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PostPosted: November 5th, 2022, 1:11 pm 
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Location: Freeland, Maryland USA
woodpuppy wrote:
So what’s the story with the “shop gogetch”? Is this just something you do, or is it part of canoe outfitting culture and other outfitters have their own design?


It is both culture, past and present, and something I do. And something other people do; DougD’s Dragon sticker.

ImagePA260014 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

Or “Outfitting by Mike Yee” stickers.

https://mikeyeeoutfitting.com/outfittin ... tting.html

I could have Gogetch stickers made, but as long as I have an artist in residence willing to ply a teeny paint brush I like that every Gogetch is slightly different.

What the heck, I may have some Gogetch stickers made anyway; there are 200+ Duckhead stickers out there from club days and on every boat I have ever sold. Duckhead stickers on boats from Canada to Florida and points west. Every once in a while I hear of a chance encounter at a launch, where some stranger recognized the Duckhead sticker and made conversation.

In Culture, historic, the Malecite Passamaquodddy birch bark canoe makers used a “Mark of the Builder” as well as other, more linear decoration, sometimes akin to a Plimsoll Line along the waterline load. Not a bad idea for an easy paddling-companion trim check with modern canoes.

Of course modern manufacturers employ the same “Mark of the Builder”, with smoking bunnies and paw prints, splayed trees, splayed paddles and etc logos. I figure that once I have had my way with a canoe it is branded for life, and should forever bear a mark of outfitting infamy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-Mnp6VAmEc

An old Gogetch explanation

https://myccr.com/phpbbforum/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=15773


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PostPosted: November 5th, 2022, 4:03 pm 
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Thanks for the explanation!


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PostPosted: November 9th, 2022, 11:17 am 
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Another outfitting issue reveled by the first test paddled to be resolved. The heel pads for the foot brace needed to be extended further forward to accommodate long legged paddlers, or even me when wearing stacked heel mukluks.

That is the last time I do test fit sits only barefoot; I usually have on watershoes of some sort, and six months of the year mukluks. With mukluks on my heels were too near the edge of the pad and I busted a chunk of foam off the edge.

Not just extended further forward, the heel pads need to be tougher and more durable. The (I thought) EVA foam I used for the heel pads is gouged up after a single trip, something that never happened before with EVA foam. I guess that, as with minicel, there are different “toughness” yoga block EVA foam. Instead of laboriously scraping the existing heel pads off I added extensions to the front.

ImagePB070044 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

The extension pieces were made slightly shallower, to better accommodate the longer legs/bigger feet foot brace conundrum as well as boot heeled mukluks.

Then thin rectangles of black exercise flooring contact cemented on top. The exercise flooring was cut slightly smaller than the EVA foam below, with beveled edges to help reduce sheer forces.

ImagePB080045 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

The embossed side of exercise flooring is boot heel tough stuff, by itself is not very cushy, but with the softer, more compressible EVA foam underneath the layers should be barefoot comfy enough.

The carry handles hidden by the spray covers issue was also resolved. That resolution was easy and inexpensive, but that is another story, and maybe another thread.


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PostPosted: November 9th, 2022, 6:33 pm 
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“The carry handles hidden by the spray covers issue was also resolved. That resolution was easy and inexpensive, but that is another story, and maybe another thread.”

I bet it entails more holes in the ship!


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PostPosted: November 10th, 2022, 11:25 am 
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woodpuppy wrote:
“The carry handles hidden by the spray covers issue was also resolved. That resolution was easy and inexpensive, but that is another story, and maybe another thread.”

I bet it entails more holes in the ship!


Of course it does. Including installation of the spray covers, seat brackets, utility sail thwart, foot brace and new stern thwart I have (just counted) drilled 60 holes in the canoe so far. Only 14 more to go.

I understand that some people don’t believe in modifying a canoe, especially a nice one. Every time I have paddled a factory stock canoe my first thoughts were “If this was my canoe I would . . . . .”

