@spiritboat said:
Old school all the way. (Mainly a kayak guy, but I appreciate seeing all these wonderful old canoes.)
And pblanc: That Pepto boat be out of sight
Although “Pepto” was a common adjective used to describe that color (which was actually called Fuchsia by Dagger), some of the salty, good old boys I used to paddle with in the Southeast applied a different modifier, which I will leave to your imagination.
@pblanc said:
“… some of the salty, good old boys I used to paddle with in the Southeast applied a different modifier, which I will leave to your imagination.”
All I know is, it takes a tough man secure in his own skin to paddle a pink, er…“fuchsia” colored boat.
Not old school, but here is a friend looking quite stylish in her pink whitewater canoe (hopefully I won’t get in trouble for lifting this from her FB page):
I have no feelings of insecurity paddling my pink/pepto/fuchsia? Mad River Flashback II. With my wife, Christmas day, 2015
P.S. I get by with a little help from my friends in these photos.
Of special note is the grade school kid. in the orange Mad River Outrage. He’s is a “special” paddler for his age. Note “toy” kayak he pulls behind canoe…
Here are a few more. I had to dig out the scanner for a couple.
MRC Howler:
A Mad River Explorer doing a dynamic eddy out:
Finally, as long as we are going old school, here is from a WVA trip
!
(https://d3s3k13islrvw7.cloudfront.net/original/2X/9/9a97f31a6a8edd2c49c9305c25500e895a4c4069.jpeg “”)
Bell Mystic -maybe not “old school” but out of production even before Bell was…
And a '94 Blackhawk Starship
I wish my friend Carl would post here… he has some fine old school canoes - Beaver Aluminum solos, some Galt Lotus’, Blackhawk Zephyr, Proem, & Covenant… not to mention his two W/C North canoes and his newly acquired birchbark.
Here’s one of his North canoes loaded for a couple block move, and, no, this isn’t photoshopped;
My fleet. A flatwater tandem, a whitewater tandem and poling boat, a whitewater solo, a C1, and 2 flatwater solos, A boat for everything I do. Except for the Yellowstone Solo, they were all purchased used.
1988 Wenonah Spirit II
1989 Mohawk Whitewater 16 (this picture was taken yesterday)
1992 Dagger Encore
1993 Dagger Cascade
1997 Bell Wildfire
2004 Bell Yellowstone Solo
@spiritboat said:
Real old school: (I helped out carving this canoe–I have no idea if it has even been on the water.
I’ll bet it has good initial stability 
1991 Wenonah Odyssey ( the expedition version of the MNII-its deeper and more flared). It has character from hitting a rock head on ( was buried in foam) on a Wabakimi trip. Still have it and it is a marvelous boat. It does excellent eddy turns when heeled… that is excellent for an 18’6" boat!
Its going to the Yukon this summer
Spiritboat what wood is that?
PJC
Here you go buddy; a Lotus Dandy(signed by Mike Galt), with a sailing setup.
Also a photo of the Dandy with my Blackhawk Covenant.
I have a Proem but don’t have any photos available; mine is white/cream color. Posted a photo of someone else’s Proem. Figured very few paddlers had ever seen one.
Lotus Caper photo was previously posted by me. In my opinion, one of the prettiest canoes ever made. Not a bad paddler either.
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Yeah Bob… isn’t that the Proem I picked up in La Crosse and drove down to you?
I can’t help being struck by how many fine (though admittedly sometimes quirky) canoes have been made over the years, how much thought has gone into the designs, and the craftsmanship put into making them - and they’re out of production. Looking at this thread is like visiting a grave yard of better mousetraps - and most really were as good or better than most of the stuff made now, at least in some respects. Canoe building is apparently a high risk activity.
At Canoecopia this year I asked the MRC rep about the possibility of seeing the Guide/Freedom solo back in production in T-formex or something similar. He just replied siting the cost of a form - as he did last year when I asked about the possibility of bringing back the Dagger Prophet. Gosh, I’d think that on a $1200 canoe a business could turn about $600 profit/boat - and that would mean that even if a mold was $10K it would take the sale of 17 canoes to be in the black. That doesn’t seem like such an impossible sales goal for a nation-wide operation. But I guess it is…
And there were very few MRC canoes at all on display and plenty of Wilderness system kayaks in every imaginable color and multiple outfitting options.
Makes a fella fell like a member of a Model T club or something.
I’m loving this thread.
I need some stickers for my 94 Blackhawk zephyr (pics coming eventually)…has none.
I also want an old school whitewater solo. Moving anything thebob.com?
@kayamedic said:
Spiritboat what wood is that?
As I recall it was Spruce. It was some years ago and I came in to the session later. It was a Native American community carving (and later paddling)event along the Hudson. I’m a woodcarver(although I never worked on anything quite that large before) and a woodcarver friend of mine who is Mohawk(not really known as a canoe-making nation/culture)invited me along…I expected to find a primitive straight log dugout already in progress, but I was amazed by the hull presented. It’s weight ruled out car-topping! Large cracks and checking had already developed because of too quick a drying in the air. These were caulked and filled using a waterproof driveway-paving patch–Not exactly sap or a native material
