Quote:
Hoping this brings me good karma, or at least a warm fuzzy feeling.
Good karma indeed, my ship has come in. I love my soloized OT Penobscot, but it was a factory blem, the “blem” part being that it was always absurdly heavy. The story was that, while some manufacturers would reject Royalex sheets that didn’t meet their specs, Old Town would take anything they could get their hands on, and some of their blems were take-a-lifetime-to-wear-through-that “forever” canoes with crazy thick, heavy RX.
So the Penobscot, even single seat soloized, weighs 75lbs.
Wonderful big boy/big load tripper, but my back is less and less up to carrying that load. I have long wanted a lighter composite tandem tosoloize, something close to the comfortable for sloppy me Penobscot dimensions
I missed a used, underpriced Souris River Quetico. Second caller. Lusted after a Bell Morningstar, but never saw one used at any price. Out of the blue Barry, a friend from another message board, sent me an e-mail, saying he was divesting some of his fleet and asking if I was interested in his Bell NorthStar.
He had enjoyed some of the past rebuilds and retrofits, and offered me the NorthStar at a crazy low price, perhaps just to see what I would do with it. The current version of that canoe, the Northstar Canoe NorthWind 16 Starlight model runs $3200 in kevlar light.
https://northstarcanoes.com/canoe/northwind/?option=16(Ted Bell likes stars and winds and woods. . . . .who doesn’t)
Barry described some bottom scuffs and gentle use, and I didn’t even ask to see photos. Hell, if most of the canoe is still there I can put it back together. An 8 hour roundtrip later and it was in the shop.
Yeah, it does have bottom scratches. All superficial, and fewer than any other canoe I own. The NorthStar is practically pristine. The interior is pristine, other than one easily filled dent in the foam core.
Barry removed the bow seat to allow room for his Chesapeake Bay Retriever and gear load. It was coming out anyway.
PA010006 by
Mike McCrea, on Flickr
The stern seat and kneeling thwart remain, and the yoke and front thwart are there.
PA010009 by
Mike McCrea, on Flickr
PA010010 by
Mike McCrea, on Flickr
Hanging from the shop scale, 39lbs on the nose.
PA010005 by
Mike McCrea, on Flickr
All of that is coming out eventually, except the aluminum front thwart. What is going back in is the custom laminated wide butt Conk seat, which fits perfectly, to be hung on slender Bell style truss hangers.
PA010012 by
Mike McCrea, on Flickr
The wood yoke will be replaced by a DIY strap yoke, held taut when needed by a SS cam buckle.
And, twenty some inches lean forward in front of the seat, a utility sail thwart. Probably not the usual 5 ½” wide platform, I could go as skinny as 3 ½” wide. The new flush mount Scotty rod mount/sail mount doesn’t need as much width. Much as I like the wider working space all I really “need” is the sail mount, two hooks on one side for a deck compass, and a bungee run on the other for miscellaneous keepage.
Flush mount and top mount on clamp-on utility thwart, both on 5 ½” boards.
PA010014 by
Mike McCrea, on Flickr
I need to find a nice, light 3 ½ to 4 inch piece of wood, ½” x 36”, oughta do. While I’m planning the parts and pieces needed I might as well take a looksee at what I have on hand.
I need gunwale hung seat drops. I have a virgin pair of skinny walnut Conk drops that would fit that narrow aluminum inwale.
PA010016 by
Mike McCrea, on Flickr
They are 2 inches deep. Which is about 2 inches to shallow for my inattentive sitting; I want to paddle the canoe, not swim along beside it.
I have deeper DIY trusses, but the Conk seat needs 9 inch center-to-center holes . I have a set of plastic Mad River hangers, which would be maintenance free if ugly. But they are drilled for 8 ¼” spacing. Those are a no go.
I have a bunch of curvy individual wedge hangers, in 2 ½” and 3 ½” depths, three of the four deeper ones already drilled and varnished.
PA010017 by
Mike McCrea, on Flickr
Those are easier to DIY, drill and install than a full truss hanger, but are ½” thick and I don’t like the overhang.
PA010019 by
Mike McCrea, on Flickr
I could round off that overhang easily enough, and I’ll have some spare urethane work coming eventually, might as well hit those wedge drops a lick of three while I’m at it.
What else might I need? If I go with 4” truss drops I’ll need four 3/16” x 5” machine screws, washers, nuts, etc. Pretty sure I have all that in the SS boxes. I can reuse the eight flange washers from the double hung yoke and kneeling thwart, and use the remainder for the utility thwart and strap yoke. Always minicel and contact cement for knee bumpers and a blue barrel trapper wedge.
Still need a Wenonah adjustable foot brace, but at worst – or enjoyable best – that is a run to Blue Mountain Outfitters.
What else? Beyond my dimensional paddling comfort level I had another reason for wanting a canoe similar to the Penobscot.
Old Town Penobscot 16
16’ 2” long
34” wide gunwales
33” waterline – at 160 lbs (34 ½” max beam)
13 ¾” deep
58 lbs (Bwahahaha)
Bell NorthStar
16’ 6” long
31” wide gunwales
31” waterline – at 160 lbs (34 ½” max beam)
13 ½” deep
39 lbs (for real)
BTW, note the length-to-waterline ratio, and the 2” waterline at 190lbs. The NorthStar listed a 2” waterline at 160lbs. I’d need to be solo, naked and 100lbs lighter to achieve a 2” waterline. The NorthStar L/W was calculated at 300lbs burden. So me, a case of beer and a can of Spam?
The NorthStar’s extra 4” in length and 3” less at the gunwales will not only be faster and easier paddling, it will allow me to install something near and dear to my windy tripper heart; the custom Cooke Custom Sewing partial covers.
PA010001 by
Mike McCrea, on Flickr
Taped in place to check, those custom partial covers will work just fine. I just need the snap studs to install on the Northstar. I could make another DIY heat sealable cover, but those don’t hold a candle to what CCS makes.
I will be going slowly and deliberately on this retrofit, dedicated both to keeping it light and showing my best work. Slowly and deliberately; why that just allows me more time at the keyboard. Bwahahaha!