Me also
thinks that my Indy’s a bear to turn and was both surprised and a bit humbled by JJ’s AWESOME pic. He’s either a tad off, or he’s THE MAN! Maybe some of both. I know that I’d need the noisy water to get the adrenaline boost necessary to crank my canoe around like that! I’ll use it mainly for flat water, methinks. Meanwhile, my goofy hat’s off to jjmish.-Tom
Thanks for that great Slipper info.
It was my only solo canoe until it cracked in the Spring of 2006 when I got stuck on a rock in overly shallow water. I then bought a used royalex Bell Wildfire to use on the bony and shallow rivers.
I wish I’d known about the Plastic Weld fix for the crack when I repaired my Slipper this summer. Instead, I followed one suggestion and filled the crack with Super Glue until it no longer sucked it up and then covered the outside with water proof and UV resistant aluminum duct tape, since my fiberglassing skills are lacking. The aluminum duct tape was my idea. I’ve had it out on the water a few times since then and the the repair seems to be holding up ok, even though it’s not very pretty.
I like the handling of the Slipper. It does track well and needs to be heeled a lot to effect a quick turn, but it is a fun boat to lean and play in.
Thanks again for that info.
Don’t get me wrong…
when paddling/playing class I and up, I jump into a royalex hull of the appropriate design (there’s a lot to choose from). I only use the Indy in class I+ for the occasional down river race (I’ll also install splash rails and the maximum allowed decks with combing). If the water on race day is really big, then I try and get my hands on an OC-1w.
Too many days, not enough toys.
openboater
more Indy
http://img507.imageshack.us/img507/4230/cownoeyq6.jpg
The Kenduskeag is really the only ‘whitwater’ I do. I like long runs on smoother rivers. That Indy, however, has run the K every year from 91 to 2000 until I began to take the Traveller and even ran the DY Special one year. Low water the year before I took the Indy out of retirement. Next April I plan to use the old wwc-1.
With a shallow hull on class whitewater you learn to really read the dynamics of the water and sometimes can actually see the river breathe.
Indy gets the most use out back on the home river starting with a 1/4 mile carry. I Take one paddle and one pole and go up or down stream depending on where I feel the smallmouths lurk. I’ll swap ends on the boat and kneel to lighten the bow and then pole up drops. On the open shallow or deeper fast water I’ll stand up and pole. That hull seems suited for just about every aspect of paddling. I gererally avoid big lakes with all of my boats.
The Indy is so great even cows like it! The real problem with the Indy is that cows will follow it as if you were the pied piper. Funny sight to see a herd of holsteins bunched up and tailgating during a portage.
You can see from the photo how I inlet the thwarts to fit the gunnels.
Way to
impress the ladies! Once again, I’m put to shame. Thanks for detail on the thwart mod. I was curious about that. -Tom
Nice one for sale $600
I happened to see this when I was checking out a different used boat. Fiberglass, 43#, looks in pretty good shape
http://hemlockcanoe.com/
I’m not connected with Hemlock, just admire his canoes, especially the Peregrine , and the Eaglet 1
Andy
Indy
I have heard such great reviews on this boat, but, find few used ones for sale. Which new boat today would be comparable to it, possibly from Wenonah or Bell?
You should be banned for giving
that link. Now, I’m trying to figure out how much I can get for my grandson so I can buy one of those canoes and have it shipped. Its become difficult to find good used canoes in Texas.
Good luck selling your grandson.
We can’t find any takers for ours.
Udderly amazing.
dumb question
Do you all sit or kneel in your Independences? I paddled one once on a local river - moving flatwater, one little class 1 ripple. Neat boat, but I never got comfortable.
When I sat, I felt like I had a really high center of gravity. When I knelt, it felt more like I expected, but it was uncomfortable - seat got in the way of my feet, and if I knelt far enough forward to avoid that issue, I was putting way too much weight on my knees/legs.
I like to kneel
But I don’t have any trouble with my feet/ankles laying out flat either.
Only paddled it a couple times so far. I didn’t like sitting. But, that’s pretty much how I feel in most boats.
Haven’t paddled it enough yet or in varied enough conditions to really have an opinion. So far so good though. Paddled it in 20 mph winds on the Allegheny. As far as the boat was concerned, there wasn’t any wind at all.
My flippers
are but average size (10), but it is a little tight trying to slide them back under there. My boat’s got a fixed cotoured seat that is canted slightly forward and the original glued-in minicell knee pads, all stock. I’ve been toying with the idea of installing a sliding seat that might somehow hinge aft to facilitate a quick exit, since I sanded the skin off my toe knuckles one day (in warm weather, I’m barefoot). Otherwise, I can kneel for about 50 min./hour which, I think, is about right for an out of shape guy who’s suffered a semicentennial recently (Indy was birthday present to myself)! -Tom
kneeling knever
I never kneel, just a preference. I guess the contoured seat is originally set high to accomodate kneeling but I lowered mine a bit for stability.
If you remove the contoured seat you had better rig up some hefty thwarts to get the stiffnes back as the sides of the hull will be super flexible. Add one thwart, move the other. I tried a pedestal slider but it just didn’t feel right even though I have custom Wenonah sliders in all my other solos.
The original seat is perfect for lashing my fishing pole, leaning my shins against when I pole and the leading edge is the boats balance point making for easy portaging.
Serving Mass
under Fr. O’Rourke when I was a kid kind of spoiled kneeling for me, or any submissive posture for that matter. But for canoeing, I prefer it. I am starting to miss my younger knees, though. JJ, you mentioned that you made mahogany drops when you lowered your seat. It seems that once you unbolt the rear seat rail from the inwale, you’d need something more than a typical seat drop to maintain any stiffness amidships that you feel is already wanting in this boat. I’m curious because I really like what you did to the ends of the thwarts, elegantly simple and effective. Did you come up with that neat trick? I’m gonna take another look at the Stelmok/Thurlow book for some ideas. -Tom
Always kneel
Ah’ always kneel in all me canoos - sittin’ be a’might uncomfortable fer me fer any length of time. It’s a tight squeeze fer me feets (size 9) in de Indy, but it’s not too bad.
FE
Kneel
The Independence is perfect for me to kneel with my butt comfortably on the seat to take some weight off my knees.
Stop it! You are making me miss paddling my baby.
seat mods
The original spacers were just round dowels I believe. A bolt went thru the gunnel, dowels and into the seat frame. Worked ok but could be improved.
I used a single piece of 3/4" mahaogany for each side just a bit longer than the front to back dimension of the seat. I cut both pieces at an angle to lower the front portion of the seat. Cut the wedges to suit how low you want to drop the seat.
I then routed out the top outside edge so it would wrap around the gunnel, as I did with the thwarts. This arrangement makes the boat stiffer than the original set up and spreads the downward force along the thin inner gunnel rather than focusing all the stress soley at the 4 bolts.
I’m sure there are more excellent ways to do this type of mod.
I got the idea from the way the decks are set into the gunnels. If you were to take a deck out of an Indy you would see 2 U shaped chanels routed into the edges to match the curve of the inner gunnels.