Glenn - Canoe

Here's my first impressions of the boat, after a quick paddle at Fairy Lake in Acton. -seat is comfortable and works well with the foot brace -sliding seat works well to trim the boat -we misjudged the length of the foot brace. I need to drill some more holes in the stick (and maybe cut some excess off) before Phyllis will be able to reach. I found that my legs were most comfortable in a more bent position, compared to how we measured it in the shop. -the boat accellerates quickly and really responds well to a good forward stroke -as expected it tracks well, but it turns okay too. -I paddled it flat when going straight -tilting into the turns speeded up the turns -I felt quit comfortable in the boat; it didn't feel unstable at all -there was no wind, I would guess that with the length of the boat, a cross wind could be a challenge -I have to get used to the amount of tumblehome. I found at times the blade of my paddle would hit the hull on my forward stroke -overall: it's a fun boat to paddle. I think it would be a great boat to use to do a paddling work-out with I'll let you know how it works with a bit of a load, and longer days of paddling after this weekend. Cheers, Glenn I took the solo 17 up to Algonquin with Wade and his son's hockey team - 8 kids and 8 adults. We went in on the Tim River and came out on Magenetawan Lake. The boat handled well in the twisty bits, although I needed a lot of cross draw strokes to pull the tight left hand turns. We had a couple breezy sections on the lakes on Friday and Sunday. The boat handles extremely well straight into the wind, going straight through small rollers. Going with the wind at my side, I had a few splashes coming over the gunnels, but nothing serious. I had to play a bit with the pack position and seat position to trim the boat to keep it from swinging around in the wind. I found the seating position to be okay. I had no problems paddling for a few hours at a time. Wade tried the boat for a short time, and found that his lower back and thighs did not like the seating/paddling position. I need to make a couple of changes: I need to add some bracing on the seat mount to support the back of the seat a bit more. If I'm right at the back of the seat, it flexes a bit - I don't think the four mounting screws will take much of that. The other thing is the carrying stick - I think I need to put some stops on the underside of the gunnels to keep the stick from shifting. It worked okay the way it was, but it did pop out of position a couple of times. I also need to make the carrying surface further away from the seat - my head was hitting the seat. I think if I hadn't cut the curve on the wrong side of my prototype stick it would have been okay. When it a good time for me to bring the boat back into the shop? I can't remember what dates you are closed. Glenn. PS: Too bad that when the pictures were taken, nobody told me my pack strap was hanging over the gunnel.