking with the company for some reason.

Here's my e-mail [email protected]

Our go to hunting and local fishing canoe is the Mad River Explorer, it is like a fat mans Prospector. Ours is the top of line kevlar with the built in skid plates. It is a vee bottom, which inhibits its shallow running at times, but it is very well behaved in current and waves and it tracks straight with very little stearing effort. The Souris River Prospector has a round bottom, but it is not so rockered in the middle, this gives better glide and straight tracking that a standard prospector does not have. The ends come up quickly which allows it to turn in current very nicely.  Souris River kevlars have harder epoxy than most other kevlars, it takes more to hurt them.  Souris River canoes as a whole, can handle heavy loads very well. For big loads and big people the 17.5 version makes just about the best around canoe there is, but you do need to know the Bill Mason strokes.  When I paddled the 16 footer, I laid it over. it has superb secondary stability.  The 16' Quetico version while it makes a better fishing canoe and has more initial stability, does not like to be healed as far.  I guess it all comes down to how often you will be going solo and where you are going go with it. I would recommend getting a midsized rubber back pack. Not for carring stuff, but to put water in to give you some foward ballast when paddleing solo. A rock in the front is not the answer, water is heavy, it will not damage or sink your boat, and if you do swamp the air space left will suspend your canoe, if the pack is tied in tight.  For solo tripping I used to have a Wenonah Prsim, they are good up to 500 pounds, but are no fun running down stream in tricky currents.  Going solo with the SR I think my cruise was about 2 mile per hour, tandem we were comfortable at 3 mph.  We added a third person to duplicate a heavy load, and that 3 mph was pushing it a bit.

I think for most solo work and tandem stuff up to 550 pounds this canoe will be more user friendly and it is about as tough as the souris river.
 http://www.nighthawkcanoes.com/cygnus-16-details.html