The finished 1947 old Town 16'

[jwil]

Could not have even considered taking it on without Bob Bassetts help

 

[MackyM]

What a difference!!! Beautiful canoe.

Macky

 

[Ed Moses]

Jim,

Nice job on your OT!

Ed

 

[JClearwater]

Very nice. I like the color too.

JCC

 

[ebeeby]

Very nice - what is the color and who made the paint?

 

[jwil]

Pettit Bikini blue

 

[Mark67]

Nice job! What a great feeling to have it complete. Have you launched her yet? That blue has to look awesome in the water.

 

[jwil]

in the water Moosehead lake

 

[jwil]

ran great solo with pad on the seat as the front thwart was close

 

[frank_a]

Looks great, I hope mine comes out as nice!

Tell me, as I have the same year Old Town H&W, which end is the bow - with the close thwart, or vice versa?

Best of luck with your Old Town.

Frank

 

[Greg Nolan]

A canoe like this one is designed for paddling by two people -- in which case, the stern seat is the one that leaves little room behind the paddler, and the bow seat is the one that provides ample foot room for the bow paddler -- in this canoe, the seat very close to one of the thwarts, which will be behind the bow paddler. This leaves the weight of the paddlers fairly well balanced.

However, when the canoe is paddled solo, things change. To trim the canoe well, you want the weight of the one paddler more to the center of the canoe. The seat that had been the bow seat for tandem paddlers becomes the seat the solo paddler will use -- facing in the opposite direction, so that the seat that had been the tandem stern seat becomes an unused bow seat. In this particular canoe, that thwart is very close to the seat the solo paddler uses, so jwil used a cushion to effectively raise the seat so he could sit with his legs over the thwart -- a clever idea. In many canoes, that thwart does not present such a problem.

If the solo paddler stayed in the tandem stern seat, the trim of the canoe would be poor -- it would be riding high, probably in the air, and even without wind it would be difficult to paddle in a straight line. With wind, the raised end of the canoe would be a weather vane and it would be very difficult to control the direction of paddling.

 

[frank_a]

That makes perfect sense, and what I thought. So now I know starboard from port! Thanks.

Frank

 

[jwil]

the last picture is from the bow seat facing the stern, the canoe with the island in the background. the one on the post before it shows my son in that same position. The thwart behind the bow seat is very close @4" to the seat.

 

[Greg Nolan]

In the last picture, is that Mt. Kineo on the right in the distant background?

Greg

 

[jwil]

No it is Sugar Island taken from Beaver Cove adjacent to Lilly Bay State park lots of great weather and a group of 9 loons

 

[Greg Nolan]

We camped at Lilly Bay State park many years ago -- a great place. But with so many other places to canoe in the area, we have not actually paddled on Moosehead since then, though we get to Greenville from time to time and have taken the ride out to Kineo and climbed it a few times.

Your canoe looks right at home on Moosehead -- a nice job on a nice boat.

Greg