not me Bob
Yep, I knew you weren’t serious in your posts above sir! Just thought I’d dangle the birdseye maple bait in front of you to let you drool since you’re teasing us about a hidden Lotus.
All of my Blackhawks are long gone although I have fond memories of all and most of all the Zephyr. I have a paddling buddy with three Zephyrs, one of which has the birdseye trim. He would never sell it - and it never gets used. He’s also got an X-Boat and the little 10 or 11 foot (Shadow I think) for his wife…never used and would make an amazing display boat (again he would never sell anything he has).
I have a different buddy with a Shadow 13…technically his sister’s, and they also plan to keep it. I paddled it late this past season…what a hot rod! No wonder it used to be a top freestyle boat, one stroke and you are flying and the ability to maneuver seems limited only by the paddler.
How did you know?
What makes you think that a Blackhawk, trimmed in maple would create a "drool reaction" from me?
Honey! Bring me another paper towel;I gotta wipe some more drool off the keyboard..........
What's wrong?
Well this guy on pnet has a sadistic streak, and he's creating mental pictures of mint condition boats that I lust after. This guy knows some other guy who has these boats, but the guy who has the boats won't turn em loose........
BOB
P.S. If I live long enough, I think I've got a shot at that Lotus, but it might take another 3 years to wear him down. Patience my ass; I want that boat, and I want it now!
Anyone else have info on or pictures of
these boats?
Thanks.
I have a few pics from a canoeing
conclave at Fort Yargo State Park way back in the 70s or 80s. Mike Galt was there, and I believe there were representatives of the Curtis and Pat Moore factions. I might have taken a picture of one of the Lotus boats.
However, I don’t know where, exactly, the prints and negatives are, amongst the approximately 12,000 I have in the closet. I’m doing a lot of scanning now, so if I run into them, I’ll catch up with you on the forum and have you give me an email address.
Happy scavenging.
12,000 is a lot of pics.
Hemlock’s photo albums do have a pic of Mike Galt.
I have a Caper and a BJX
Bought a BJX and Caper from Mike in Tampa in the early-mid 80’s, which I still have.
The Caper is the much better solo canoe. Turns much better when leaned. If you are 165 or less, the cheeked hull aft of center will easily skid-pivot on turns. The Caper is easily distinguishable from all Mike’s other boats because it has a forward prow but a recurved stern, which Mike called a “vaguely mammalian shape”.
The BJX is probably over 16 feet and is just a straight forward speed rocket with huge flair. It could probably carry more as a tripper. Very tender.
Both have nice sliding solo seats.
Didn’t care for the Dandy at all. Paddled it and the BJX in the Glades on the Turner River with Bardy Jones the day after Katerina Witt won the 84 Olympics. Doesn’t track that well or hold much.
The Egret was marketed and set up as a tandem boat and is very wide – although Mike personally paddled an Egret set up for solo because he was too heavy for his Dandy and Caper, and because he could do much more aggressive and impressive leans on the rock solid massive flare for his freestyle canoe exhibitions.
He also made the 20’ Heron tandem.
All of these canoes are very distinctive in shape and are easily distinguishable.
The Caper is still my favorite solo flatwater canoe of all time – as long as the water remains flat. The perfect slow water and swamp canoe for medium and light weight paddlers. Vertical, it tracks straight; leaned, it can spin on a dime.
Thanks for that info.
I owned a BJX for a season a few years ago and it didn’t work well for me at 5’6", 155 lbs - it was too big for me. It also seemed to require kneeling and I prefer to sit at least half the time if in the boat for much over an hour. My knees can’t take kneeling all the time.
From the info so far, it seems like the Caper would be best match of a Galt boat for my size and preferences.
So, you like the Caper for flatwater, but don’t use it on moving water, why is that?
Thanks.
I’m surprised that…
…CEW has not responded on this one. He and Mike were some of the early pioneers of FS canoe and contempory hull design. Charlie knows a great deal about Mike’s boats and designs, as well.
I met Mike a coupla times and talked paddling. He had definite opinions.
More on Caper
Yanoer wrote:
"I owned a BJX
"It also seemed to require kneeling
“So, you like the Caper for flatwater, but don’t use it on moving water, why is that?”
*******************************8
Yanoer,
The BJX is definitely a kneel-only boat. Too narrow to paddle seated even for a highly skilled paddler. You can do it, but it requires constant attention. I once watched John Berry try to paddle the BJX with an Olympic high kneel and he almost dumped.
