C-Forum

I agree with milkman. In just about any design of canoe, it is the central half of the canoe's length that is the practical load-carrying capacity. The quarter length at the front and the quarter length at the back are mainly there to part the water smoothly, and add a bit of buoyancy. Not only is t...

The Wenonah Sundowner and the Old Town Penobscot are pretty fast canoes with a lot of capacity, but they are tandems and if you found the Probe 12II too big, you will certainly find them too big as well. I also have a composite Clipper Viper although mine is a Viper 12. I can fit two 60 L barrels in...

The Rival is not only asymmetrical with regard to its rocker, but also its hull cross sectional shape. It is generally a soft-chine boat, but if you look at the hull carefully you will find that the front portion of the hull has a smooth, shallow arch cross section, but the stern transitions to some...

Yeah, ChrisKelly would be the one to ask. I know he really likes the Rival a lot. I understand my friend Bruce M (Bruce on this forum) paddled a Millbrook Rival last year and didn't much care for it, so you might query him as well. Some people seem to have found the asymmetrical rocker of the Rival ...

Same to you, Richard. I sincerely hope that with the death of Royalex, Mohawk Canoe can remain afloat.

So in cold weather paddling is it better to have a wet suit or a dry suit? Or dose it matter. Or do you want a wet suit under you dry suit? And if not what do you wear under your dry suit? As everyone has said, there is no question that for real cold weather and cold water paddling a dry suit is be...

Merry Christmas to you, Kaz.

Yes G Flex will bond to poly but it requires thoroughly cleaning the hull material then carefully pretreating the area by flame oxidizing it by systematically passing the inner blue cone of a propane torch flame over the surface. If you don't do that, G Flex won't adhere. I have accidentally dribble...

I've made several repairs on an old shaman12 on the cracked stern. I ground open the cracks, filled with gflex and then applied glass patches on both inside and outside. The stern patching seems to be working quite well after several months of boating and banging down low water runs. I now want to ...

I would use either fiberglass (6 oz/sq yd) or Dynel (5 oz/sq yd) on the hull exterior. For interior repairs I usually use 5 oz/sq yd aramid (Kevlar). G Flex should work fine to fill in the rather small defects where the solid stratum of ABS has been worn away to expose the foam core. But almost cert...

I too would use G Flex, thickened with silica powder, to fill in the exposed foam core and build it up to flush with the adjacent hull, then use unthickened G Flex and cloth over the repair overlapping onto intact hull by about 2 inches. Some have reported good results filling in the foam core with ...

Thanks for the impressions, all. If the Blink paddles somewhat like a L'Edge with a bit more emphasis on the "edge" part, I think it will be a very successful boat.

Mike, Thanks for your comments. I paddled an original, fully decked L'Edge down the Nantahala twice and I paddled my friend's latest generation Blackfly Option down the Nantahala once. I very briefly paddled Ed Powers L'Edge Light on the Slip, surfing and easy wave and just doing some easy ferries a...

Paddled the Blink today on the Nanty. What incredible fun. I was able to do moves that have eluded me since going to short boats, and being 10 years older. At PB&J wave Bert and I surfed, and surfed. As a matter of fact my last surf I did 180s. 360s, side/front surfed, then got on my off side and s...

Some have advocated deliberately leaving a gap between the foam pedestal and a thwart so that the hull bottom can flex up a bit. They maintain that this reduces the tendency for the hull to crack beneath the pedestal, but still reduces the tendency for the boat to fold in the center if hung on a roc...