I own a Mohawk Jensen WWIII . Bought it about 25 yrs ago for $50 and it is one of my favorite boats. It’s great for class II river tripping. The boat was raced in the 1978 Downriver Championships on the Yough. I’ve never seen another Mohawk Jensen whitewater racing canoe and I’m wondering of anyone knows the history of Mohawk’s building of such boats. It’s a very inexpensive layup. Woven roving and a chopper gun layer over the foam floor stiffeners. I’m pretty sure it was built in 1978 since there is a 78 in the serial number. Perhaps it was just a single boat built my Mohawk for that race but that seems unlikely.
If I’m not mistaken the boat is similar or identical to a Jensen WWII High Side which was built by Wenonah for a while.
Picture
Here’s a picture of it. It’s the yellow boat on the left. Picture taken in Stillwater Canyon on the Green River in Utah.
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Mohawk
Built the Jensen WW in 78 although they may have been making the WW2 by then because I saw Wenonah WW2’s at that race on the Yough. They built the WW,WW2 and WW3 and the C1WW. The WW was a marathon hull with higher sides it was fast with the right drivers but ran a little wet and took much skill to turn. The WW2 was fast ran drier and was easier to turn. Not sure about the WW3 but Wenonah call their third revision the WWX and it was blunter in the bow then the other 2. I had a Wenonah WW back in the mid-late 70’s as I said it needed skilled drivers in bigger WW so mine was highly battle scarred by the time I retired it but it was one fine tripping boat in flat water. If I could see a picture I may be able to ID.
Thanks.
Good info there. I’ve paddled a WWII and seen a WWX. It’s not a WWX since it doesn’t have that flared blunted bow. But it is a deep boat. Doesn’t look like I can post the photo right on here.
Battle scarred
Mine was battle scarred when I bought it. End caps missing, tops of the flotation tanks torn off and a bunch of patches on the sides. So no doubt in my mind it had been paddled hard by racers who were focused on winning and not on keeping the boat in pristine condition:)
bill
If I can get your e-mail I can send you a photo of the boat. When I bought it bought I was told it was a WWIII. I had recently paddled a Wenonah WW II–high side and the boats looked identical to me. Perhaps not. Perhaps there were subtle differences. How did Mohawk get into WW canoe production?
Mohawk WW
They also made some Jensen design Marathon racers. My guess and it’s only a guess is Gene may have know them thru both the industry and the fact that he spent winters in Florida.
archives
I realized that somewhere in my shelves of back issues of Canoe Magazine I might have the 78 Buyer’s Guide. Sure enough I found it. It was a separate insert and lists a number of Mohawk Jensen boats for between 299-$350, including the WW. But it clearly is not a WW because the dimensions on the WW show 13" depth and mine is far deeper than that. It shows MidWestern Fiberglass Products (which I assume eventually became Wenonah???) with a WWII ‘Built up’ with a 15" depth but the same dimensions as the WWII otherwise ($485)(WWII has 13" depth). I assume it just because easier to call it a WWIII rather than a WWII’built up’.