Or maybe I don’t understand that no-modifications mindset; if a little work and an additional pound of two will make a canoe more efficient, more comfortable and safer I’ll have at it, drilling holes and all.

Not just canoes; it has always been the same with my trucks; I want my own custom outfitting, from cap & racks, window screens and curtains, paddle storage box and thick foam sleeping pad with lights and fan and nightstand, back porch tailgate awning and etc, etc, etc.

ImagePA010020 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

That outfitting improved over time with each truck.

ImageEK_0010 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

I eventually learned the storage value of shelving and ample tie downs. Multi-week two-person road trip with the newest tripping truck.

ImageP4151833 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

“Eventually learned”. Multi-week two-person road trip without shelving and sufficient tie downs.

ImageEK_0012 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr


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PostPosted: November 10th, 2022, 2:54 pm 
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I admit I fall more in line with non-permanent modifications. Holes are permanent so I drill them sparingly. Thwarts etc. are replaceable so I’ll drill those for sure.


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PostPosted: November 13th, 2022, 12:17 pm 
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woodpuppy wrote:
Holes are permanent so I drill them sparingly. Thwarts etc. are replaceable so I’ll drill those for sure.


Holes are not entirely permanent, I plugged the sixteen holes in the hull from removing the tandem seat brackets, so deduct 16 from my total hole score.

Among the new holes drilled what would I want to do without?

Not the eight new hull holes for 3/16” flange rivets holding the new seat in place; I wanted to be paddling a dedicated solo from a centralized seat, not paddling a differentially rockered tandem seated bow backwards.

ImagePA290002 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

Not the four new hull holes for the 3/16” flange rivets holding the foot brace in place. I am a seated paddler and a foot brace is an efficiency boon.

ImagePA130015 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

Not the new gunwale holes for 3/16” machine screws holding the utility sail thwart. If I have a tailwind I want to take advantage.

ImagePA140024 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

Not the new gunwale holes holding the relocated bow thwart. I prefer a canoe, especially a soloized UL kevlar tandem, with additional cross member stiffening both fore and aft of the seat.

ImagePA110004 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

Not the 40 (and counting, ten still to go for the center storage cover) 1/8” holes for the spray cover studs. The advantages of spray covers are innumerable; rain, wind, splash and spray, even summer sun. Eight of the stud rivets were backed up with mini SS D-rings, giving me a few sheerline height tie points.

ImagePB020005 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

ImagePA180049 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

Not the gunwale holes for the mini SS D-rings holding the back band. When sitting on a canted seat using a foot brace a back band provides an oppositional force advantage.

ImagePA120003 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

Not the four 1” holes for conduit box adaptors at the stems. With the spray covers in place, hiding the carry handles, I needed grab loops at each end, and some place to attach painter lines.

ImagePB070040 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

Every hole served a purpose. For comfort, safety and efficiency there is not a newly drilled hole I would do without.

Still a few holes left to drill; the CCS center storage cover is on the way. Thanks again to Dan Cooke for his willingness to do custom work. And I realized that I never drilled drain holes in the deck caps. Even those winkydink deck caps could use drain holes, to help prevent bilge gunk from accumulating in the stems.


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PostPosted: November 13th, 2022, 3:17 pm 
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BIG drain holes so they don’t get promptly stopped up.


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PostPosted: November 13th, 2022, 4:10 pm 
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wotrock wrote:


I figure a name like Wotrock you have some familiarity with sunkers. Thanks, I read that link a couple times, and it continued to bring back Conowingo Pool memories, and I should answer the question.

Yes, lots of sunkers, especially the further north you dare explore. In some ways those barely submerged rocks are fortuitously; much of the upper pool is inhospitable for motors, and the very few who do venture north know the waters well enough to pick their way slowly and carefully.

My father ran a small Johnson outboard on our aluminum jonboat on the upper Conowingo Pool. We poked into upstream places where few motors dare to go, even fewer these days. Dad carried spare sheer pins and pliers, and in a last ditch pinch small finishing nails, and could replace one with the speed of a NASCAR pit crew.

