Thanks, Maggie was 46 pounds of adjustable ballast too! She would jump in the canoe as soon as I put it down and before I could get it in the water. Your photo reminds me of the beginning of the Jerry Vandiver song and video “Me and Molly”. May the Trillium come home soon…not long now until the three of you will be on the water together.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cHjNFMVG77k&list=RDcHjNFMVG77k&t=198
Great song and video - thanks for sharing. Let me know if you’re ever in the New England area - we’ll paddle.
I think the Kee 15 is similar to a Peregrine.
My website: đang cho con bú có xăm lông mày được không
@Erickem said:
I think the Kee 15 is similar to a Peregrine.
Not really. I’ve paddled both. The Peregrine is straighter keeled
I put many miles on my P
Just did a bit of Freestyle moves for half an hour on the Kee
Kee more like Merlin Ii
@castoff said:
Thanks, Maggie was 46 pounds of adjustable ballast too! She would jump in the canoe as soon as I put it down and before I could get it in the water. Your photo reminds me of the beginning of the Jerry Vandiver song and video “Me and Molly”. May the Trillium come home soon…not long now until the three of you will be on the water together.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cHjNFMVG77k&list=RDcHjNFMVG77k&t=198
Love the song and photos. There is a pup just waiting to fill that void.
Hey castoff. Maggie looks like an awesome boat dog…confident and content. I’m sorry for your loss.
Hey kattenbo, somehow you’ve made us all anxious to get your boat delivered! Maybe you can go meet the truck somewhere.
@TomL said:
Hey castoff. Maggie looks like an awesome boat dog…confident and content. I’m sorry for your loss.Hey kattenbo, somehow you’ve made us all anxious to get your boat delivered! Maybe you can go meet the truck somewhere.
Unfortunately to paddle in Maine he would have to bring a portable furnace. He test drove the Trillium nearby… And its as hard as a dance floor now… Maybe next week…
One thing nice about being a Southerner (Southern New England that is), the water’s warmer – Parker River is all the way up to 41!
“Heat wave, we’re havin’ a heat wave…”
Got an update. Truck should be leaving tomorrow (Saturday). Trillium should be here mid-week. But I didn’t get the route, so have to wait - no interception (too bad).
It’s here! Picking it up this afternoon. Pictures to follow.
YAY! Paddle it first! The pics can wait… Its a gorgeous day… it will rain tomorrow.
And it’s home! Didn’t get it on the water (yet) - too many other things happening. Didn’t get home until almost 6pm and was brain dead - didn’t want to have less than a great experience. So if the rain holds off it will be tomorrow, if not, Thursday (and yes, I am doing my anti-rain incantations).
Here’s a picture of it on the car…pretty, eh?
Really pretty boat. Black/lite with wood trim huh? Very nice.
Beautiful boat - don’t think I have ever seen a Northstar around here. Enjoy.
Come to Maine Canoe Symposium all. .I’m offering test paddles of Keith’s new boat! He will be doing some solo clinics…
OOps if I let the secret out.
Nice boat! Waiting for mine to be delivered to Michigan. I’m from Windsor Ontario. The wait is killing me.
@"view FROM my canoe " : Are you waiting on a Trillium? Or a different Northstar?
FIRST PADDLE: Had a break in the weather and a break in my schedule (by getting up before 6am) and finally got the first paddle of my very own Northstar Trillium. Paddled on Lake Gardner in Amesbury MA - a small lake fed by the Pow Wow River. It has a wooded walking trail on one shore and homes on the other. There’s public parking and a town beach to launch from.
Got on the water a bit before 7am, cloudy but calm, almost no wind. My goal was to get to the other end of the lake and up the Pow Wow a little bit to where two buoys are anchored in a way that they form a very nice English gate. then do a pass at the English Gate pattern and head back - had errands to do and had to be at the shop by 11am. Total distance (not including working through the gate) was about 1.7NM.
First the emotion: This boat just puts a smile on my face - starting with the partly ironic little up and down version that you get when you’re laughing at yourself a bit because you just recovered from getting into your boat not quite cleanly, to the sunshine smile when you hit that stroke just right and the canoe just glides and glides and glides, and finally the fist pumping, ear to ear, face splitting grin when you realize you and the boat are a match that’s going to be going for years and years. Responsive, protective, quietly efficient and ready to do what you ask. Can’t ask for more.
