Yes, a good boat. I would want a bow seat for a tandem paddling set up, but that could be added at extra expense. For camping/tripping it has the advantage over other similar boats by virtue of being narrower across the middle (33" I think, instead of a usual 36"), of course, slightly less load carrying capacity. On the Allagash one year I paddled a Venture 17 and could not keep up with the Penobscot, and our boat had way stronger paddlers… Check the chines carefully for cracks and deterioration. Given the difficulty of finding good used canoes, I think $900 not so bad if in good condition. your boat budget may vary…
Update: took canoe out on a slow moving river, held up fine, no weird cracking noises that caused any alarm. Canoes stable and doesnt leak. Overall im happy with the penobscot. I wont take it on whitewater due to the age, but im not big on canoeing in rivers anyways.
Only thing that went wrong is i dropped it loading it back up on my truck, and no major damage besides a few new small chips where the bow hit the ground (picture attached). Chips do not go through, but do go to what i believe to be the foam. Am i correct in this assumption and would this be a repair that just filling the chips with JP weld would hold / does something else need to be done / or are these chips no big deal and can be left as is?
That’s just the underlying abs layer, the foam core will be underneath it and you’ll be able to tell as it’s porous/fibrous looking. All you’ve managed to do is chip some of the older vinyl layer away in that spot. I would drop a bit of paint over it for uv protection (the main reason why the vinyl coat is even there) and/or not worry about it.
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I paid 300 for mine from an outfitter 20 years ago
I’m far from an expert on fixing royalex canoes. Your damage doesn’t seem too bad but if it were mine I would want to prevent water getting between the layers. It looks to me like the impact actually removed some chunks of the outer green vinyl layer and also delaminated it around the holes. I think I would sand or shave the vinyl back tapering it in and getting back far enough I saw it was bonded. Clean with alcohol then I would fill the divots with West Systems G/Flex Epoxy. I have heard it bonds well and will bond even better if it is flame treated by quickly going over the area with a propane torch. Again I’m not real up on the process but there are lots of videos posted of people doing that process. Let the epoxy cure for over night and then sand lightly and add some touch up paint if desired.
The bigger problem I see is figuring out a safe method of getting the canoe on the roof solo. If it was hard once sooner or later it will be windy and happen again. It is a good way to get hurt.
My canoe is three layer poly but similar to yours and it is between 70-80 pounds and might have another 10-15 pounds with the air bags and lines I leave attached. 25 years ago it I would have slung it up on the roof and been too proud to ask for help or use any kind of aid in loading. That’s no longer true and even though I can still do it (maybe). I don’t need to find out the hard way I can’t. There are loads of methods and devices for loading here is what I built for about 20 bucks that makes the process easy.
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came back to edit this, but didnt see how… the 17-1 Penobscot is 35"W, not 33"…
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Benn paddling OT Penobscot 16s for 25 years and own two of them. They are the Royalex version of Ralph Frese’s legendary Old Town Canadienne (fiberglass-I own two of these as well!). Penobscots (Royalex ones) are fantastic canoes. A like new, red one just popped up for $500 with paddles in Verona, Wisconsin. If I wasn’t threatened against adding another to my fleet, I would be on my way to purchase this one. I recommend that you do…you will thank me later!
That’s an interesting contraption, but it looks vulnerable to gusts at the very top step. I was having similar concerns a few years ago and just decided to put a pipe insulation tube on my rear spoiler, and slide it up from the rear. That way I only have to lift half of it. I lay a moving blanket on the ground where the other end is. Works good for my Penobscot and kayaks.
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It is kind of the same thing of only lifting half the weight or less at any given time. The original design shown allowed the boat to walk up the stairs by lifting one end at a time going back and forth. The design I changed to I made the steps have an angle on the bottom to act as a ramp. I stand between the boat and the car and pull the canoe up to about waist height. Then I duck out and push it up using the ramped block like a cog. Once the gunwale makes it to the top the car takes half the weight and I lift the other half sliding it on.
Wind hasn’t been a problem. The only trouble I have had is when an onlooker and there always seem to be a few decides to help suddenly and pushes on one end or the other and causes the balance to go way off. I now tell people they are welcome to watch but please don’t help. Trouble is they still try and help.
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I like hearing about (and seeing) the clever, home-grown solutions paddlers share. Years ago I modified a dock roller to fit my 4Runner’s spoiler so I could load heavier boats from the rear without assistance. I was sure my invention would earn millions until I later found similar devices selling for little more than I paid for the parts. 
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That’s what i was aiming for with my spoiler padding, also on a 4runner. Got pictures?
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I made this about 10 yrs ago from parts bought online from easternmarine.com.
Picture 1 - Galvanized bracket (painted gray) with a 12" x 6 1/2" base; 11" roller (not hard rubber), 13" axle, two cap nuts (palnuts, no threads). I can send you the part #s if you wish, but can’t say if they’re still valid. Not shown - peel and stick felt applied to the underside of the bracket.
Picture 2 - Roller assembly sitting on the 4Runner spoiler. To stabilize the roller while loading, I anchor it to the crack between the spoiler and the roof.