The Caper is a kneeling boat but it is stable enough in mild water conditions to be paddled seated. I do it all the time. In the thread entitled “BIG FEET!” I relate how I sometimes use three cushions. I do that in the Caper.
Galt changed his Caper seat design in 1986 at my request, but all his seats are canted for kneeling, so they are not the best for seated paddling. I do it, however. In addition, they are sliding seats that can be removed in seconds, so you can sit on something else.
I do use the Caper in moving water all the time, but only if it is flat moving water. It’s great for Southern rivers and springs. You can carve around stumps and trees easily.
Where I don’t use it is in any river that has significant gradient and rocks. It has no rocker to speak of and is not meant for whitewater maneuvering in pushy current. I also won’t take it out in any sizable wave conditions because, like most solo freestyle canoes of that era, it has little depth. For these kinds of conditions I just bought a Hemlock SRT as a crossover whitewater-flatwater boat to (sob!) possibly replace my Caper in the trinity of boats on my van roof.
The Galt boats are pretty old now and probably hard to find, and I don’t know why you want one. I keep mine for nostalgia reasons and because it is part of my personal paddling and life history. Plus, I do still like it a lot … but not as much as when I was 25 pounds lighter.
If you do want a Caper for some reason, I saw two of them (perhaps without seats) stashed away in the attic of a canoe dealer in St. Petersburg, Florida three years ago, who I also think has the Caper mold. I would guess he might be highly motivated to part with them because of the lack of demand for such a boat and the general economy. I could perhaps figure out the name of the dealer from my diary if you are interested.
PS: What a Mesozoic message forum. No quote feature. No formatting tools. No pictures.
The Dandy had a lot of flare amidships
But I dont recall mine being 46 lbs. It was a glass boat though. I never weighed mine but it hefted more than my glass FlashFire at 38 lbs. Whether it was eight lbs I dont know.
The Dandy was sweet for cruising lakes and straight line travel… The only FreeStyle maneuver it liked was a lazy christie. That stern did not want to skid.
It makes a neat sailing canoe which is what it is being used for these days.
Ok, but…
Mike's Caper may be the best looking canoe, solo or otherwise, that has ever been made. Shouldered tumblehome, the bow lay-out and recurved stern, the best seat ever, sliding on tracked side pods, molded float tanks and painted scuff patch, Pirahana Pine woodwork sanded to 600 grit, and the rails tapering towards the stems. It is beautiful! Mine was blue.
That said, inside Mikes exquisite gel work, the partials were torn mat. Lotus hulls were always heavy and hardly bombproof, and adding a Kevlar inner didn't help much.
The Caper lifts it's stems when heeled near the rail, and was a wonderfully playful boat going forward. It was also, maybe the slowest 14.75 ft hull ever designed. The stern had so much cheek that the terminal transverse wave separated and lodged at the boats hips. The water thought it was ~twelve feet long!
About that time FreeStylers started doing reverse maneuvers. That flat keeled, cheeked, stern was completely unworkable in reverse; it could not be drawn or wedged to either side.
The dealer in St Pete is Canoe Country Outfitter, Mike Ceibol, Siebel? SP? phone 727.541.5819.
Another neat Galt boat was the ~ 15'X 3_" Cygnet. It started life as a tandem carefully researched and sized to the Asian market, but became a fine solo, especially for larger paddlers.
Even more on Lotus Caper
Charlie Wilson said:
“Lotus hulls were always heavy and hardly bombproof”
**********************
Haha, I remember asking Mike about that with regard to the Caper. Without blinking – he was a good salesman – he replied that a lighter canoe of that size and shape wouldn’t have optimum glide between strokes.
As I had never heard that concept before, I asked him if I could get the proper glide with a lighter hull if I just gained some weight. Don’t recall his response.
It was 1986 and I was just passing through Tampa to spend a few days with him. I had absolutely no intention of buying another canoe, as I had bought my black BJX in '84.
Mike knew his Caper was hot stuff and that I liked it. He baited me. I was going up to Tallahassee for a week or so and he told me just to take a brand new boat with me and paddle it. It was tangerine orange. Gave me a foam block roof carrier and paddles to take. No deposit. No nothing. Just trusted me.
So I dilly-dallied up and back from Tallahassee, paddling in the Suwannee, Manatee Springs, and various other rivers and springs. And I got hooked on the bait.
It just amazed me that a canoe could track straight yet spin so easily on a leaned skid turn. I literally laughed out loud with joy as I carved slalom courses though flooded forests.