Now the facts (mostly) - I’ll walk thru the paddle in major components, with just quick comments:
Picking up, carrying: The Trillium, in Northstar’s BlackLite (Carbon and Aramid) layup with wood trim, weighed in at 29.5 lbs only bathroom scale, This is noticeably lighter than both my Malecite KX (about 50 lbs) and Iain-the-boat-dog (40.5 lbs of solid Cardigan Welsh Corgi). It’s the lightest boat I’ve owned - I have to be a bit careful not to give in to the urge to play catch with it. Since I’m not anticipating any long portages, the real advantage for me is all about spontaneous "just-got-the-urge-to-go-out-for-a-quick-before breakfast/after supper paddle. Grab up the boat, strap it on the car and go. I haven’t fitted in a yoke yet, but it’s an easy balance using the front of the seat across my shoulders. Might look at a yoke sometime down the road.
Loading/unloading: Getting the boat onto the roof rack is easy, especially since I’m driving a wagon, not a SUV. There is one note on tying down - the Trillium has a flared hull topped with gunwales that are distinctly pinched in (max width is around 1.5" to 2" below the gunwale). That curve can flex if overtightened, so I immediately learned to just snug the straps using more of a mindful tug than a hard pull. It’s perfectly secure, and the car rocks when the boat is pushed, so be firm, but easy,
Getting in: The rounder bottom of the flared hull makes the Trillium feel frisky on entry - not so much scary as a good solid reminder to stay centered and low when settling in. The flared sides add huge amounts of secondary stability, so while it may rock, it’s fights pretty hard against putting you in the water. The bow edge of the seat is set lower than the stern, so I have to angle my size 12’s just a bit to get under the front lip of the seat. Plenty of room once in place and the seat angle makes for a very comfortable kneel. The webbing is also comfortable and secure.
First stokes: Amazing. I started centered (knees evenly spread on each side of the centerline), but after a few strokes I shifted to angle to my right (left knee on the center line, right knee in the chine curve), heeling it just a bit. Long glide with each stroke and tremendously responsive. One thing that grabbed my attention was that just winding back up during recovery for the next forward stroke seemed to help bring the bow back on line - very little “J” required. And the boat is incredible quiet - the narrow hull and pinched in gunwales made it easy to avoid paddle contact with the hull while keeping the stroke vertical and without having to reach out to get to the water. It was just smooth and easy to move along. While I didn’t time it, it felt like I got to the far end of the lake and the buoys more quickly than I had in the Malecite.
English gates: At the far end of the lake and a little up the Pow Wow I got to the English gate. In the excitement of finally getting on the water I had forgotten to bring my pattern sheet with me, but had it pretty well in mind. The first forward stroke “S” wasn’t elegant but moved quickly enough. The back and forward figure eight was also good, though I did get a reminder of how much I love solid secondary stability as the boat took care of me when I overreached on a stroke. The backstroke Reverse “S” was more of a challenge - but the Trillium responded well to reverse "J"s and I think it was the straightest pass I had made through that segment of the pattern. The final forward and back figure 8 had a couple of more experiences in exercising secondary stability, and again the boat kept me dry. The Trillium isn’t going to be the absolute quickest turning boat on the water, but that’s a good tradeoff for a lake boat - I’ll take the additional tracking in what is still a very responsive boat.
Back across the lake: I was in a bit of a hurry to get back, so focused on making time (which I did). I hit some good slicing forward strokes - the boat responded well to them, holding it’s line through the water with very little yaw. This was the first time I felt how they were supposed to work.
Getting out: Back at the launch it was time to extract. I have an issue where if I’ve been kneeling for a while where it takes a minute or two before my ankles come back to full upright functioning. As a result, getting from kneeling to sitting can be interesting. This was my first time dealing with it in a canoe that’s 7" narrower then the Malecite at the waterline. Bit of rocking and rolling, probably the closest I came to getting wet, but again, the secondary stability really kicked in.
Summary: To use an old fashioned phrase, I’m “very well pleased” with the Trillium. It’s everything I was looking for - light, quick, responsive while retaining good tracking when needed. While there wasn’t much wind on this short trip, it handled wind well during the trial on Lake Sabego in Maine, and my boss, who was the second paddler and took it out on the Parker River with some good wind and chop, reported it wasn’t impacted much at all - very controllable. I liked his phrase - “surprisingly stable for a boat like a needle”.
I’ll do an update when I’ve some more time in the boat. Let me know if y’all have any questions.
No worries - wasn’t a secret anyway.