Picture 3 - The “anchor” is a piece of PEX tubing with a 3/8" +/- slit cut from end to end. The tab made of brown vinyl tape gives me something to grab when removing the tube.
Picture 4 - To install, I place the tube over the rear lip on the base of the bracket. There is enough play to then slide the opposite edge of the slit into the crack between the spoiler and the roof. This is the weakest part of the design. The slit in the tube needs to be wide enough to fit into the crack and over the bracket lip, but narrow enough so it doesn’t pop out due to excess slop.
Picture 5 - View of the roller assembly from the rear. It is close enough to the rear edge of the spoiler so I rest the bow of my 15’ 6" boat on it with the stern on the ground or a two-wheel kayak cart, then shove the boat up and onto the saddles.
Note 1 - On my to-do list is to replace the tube design with something better. It works, but can be a bit of a pain to remove, and having to keep track of a separate piece isn’t ideal. I’m thinking of finding some sort of plastic or vinyl coated hooks that will fit semi-snugly into the roof crack, drilling a small hole at each end of the bracket’s back lip, then attaching the hooks to the bracket with short lengths of heavy monofilament. By adjusting the length of the monofilament, the roller could be positioned as close to the rear edge of the spoiler as desired. I also plan to replace the felt on the underside of the bracket with something that doesn’t slide quite as easily.
Note 2 - Oak Orchard in Waterport NY has several off the shelf options available now. If I were starting from scratch, I’d check them out first. I found them eager to help when trying to fit one of my boats with an aftermarket seat. Oak Orchard SUV Kayak Roller Loader - Load your kayak with Ease
Hope this helps. Good luck!
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Thanks. Hmmm, my spoiler doesn’t look anything like that. Is that entire thing replacing the spoiler?
Interesting. Mine is a 5th gen model (2020) with no mods. The roller/loader pictured previously also fit my 2013. I could be mistaken, but I thought all 5th gen 4Runner trims had the same spoiler/wind deflector. Perhaps my close-up shots are distorting its looks? Here’s side view of my spoiler and another angle from a Motor Trend article.
Ah, my bad. I actually have a wing not a spoiler. And I have a 97, the last 4runner generation worthy of the name IMNSHO. 
I hear ya’. I drove an '86 FJ 60 and an '88 FJ 62 Land Cruiser for almost 450K miles between them. Unstoppable.
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Oh I can confirm they are very much stoppable. Source: currently, trying to unstopify an '88 FJ62.
That said, now that I’ve replaced the hunk of corrosion and varnished fuel that use to be the fuel pump and have it running again, I will totally concede it lacks sufficient power to hurt itself. hahaha
Jokes aside, it’s a good truck though, and with a few exceptions decently designed and built. I haven’t found where the Toyota “coolaid” is stored in it yet to partake of it myself (perhaps it drained out through the inescapable rust problems years ago), but I do like it.
If it survives the several thousand mile road trip my brother and I have planned for it, I may hold off on chopping it up and converting it into a 24hr of Lemons race car.
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Haha!
Looks better than the Buick next to it, though.
grumpy face Hey now, I’ll have you know that’s a FORD Contour! That hunk of (mostly) British engineering has been a real gem ever since I drained the extra half gallon of oil out of the engine the previous owner thought should be in there.
The Contour was last year’s Lemons Rally car. Bought it for a couple hundred bucks not running right and with an interior that was disgusting. My brother and I got it running right again (the aforementioned overfilled crankcase), caught it up on a bunch of deferred maintenance, stripped out the interior and gave it a deep cleaning. Then I decorated it up as a British cop car since the Contour is largely a rebadged Mondeo from Ford of England, and then drove it several thousand miles with my brother and a buddy on the Rocky Mountain Breakdown Lemons Rally with a bunch of people in equally if not more ridiculous vehicles.
Since it proved reliable and fun to drive (5spd, good handling), not to mention more fuel efficient than my truck, I held onto it after the rally and used it as my work commuter, until my brother bought it off me to do the same.
The story of that car is what prompted my coworker to tell me I could have the Land Cruiser so long as I promised to do something cool with it. I told him I’d fix it and flog it half way across the country in one of the Lemons Rallies this year. And if I I can get it to quit violently shaking at 47mph I’ll make good on my word.
Cool Contour you have there (… never thought I’d write those words in one sentence)! Actually, I was referring to the blue one w/sunroof and what looks like Buick’s three-hole trim.
Regardless, I hope you can solve the 47mph shake problem; very annoying for sure. Despite Toyota’s terrible corrosion resistance back then, they were the most capable and reliable vehicles I’ve ever owned … never, ever left me stuck or stranded. Well, maybe once in a NW Minnesota blizzard when I was following a fence line ‘cause I couldn’t see the gravel road. The fence curved away and the road went straight so I put both driver’s side wheels into a 4’ or 5’ deep drainage ditch that was completely filled with drifted snow. Extraction the next day required a New Holland 7740. Driver error!
And, as this is a paddling forum, I’m now at an age where they’re too darn tall for me to lift most kayaks onto a roof carrier. 
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