Rowing Seat Found

J

Jim et al

Curious about Wooden Canoes
A friend sent me this. I wasnt sure if it had been mentioned yet.

http://boston.craigslist.org/sob/boa/808404425.html

He also sent this report from Tybee Island, GA about his old Bell sailing canoe.
I went for a wonderful 10 mile sail (in three hours) in my canoe, up the Back River to the Bull River at high tide. It's a wonderful place to sail. No coaming necessary as there is no wave height. Deep water all the way. Good steady on shore breeze in the afternoon. Perfect for your melonseed. Much nicer that going out to the sandbars and oyster banks. I took everything down in marsh by AJ's and paddled to the boat take-out. That was much easier than dealing with the docks and surf at the boat launch.
 
Well, I got it. The gentleman selling it was kind enough to agree to ship it out to me here in dusty ol NV. I'll use it in my Willits. Not quite a Willits rig, but then I have never seen or heard of one of those being for sale.

Mark
 
This piece was a surprise to me. I have never even seen a reference to one. Can anyone provide any more background information than that given in the listing? When were they made? They must not have sold many of them. How much did they cost new? Do they work well?
 
Well, I made a very similar rig for my canoe a few years ago, and yes they work very well, just drop it in, and away you go. They are not that difficult to make, though they do take up a lot of room in the car when it comes time to transport it.
 

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Max Peterson said:
When were they made? They must not have sold many of them. How much did they cost new? Do they work well?
Click to expand...

These were first shown in the 1967 Old Town catalog for $115 and last shown in 1974 for $295. This was about 35% to 40% of the price of an 18 foot guide's model so that would be a bit less than $1900 today using the current price. The exact number sold is not known but it is probably not many. They work reasonably well in most situations but may slide around a bit if you make a very quick change in speed or direction. I always liked them but a dedicated rowing shell is usually better.

Benson
 
Thanks Benson. It would be relatively easy to add a couple of blocks and turnbuckles to keep it in place. I would love to see some close-up photos of the sliding seat mechanism. Martin's copy sure looks nice. I will probably never get around to it, but it would be fun to build one.

With the addition of a rowing installation we could be well on our way to the one universal boat. A perfect paddling craft, a sailboat, and a rowing shell. Now all we have to do is design a little drop-in electric or steam engine, add a canopy, a CD/DVD player, a computer hook up, and a cooler. Getting enough power and stability in a wooden canoe in order to pull water skiers is going to be a real challenge though.:D
 
The movement issue is really not serious, especially with some good non-skid rubber pads on the bottom. Gunwale clamps on the outriggers would probably be a simpler solution than blocks and turnbuckles. My recollection is that the sliding seat rails were made from brass bang plate stock with small pulleys for wheels on the seat.

The Wahoo sailing canoe was very close to your universal boat as shown in the 1968 advertisement attached below. The company even had one of the first small gas powered water jet pumps installed in a canoe around 1970. This was long before anyone had imagined the current 'jet ski' concept but they decided that a 'jet canoe' was not likely to be any more popular than the canoe catamaran shown at http://forums.wcha.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=1335&d=1143490950 which they tried at the same time.

The 'jack of all trades, master of none' problem remains for your universal boat concept. Any boat that is designed to do many things will involve compromises that prevent it from doing any of those things as well as a group of more specialized boats that have each been designed to do only one thing well, especially if the list includes a range as wide as sailing and pulling water skiers. This is why everyone needs many boats and a storage area like the one shown at http://forums.wcha.org/showthread.php?t=3353 or bigger.

Benson
 

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Benson,

Don't we have fun! the "Wahoo" is a great name. I had just let my somewhat warped sense of humor run for a few minutes, but I hadn't come up with a name that good.:D

I too have been enviously following the progress of Dennis's building. My collection is not that large, but seems to be growing fast. I store boats in my commercial shop and they occasionally cramp my work space. Some time ago I read a quote that went something like "what you do instead of your real work is your real work." Hmm, I've already changed careers once. :rolleyes:

Max
 
HTML: 
The company even had one of the first small gas powered water jet pumps installed in a canoe around 1970. This was long before anyone had imagined the current 'jet ski' concept

Not so much, Canadians regrettably must take a hit for developing the ultimate offensive (recreational) weapon..:eek:
http://www.parkeryamaha.com/68seadoo/sdbirth.htm
http://www.geocities.com/old_seadoos/

Photo added for Mike Cav's benefit....:D
 

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I have an Old Town rowing rig. I'm planning to try it out next summer if I ever finish restoring my 1943 OTCA.canoe 006.jpgcanoe 004.jpg

Can anyone post a copy of the Old Town catalog page that shows the rig?

Ken Allen
 
Hi Ken,

I have one like that too. I got mine off of Craigslist. It was in Martha's Vinyard. I am in NV. It cost a small fortune to get it to me, but I got the complete rig, OT oars included.
 

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