Because there is all manner of water adjacent to the upper pool, from miles wide open waters to the south (wave hello at speeding hellions with large outboards) to narrow swifts & attainments, weird boils and mini-whirlpools to the north, and a stretch of paddle-able lush riparian valley tributary just downstream, it is the ideal venue to test paddle canoes in a variety of conditions.

That bit-of-everything venue is in some ways not so paddling fortuitous. I came within a hair’s breadth of sinking (read “losing”) a 15’ aluminum canoe there, running the “tailrace” below the dam through standing waves. With three mostly novice people in the canoe, and I was the “mostly”, the others were clueless.

Ah, to be young and stupid and lucky once again, we largely submerged that tub, but despite dipping the bilge sloshing gunwales a couple times, taking on even more water in the haystacks, somehow managed to stay upright. Today I would give myself a 50/50 chance of running the tailrace in a WW canoe. Maybe 70/30 with age and infirmities.

One sunker memory there still gives me chills. We were test paddling an Old Town Koru, perhaps the last high quality composite canoe Old Town ever produced. 17’ 5” x 33 ¾”, in some carbon and ? lay up, which Old Town would only identify as “Advanced Composite”.

The Koru was stunningly beautiful; slotted wood gunwales and deck plates, brass end caps, nicely sculpted yoke and carry handles, sliding bow seat. Zero construction defects of any kind, down to having every brass screw head aligned in parallel. Also $3000 in 2007.

Grabs inflation calculator. . . .$4300 in 2022 money. No wonder they didn’t make many limited edition Korus. One of fifty made, in retrospect the rarest canoe I have ever paddled. Page 16 of this catalog.

https://www.oldtowncanoe.com/sites/oldt ... uide_0.pdf

One gentle test outing day I had a canoeist friend with his daughter paddling bow in the Koru on the upper pool, to elicit their opinion. Slowly cruising downstream on a beautifully calm and quiet day, chatting happily alongside, until a hideous, unending SKRREEEEEEEEK pierced the air. Alexa, paying no attention, had neglected to see a looming “sunker”.

The rock, water depth and Koru draft were ideal. Ideal to put a 15 foot long continuous scratch down the bottom of that black beauty.

We took various test paddling canoes to far more challenging places, and semi-abused them on real world trips; capsized several, almost had to abandon two on a camper amidst nigh impossible winds. There were a couple of episodes where I worried I’d be hearing that I “had some ‘splainin to do” from the manufacturers.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yKcxPpwp5i4

That gentle daytrip Koru battle scar remains the worst damage we ever did.


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PostPosted: November 16th, 2022, 11:48 am 
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As mentioned earlier
Quote:
For a tripping canoe with partial covers the NorthStar deserves a center storage cover. I may DIY one from heat sealable Packcloth fabric. Or ask Dan if Cooke Custom Sewing still means custom. I am reluctant to make a purple heat sealable Packcloth cover, simple as it is, a near rectangle 72” long x 39” wide, mostly because the CCS work is far superior to my kludgy DIY attempts.

I don’t portage these days, and with a center storage cover don’t need to schlep paddling gear to a sometimes distant camp; everything from PFD to paddles and sail can stay safe and dry inside the canoe.

ImageP3070814 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

ImageP2180691 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr


The Penobscot’s center storage cover on the open “cockpit” area comes up several inches short of the drainage baffles on the longer NorthStar.

ImagePA140022 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

I can DIY a longer center storage cover using my crude heat sealable fabric method, basically a rectangle 72” x 39”, but the soloized NorthStar is so strikingly handsome with those green covers on kevlar gold, and the Cooke Custom Sewing stuff is so well made, that a matching green CCS cover would look much nicer than the blue or red heat sealable fabric I have available.

One issue is with the snap stud locations on the hull. The center cover overlaps the partial bow/stern covers by several inches at each end, past the drain baffles which prevent water from running into the hull with the center portion snapped in place.

