While surfing the net I came across the name of a canoe designer, Steve Killing. I was wondering if
anyone here has paddled any of his designs and what their opinion is. Looking at the Bluewater web site their splitlip solo looks interesting.
Charlie
I have the only modern Bluewater
design NOT by Steve Killing. Gary Barton, the boat layup genius for Bluewater, designed the Chippewa, I believe, for MEC, kind of like a US designer doing a one off for REI.
Anyway, I think the best Killing design is the 17 foot cruiser. Fast, but also maneuverable. If you can stand a boat that isn’t wildly hard-tracking.
I read
some where here on P-net that Bluewater was doing
a Yost design: the Autumn Mist?
Anyway I mostly paddle big impounded waters so
I kinda like hard tracking hulls.
Tripper 17
I owned a Bluewater Tripper 17. Amazing boat. Faster than a Bell Northstar, equally maneuverable. Way capable tandem on windy days…it just ignored wind. Surprisingly hot solo boat…give it a touch of muscle and it kept up with true solos and would run away from a solo like a Wildfire for cruising. Would also spin within it’s own length solo. But - narrow so it was always moving around beneath you a bit tandem and you’d really feel it when the dog moved around solo. Overall - hot boat with a great personality. Great construction quality.
Yeah, that’s the one I was thinking of.
Really the best boat in the Bluewater line.
Bear Mountain Boats
Steve has done several designs for Bear Mountain Boats. You could probably get a better feel for his work if you check out some of his designs and post a question on their builders’ forum.
http://www.bearmountainboats.com/
Great designer
– Last Updated: Aug-24-09 9:40 PM EST –
Steve is a great designer. Coming to us, like Winters, from a more advanced and demanding discipline, his boats always work well. Further, Bluewater seems to have wet bagging/infusion down. Their newer, Killing, designs are superb. Their older shapes, well, not so much.
Yeah, they seem to have acquired an unlicensed Aut. Mist mold. Those of us with respect for designers rights would never consider buying a "stolen" hull where the designer does not receive his due.
I do not understand the reference to a BW 17' solo being faster than Bell's NorthStar. The NS is 34 in wide; a compact tandem. Paddled tandem, NthStar will leave any 17' solo in the mist. Paddled solo: why would anyone paddle a tandem canoe solo? Unfair comparison!
Unlicenced molds?
Every now and again you reference unlicenced molds Charlie. Are these where some one just makes a plug off of an existing boat? Or are there dozens of molds made to allow for drying times and one gets lifted from the factory? It would seem to me that making a plug off of an existing boat would slightly degraade the end product.
Molds
I do not know if the BW Mist is splashed off a hull, which tends to flatten the bottom, or was acquired, whether legally of not, from the wreck of Sawyer in Oscoda or Sawyer Canada, which morphed into Swift Canoe.
I do know that BW is not paying royalties to the designer. Legally, the royalty agreement may have been washed by bankruptcy, but morally, I think not.