When I got back, I told Mike I would only buy it if I could have the special carved, webbed wood seat he had made for his then girl friend instead of the less comfortable standard cane seat. He hemmed and hawed about that being a one-and-only special seat, very labor intensive, very expensive – but he coughed it up.
That summer, or maybe the next, I organized a canoe symposium in the Catskills with Mike and John Berry as the featured guests. Mike, on his way to the Bean symposium, arrived with a trailer full of Capers and Egrets, pulled of course by his 1938 Volkswagen bus.
Every Caper had the special hand carved seat. He admitted it added a lot of comfort and appeal to the boat.
The weight of the Caper has never bothered me, and I have never tested its bombproofness.
However, I have thought occasionally about the concept of glide over the past 23 years, and still can’t decide whether Mike was on to something, at least partially, or just selling.
I miss him … and those days.
possibly
> still can’t decide whether Mike was on to something, at least partially, or just selling.
When money talks, bepop walks?
I miss him… and those days.
Indeed – I do miss his articles in CanoeSport Journal about FreeStyle and so that I found so interesting and fun to read!
Didn’t like his designs though, as much as I would like to…
Just gotta chime in
to say I have a Caper and it is the most beautiful solo ever built. I’m too heavy to get great performance out of it these days, but haven’t been able to bring myself to sell it. Owned 4 Galt boats, still have two and curse myself for selling the other two. Mike felt that beauty was as important as function and it showed in his boats. On one visit with him he was showing me the half model of the Caper and I asked him how he designed it. Said he just started carving and when it looked right he scaled up and built. He could have been kidding depending on the mood he was in, but I could buy that explanation as he was certainly a different kind of guy. If he had just taken better care of himself we might still have him around to “stir the pot” about paddling, boats and life in general…I miss him too.
Glad to hear someone remembers Canoesport Journal. REALLY miss the View from Piety Hill and Uncle Harry.
Wow!
I can’t really add anything to this thread. The only Galt canoe I’ve paddled (briefly) or even seen was a BJX.
But I had to say thanks to the all folks who have posted. I really enjoy reading the design critiques and the stories surrounding the boats and their creators. Kind of makes me wish I’d gotten into this twenty years sooner.
Tommy
I had that same thought.
Only I wish I had gotten into solo canoeing 30 years ago. In 1978 I traded my Alumacraft for a Wenonah Sundowner, which I still own. But I was unaware of solo canoes until six years ago when I began checking out canoes on the internet. I now own five solos and don’t plan to sell any. I sold a Lotus Egret last October, and my regret at selling was negated by the fact that it was returning with a happy new owner to Florida–where it was constructed 30 years ago. It was beautifully crafted, but I just didn’t use it enough to justify it taking the space for another solo someday, I hope. The designers and builders of solo canoes of 30 years ago have given us some wonderful boats, and while some like Mike Galt and Phil Sigglekow have passed on, I will still say “thank you” to them and those who remain.
canoe legends
I bought my first canoe directly from Phil during a demo days in Ann Arbor in 1992 (a Combi 15.8 with the nicest kneeling thwart that I have ever seen). I also wish I had started earlier since I had loved canoes since first time I was in one in scout camp.
I’m not familiar with Galt boats but I’ve been in a lot of Blackhawks and in my simple mind Phil’s boats are totally underappreciated and undervalued…they really hit the mark for combining art and function and they represent an individual style that I find deeply enrichening.
I’d like to see Patrick Moore decide to get back into the sport since I think he has SO MUCH to offer.
Large collection of Galt canoes
I was in Canoe Country Outfitters in St. Petersburg, FL in October and they have at least 10 Gult hulls. Some are finished models (at least on with mast head for sailing), some are still unfinished hulls and some are the strip originals. They ended up there 6+ years ago. A private collection that has bacically been abandoned. Anybody wanting more info should call them. It’s pretty cool if you’re into Galt hulls.
Rob
steve’s caper, update
I purchased Steve’s caper in 2011, autographed by the great one himself…
Each time I paddle it, I am struck by its beauty and elegance. I am not qualified to speak about hull speed and such forth, but I can tell you it is a joy to paddle.
It never fails to attach attention from passers by. Among commonplace water craft, it stands apart like Greta Garbo!
Happy paddling
john
I have a Mike galt lotus egret. Does anybody know if there is a hin number. Selling ours and the guy wants it. Any information would be appricated.