The corner sockets/studs on the storage cover, overlapping the partial bow & stern covers, need to be positioned further back and below the edge of the existing snapped fabric. Well out of any paddle stroke range those location of those studs does not matter.

But I don’t want the three center studs that low on the sides amidship; I would rasp my knuckles on those exposed-while-paddling studs. Those center studs need to be set higher on the hull, inside the cup of the shoulder.

How easiest to accomplish that was a mystery. A semi bow tie shaped cover could be made, which in heat sealable fabric might be prone to tearing at the angles. A simple rectangle would be easiest to heat seal or sew hems, so maybe with a fabric patch where the higher center sockets seat on “hidden” studs.

First things first, I made a template from clear visqueen plastic, cut at hemmed length on the ends but for starters left heat sealable Packcloth width 58” on the sides. I have rolled lengths of visqueen cut to that heat sealable fabric 58” width; I make enough no-sewing stuff from that material that having clear plastic already cut to fabric width is a help in making templates.

Visqueen taped evenly in place it was easy to Sharpie dot the socket locations, overlapped corners and higher centers, spaced so the thwarts, knee bumpers and etc would not be in the way of installing the stud rivets. Backing up a pop rivet when it is behind a thwart, or under minicel knee bumpers is PITA. An easily avoided PITA; you need not ask how I discovered that spray cover complication.

ImagePB140009 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

Then came the easiest part. The more I thought about a making crude heat sealable fabric cover for that beautiful canoe the more apparent the answer became.

“Hello Dan, I need a center storage cover like you made for the Wilderness and Penobsot”, yadda yadda, mentioning the offset center socket locations. A couple of conversations later the cover was made and on the way. Dan must know I am a frugal Scotsman, he made me an offer I couldn’t refuse.

I was so psyched to get that custom CCS center cover that I started tracking the package before it even left Minnosota. Yippie, it actually arrived a day early.

ImagePB140012 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

Going the extra design yard Dan cut the center cover with a slight taper to better fit the sheerline, there is a lot more open “cockpit” in front of the seat than behind.

The solution to the snap location conundrum that (duh!) eluded me was quickly apparent to Dan; I had faith in his abilities to problem solve. Although the center snaps needed to higher on the hull, inside the shoulder concavity, the socket locations on a rectangle of fabric were in actuality only ¾” higher than the corners.

It somehow never occurred to me that, while the easiest hemmed storage cover would still be a rectangle, the hull amidships is of course center tapered end to end. With the canoe shape () along the sheerline a wider hem along the sides was all that was needed to seat the center sockets so the snaps would be inside the shouldered “armpit”, out of knuckle bashing range.

Loosely draped over the sheerline to check everything fits perfectly.

ImagePB140010 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

The usual spray cover installation methodology; cover taped semi-taut in place on a moderately humid day (65% on the shop hydrometer), multi-layer squib of duct tape to imprint a socket impression, drill a 1/8” hole, pop a rivet through the stud backed up with a washer, do the same on the other side nice and even, do the other end corners also even Steven, drill and pop rivet the centers inside the shoulder.

That center storage cover is perfect. I left a little slack at center sockets/studs so that the back band, straped in place, creates a little arch, and my PFD, kept overnight on the seat out of the bilge adds a bit more bulge amidships.

ImagePB140015 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

ImagePB140019 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

The four corner sockets/studs are just below the partials, and protectively well beyond for wind driven rain.

ImagePB140015 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

The center studs set knuckle protectively recessed inside the shoulder concavity. (I suspect the bulges and hollows of that Yost-ian shouldered tumblehome have names. Probably not “armpit”)

ImagePB140021 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

With the center cover removed while paddling the exposed studs are protected by the shoulder recess, and by the outwale overhang, and should be out of possible knuckle dragging range.

Only a few holes left to drill. Drain holes in the deck caps, set back of the paw print to avoid the top of the float tank. 3/8” seemed about right on those winkydink end caps. If I ever put stem float bags in the NorthStar – highly unlikely - I could run line from the end of the bag up through those deck plate holes and tie back to the carry handles.

