Hi all, I’ve been a canoe and kayak enthusiast all my life. I’m a sucker for anything that paddles decently.
Recently a guy I met needed to get rid of a canoe since he was moving out of state within the month He offered it to me ultra cheap so I rescued it. The boat was a Mohawk that appears to be made from Roylex (or similar) material. It was in good shape despite it being a 1982’ vintage. Dimensions are 16’2" x 35.5" . It has bright aluminum trim and thwarts. Doesn’t appear to have much roundness to the bottom or rocker but I haven’t measured it. I suspect is was a recreational or touring model but would like to know more
I emailed Mohawk the HID to find out what model this is and or what material it is likely made from. so far, no answer. I was wondering if anyone here might have insight into Mohawks vintage boats and /or know where I could find a vintage Mohawk catalog.
Thanks
Dave
Mohawk no longer makes canoes and their website is incomplete on archives. Class Five makes the flatwater designs now and with aluminum trim its unlikely the hull is Royalex though possible. I can’t find references to the Blazer 16 in anything but glass.
Hopefully you will get an answer from someone who has had this boat. Or a collector of catalogs!
Post some pictures. It will be easy to tell you what material the canoe is made of if not the model. Mohawk made a Nova 16 tandem canoe molded in Royalex, although the listed overall length for that model was 15’ 11". The beam is about right.
Yea, I have a catalog/reference from 2000 but nothing later. I’m thinking that this may have been one of their first Roylex models ( although I do know they used R-84 and another proprietary material long ago… My educated guess is that it feels like it’s in the 60# range +/-. The interior is a greyish color, the exterior green, where there is some bottom wear, you can see yellow. Nothing seems to match the specs of this one. I was clearly set up for river use as someone glued kneeling pads into the hull and they also added glass skid plates over the stem and stern. That said, the hull is not that beat up/worn so I don’t think it has seen allot of whitewater use.
Here are pictures of it as it came home
IMG_20191119_103925611|666x500
BTW, interesting to know that another company picked up the flatwater designs.
I have a Mohawk solo 13 flatwater model made of R84 that weighs in at 36#. It’s a pretty nice craft for getting into those small ponds that require a portage. ( At 61, my days of heavy lifting of ANYTHING are going fast.)!
I have flatwater canoes and all have kneeling pads so it was not necessarily set up for river use. Those pads are not river kneeling pads( those have cups in them to hold your knees). Fiberglass floors are very unkind to kneeling paddlers so it still jibes with it being fiberglass. Usually RX interiors are not gray but FG interiors are painted grey.
The exterior shows yellow in scraped parts which if ABS would be seriously thin ABS to show a yellow foam layer. The decks a typical of a flexy boat.
Whatever it is the Kevlar skidplates are often installed on composite touring boats for wilderness paddling. And this boat at your weight estimate is right in line with what FG boats of that era weighed. It has nice lines.
The seats are wonky and I have never liked that hanging system, I too had a R84 Solo 13. Butt ugly boat but a nice river solo!
Note the lack of any added floatation in the ends. It’s not fiberglass, of that I’m sure.
It does have nice lines though!
It is definitely either Royalex or R84, and I think Royalex is more likely. As was mentioned, there are no flotation tanks. The green color of the outer hull is that of a thin layer of vinyl. R84 lacked that. The underlying ABS of the Royalex was a three-layer material consisting of two solid layers sandwiching a foam core. The outer layers of Royalex varied in color, but yellow was very common. So what you are seeing is areas where the outer green layer of vinyl has worn through to reveal the yellow of the outer solid ABS lamina.
Grey vinyl was most commonly used on the interior of Royalex boats. The dents in the hull just above the Kevlar felt skid plate is very characteristic of Royalex damage. The Mohawk Nova 16 was listed at 65 lbs in Royalex and 59 lbs in R84.
Any idea what model? The thin gunwales threw me. I have had a Bell Chestnut Prospector in a RX layup that had aluminum gunwales but they were beefier.
I’m hoping someone here might know a guy who knows a guy who has a catalog 
I can’t find reference to anything that was 16’2" in the roylex years.
Gunwales and thwarts changed over the years. The Mohawk Intrepid 16 was a 16’2" canoe with a 36" beam, but considerably heavier than your estimate
You can find photos of the Intrepid on-line and decide if they look like your hull.
Thanks for the input all. The boat is in the rack and covered for the winter so I guess any comparison and or weighing will need to wait till spring now.
Dave
Just an update as I heard back from Mohawk today.
They say their records of this HID number show it was a Blazer 16.
Model: Blazer 16
Year Manufacture: 1982
Material: Not specified in records but probably Fiberglass
Est. Capacity: 700 lbs
Approx. Weight: 67lbs
Bow/Stern Height: 18.5"
Depth: 13"
Beam 4": 33"
Beam Gunwale: 36"
It all sounds right except for the fiberglass (which we have established it isn’t) . I have to wonder if this was an early Royalex boat (or prototype). Seems that made the blazer in glass and kevlar latter than 92’ though. Anyway, my itch is scratch even if it is an odd duck.