I would be a lab guy but my wife is not a lab woman. They shed too much.
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Go figure. She has a good dog. Labs are oaffy, but loveable.
She has 2 good dogs.
Honey the Labradoodle is on the right, the lab on the left is Groot, Honeyās best friend. Groot belongs to the guy.
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We used 17 foot Grummans in the Boundary Waters in 1985. That was what the local outfitters offered before the days of fiberglass and kevlar canoes.
The 17 foot canoes are mostly the lightweight model with more ribs and thinner hulls. They weigh around 75 pounds, much less than a wood and canvas canoe.
Locally they are selling for $500 and up.
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I liked those big monsters. Better boats available now, but there were substantial and to admired for that!
Earned muy canoeing merit badge Summer of 75 in a much older Grumman. The scout camp I attended every year on a very large lake (Bear Lake, UT & ID) used to have an over night camp out during the week long camp where we paddled a few miles down the lake and set up a crude camp on the shore. My guess was there about 50 or so Grummans with 150 kids banging the gunwhales with every stroke down the lake -fun times.
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Grumman canoes is where paddling started for most of my generation. When I was growing up in western NY in the 70s and 80s, the Grumman 15 and 17 foot tandems were ubiquitous. They had them at YMCA day camp when I was a kid. They had them at all the Boy Scout camps I went to, and the New York State DEC camps too. And river outfitters and rental places all seemed to use them. I remember seeing Royalex canoes in showrooms and at boat shows in the 80s, but didnāt see many on the water until the late 80s, and kayaks were just something I saw on TV back then. Grumman was all I ever had the chance to paddle before I was an adult.
At 75 lbs, the Grumman 17 is barely heavier than the 15 and the thwarts are spaced far enough apart that two people can portage it. My Dad and I did two 5-mile carries with a 17 footer in Glacier National Park, sharing the load of the canoe plus a pack each without trouble.
The cold, utilitarian nature of aluminum canoes makes it difficult to feel attached to them, and I donāt miss the thunking noises you make from bumping the gunwales with the paddle. But the Grumman canoe is one of the classic product designs of the 20th century. Itās also maintenance free and can live outside and have a service life >50 years (and still counting).
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I got my '62 or '63 18-footer second hand in the 80s, sold it in 2014, and the new owner says itās still going strong.
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Speaking of pups (and water craft). Note that all are wearing their PFDsā¦
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Of course thereās a country song about thatā¦
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There has been a resurgence in their popularity with the canoe sailing crowd(of which I am now a full-on member, strictly paddling less and less). Some folks add on outriggers and very large sail area to go all in as trimaran-type boatāToo heavy a proposition for the average car topper with trailer towing mandatory. I myself took my first extended trip in one down the Delaware back in the 70s. Iāve seen them for sale quite often in the $100-$200 dollar price range and also have been almost tempted, be it not for the fact my state requires canoes over 16 feet be registered. And I have much lighter boats already in the stable. Here was one with the original Grumman sail rig included.
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Spiritboat: Have your seen skinboat guy Brian Schulzās new sailing canoe that he built to be convertible to pedal-drive? He posted a series of videos while spending about a month in Baja camping and fishing from it. Pretty cool set up.
Iāll have to check that out. Havenāt followed him for a couple years, Even though I built a skin boat sailing kayak few years back.
Donāt know how I feel about peddle drives in general, but I sāpose they help, barring a little extra off water weight. For now Iām stickinā with royalex until I start a new wood build next winter.
Brian has been struggling with some kind of metabolic disorder that hit him about 10 years ago, leaving him often exhausted and with serious brain fade. I think he eventually got a possible diagnosis but it is something rare and difficult to treat or to predict outcomes. Facing costly medical tests and bills, he had to liquidate a lot of his projects, including the Airstream trailer he was meticulously restoring and outfitting to be able to live in while traveling to his skin-boat workshops. Had to suspend doing the classes, too, due to his fluctuating health. So the pedal drive project was a concession to his health challenges at first but also has proven to be handy for his fishing. He and his girlfriend Liz made some impressive catches while in Baja.
Heās turned his skill at photography and videography into a business selling access to more advanced boat building instructions (like his scaled nesting SOF canoes so a family can load 4 boats on one roof rack) and has been developing and sharing plans for more and more of a wider range of boats.
I follow him on his Facebook Cape Falcon site, where he posts frequent updates to his projects. It seems a little hard to find those short videos on his blog site if one prefers to avoid FB, but maybe I did not persist hard enough to find them.
He recently announced he is drafting plans for a skin on frame Whitehall river skiff. This is of interest for me since one of my good friends (who grew up in Clayton, NY, on the St. Lawrence and through childhood rowed and sailed the similar St. Lawrence river skiffs) has expressed interest in buying or building something like that to use along the coastal Great Lakes.
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Plant it as a pond in the yard???!
Whyyyyy,
the fish will all contract alzheimers!
Bullfrogs croak of rivetting dementia!
Waterstriders drown as they skim inverted,
Rottinā lilies pile to quickly stench ya!
Ironān out aquatic difficulties,
while gettinā down here to brass tacks,
better steel yourself that alum aināt yer alloy,
heavy metal sounds keel in sneak attack.
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Heck yeah! Iād love to have one of those Grummans to USE! As others have said, thatās the boat I learned to paddle in as a 10-year-old at summer camp. I did many a trip down rivers in Virginia in one of those. Theyāre fine canoes. Really their only weakness is they donāt slide over rocksāthey stick to them! So as long as you avoid shallow water and rocks, theyāre great!
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Well, itās still in stock at Construction Junction, but I notice they raised the price from $125 to $496. I need to stop by and give them a little reality check. Iāve spent thousands in the place over the years (as well as donating a lot) so they usually listen to me.
NOBODY is going to pay $500 for it, even somebody feeling sentimental. The store often puts absurd prices on items they mistakenly think are āvaluableā and they languish. Everything there is donated so they need to keep it moving off the floor, and that canoe is taking up a lot of space for them. They had a couple of pretty scuffed and oilcanned WS poly tandem sit on tops two years ago (i suspect they were from a rental livery) and had $600 each on them. I seem to recall they eventually sold them to somebody who offered $350 for the pair.
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Perhaps they read the forum and mistakenly though warm memories is the same as demand.
I suspect as my (our) boomer generation continues to hit that final snag that there will be increased volumes of ancient paddlecraft hitting estate auctions and the thrift store streams as chagrinned descendants cope with clearing out our hoarded collections of mysterious adventure gear. Having been executrix of my own parentsā estate, I feel reflexive pity for whichever of my family members will have to dispose of mine. Iāve postponed officially designating an executor (being childless, there is no legal default). I need to figure out who in the extended clan would be thrilled rather than horrified at inheriting my property and the vast amount of stuff inside.
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Iād love to have one, but my present kayak inventory is spread across various storage locations. I fear it would be pressed into servicecas a raised vegetable garden, along with bad paddles that stake tomato plants.