ImagePB140023 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

One more hole. Those two holes will drain the teeny deck caps, but I needed something to help drain the bilge. I didn’t want to screw up on the last hole, so taped and marked for the best bilge drainage location. The tape will help prevent kevlar fuzzies when the hole is drilled.

woodpuppy wrote:
BIG drain holes so they don’t get promptly stopped up.


As you wish. . . .
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ImagePB150026 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

Someone call for a wellness check on Woodpuppy. Send EMS with a defibrillator.


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PostPosted: November 17th, 2022, 7:33 am 
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OY! That’s the BOTTOM Mike! [faints]


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PostPosted: November 23rd, 2022, 3:24 pm 
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woodpuppy wrote:
OY! That’s the BOTTOM Mike! [faints]


I thought long and hard about where I could find a large scrap piece of gold/black kevlar tweed, just so I could drill a 3 ½” hole in it just for photo op funsies. “Oh, Woodpuppy, look at the fishies swimming under the hull!”

A Florida friend had a glass rec kayak, one of the more slender Phoenix Poke Boats, with a plexiglass window amidships for just that glass bottomed boat effect. It was amusing until he got stuck halfway over speedbump log, cracked the plexiglass and needed to hurriedly bail his way to shore for field repairs.

There is, of course, a dénouement to that story. We got his boat to shore in a swamp sunny spot, dried it out, and laid nuclear grade Nashua 357 duct tape over the crack inside and out. It was a small group trip, we had Alex and her dog Whiskey as companions.

Whiskey was a practiced canoe dog, and a gentle joy to be around. He planted his hindquarters in the swamp overgrowth and waited patiently for us to finish the repairs. And then, “Come on boy, let’s go”, refused to budge; he was not getting back in Alex’s canoe. He was not moving.

After considerable coercion, clapping and offering for feed treats Alex finally tried to drag him by the collar away from his insistent repose. He snapped at her. WTF Whiskey?

Whiskey had sat down with his nuts dangling inside a perfect snare of greenbriar, which tightened around his testacies when he tried to stand up. I would have snapped at Alex too, and perhaps been less trusting as she cut my nutsack free.

There was a dénouement to that dénouement; friend Dave of the broken glass window Poke Boat paddled it for years with no fix beyond that duct tape patch. I have never understood paddlers who will not do even the simplest repairs and maintenance on their boats

The soloized NorthStar is everything I hoped it would be. I still don’t know how it sails; the local winds have been light and variable, light and variable, 25mph with higher gusts, light and variable for days on end; either too little, or too much.

I have a semi-protected upper Chesapeake Bay sailing venue in mind, launching from Mariner Point near the top of the bay. I’m watching the wind, weather and tides for the most opportune day. I’ll take two out of three, provided one of them is a decent sailing breeze and direction.


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PostPosted: November 23rd, 2022, 8:55 pm 
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Poor Whiskey!!


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PostPosted: November 25th, 2022, 7:28 pm 
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Mike McCrea wrote:
wotrock wrote:


I figure a name like Wotrock you have some familiarity with sunkers. Thanks, I read that link a couple times, and it continued to bring back Conowingo Pool memories, and I should answer the question.

Yes, lots of sunkers, especially the further north you dare explore. In some ways those barely submerged rocks are fortuitously; much of the upper pool is inhospitable for motors, and the very few who do venture north know the waters well enough to pick their way slowly and carefully.


https://www.oldtowncanoe.com/sites/oldt ... uide_0.pdf



I'm glad you liked that word. I think it's quite useful esp in places like Georgian B (well, actually, there are NO places like G Bay). A bit onomatopoetic too, perhaps. It would have been useful when our trip partners when they were paddling straight twd one that I could see but they could not. Would have been easier to shout "Watch out for the sunker" or just "sunker' instead of 'Watch out for the slightly submerged rock" :-? . G Bay proob has more sunkers per acre than anywhere.

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