Re: [Paddlewise] my boat(s)

I don't like touring with a jealous boat (pay attention to anything else,
and it gets upset). So although I have a downriver kayak that sometimes get
used, I don't have flatwater racers like Richard Culpeper's.

Most of my paddling is day-tripping on small bodies of water -- wandering in
the bush -- and for that I prefer one of my "little boats", double-paddle
canoes, 15' long, 24" beam, about 24 lb weight. Move very easily on the
water or off. Come to a beaver dam, take boat and daypack in one hand,
paddle in the other, and get to the other side. No decks, so I can walk out
the end. It's a development project, so I have loaners. Number Nine is the
most recent, and my favourite. If I have work to do, e.g. requiring a chain
saw _and_ a power brusher, I take Six, the fat one, with 28" beam.
Sometimes, just for a change, I'll take Seven or Eight, with a 22" beam. I
have used them for overnight, but I may build a slightly bigger one for that.

On bigger water (The Ottawa River is over a mile wide in various places near
here) I like my original Mariner sea kayak, from '82 or '83. I loan the
Seafarer if someone else wants to come along.

Whitewater, a Dagger Crossfire, even if I do need to take my shoes off
first. (6'2", long legged, size 11 or 12 feet). People here go paddling on
the Petawawa after work on Wednesdays, during the soft-water season.

Paddling tandem, usually a USCA stripper cruiser, my first stripper, 18 1/2
ft and much too heavy at c 60-65 lb. Maybe this year I'll make myself a
lighter tandem.

If stability or payload is an issue, I'll use the ABS Dumoine, but it's even
heavier than the big stripper, and doesn't have the same feeling of going fast.

There was a wood-and-canvas copy of a boat (#199, I think) from Adney and
Chapelle. I decided it was too much of a pig to sell or give away -- it
might turn someone off paddling. So it went up the chimney this winter.
Saved a couple of pieces.

And there are several others which sometimes don't leave the garage during
the year. I should either get rid of the Hydra Mustang or put some effort
into fitting it out properly, for example.
Bruce Winterbon
bwinterb_at_intranet.ca
http://intranet.ca:80/~bwinterb

Carpe diem -- crastinum!

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