Outfitting canoes

agree

– Last Updated: Aug-13-15 1:35 PM EST –

I was only trying to relate the cost of vinyl vs nylon and the weight of styrofoam blocks of the same size. I probably should have stopped at volume, but since I don't know the total volume of the canoe, it made more since to me to equate cost to pounds of water displaced. Sorry for any confusion.

Air bags expensive. …
…but not as expensive as replacing a wrapped canoe. And that isn’t the worst thing that can happen with a swamped canoe flushing down the river.



My previous bags were Gaia vinyl bags, which I think are the same ones sold under the Harmony brand now. One of those developed leaks around the fill tube after a few years and I have replaced them with nylon bags from Palm - which seem to be more robust in overall construction.

Maximize your tie offs first
Then decide where you want to lace . A tandem canoe will have at least 10 locations where you can back out a screw and install fabric loop with a longer screw and have a tie off point. Seat hangers and thwarts are an easy place to do this.



When running whitewater my canoes are bagged out except for where people or gear sit. There’ve been several occasions when I was very happy to have all those bags in there.

new thoughts…for me…
This post made me think a little more. I wonder what my MR Rx canoe inherent buoyancy is in pounds? That is, how much weight in my canoe would make it actually sink completely? I haven’t really thought of it in that context before. Obviously any current flowing “into” my swamped canoe would also act as weight too.

If I tie down all my tripping gear in and they are NOT water-tight bags…yes they will displace some water, but a lot of my gear wouldn’t float, and therefore adds weight.

Maybe an argument to not tie gear down, but have it on leash so canoe can have some room? Assuming no air bags that is. Or just make sure I get air-tight bags.

Waterproof packs, tie-downs
It can be easy to waterproof your gear. People who use traditional canoe packs usually use a heavy-duty plastic liner bag inside. It’s a very reliable method. Waterproofed packs float high, mostly out of the water. The packs may seem heavy, but that weight is nothing compared to that of an equal volume of water, so yeah, packs float really well.



Bill Mason started out his writing career recommending that all packs be tied to the canoe via a long tether. His reasoning was that if the canoe got swamped, it would be easier to lift it out of the water to dump the water out once you got to the shallows, since the packs would be laying in the water nearby rather than being stuck in the canoe. In his later years, he changed his tune and decided that tying them securely inside the boat was the better method. Since there was no way to really cinch them down in his wood/canvas canoes (they’d be a little floppy when tied only to thwarts), I’m not sure he was thinking about flotation, but more likely, the risk of getting the whole rig snagged via that long tether after a capsize.

No more
No more leashes for us. Went rafting a couple weekends ago and had a dry bag with water bottles and snacks leashed to the bow of the raft. I came out but the leash had wrapped around one ankle. No fun getting dragged along side the raft trying to stay out from under it. My wife had to lift the bag in order to give me some slack to get my leg out. Yep, from now on gear will be firmly tied down and if it ends up underwater with the canoe in a strainer, at least I stand a better chance of not being with it.

Do you use vinyl or nylon air bags in your tandem?

Great stuff…thanks

pblanc hit the nail on the head
for outfitting for whitewater. I could have used a few of those tricks back in the day. No fun losing an airbag when you need it the most.



Most packs float. With scout groups we used a kettle pack and it sank- It had tents, grate, griddle, small shovel pots and pans, dutch oven or a camper kitchen (rectangular dutch oven). We always had to lash that pack in tight or risk losing it because it would sink like an anchor. Personal packs lined with heavy duty plastic bags (like trash compactor bags) floated well. Even lined food packs floated.



When risk was minimal we tied in packs with a clove hitch around the center thwart with two trailing ends- each tied to a pack using a bowline. This was fast to do and was insurance when you were in a hurry, or tired and risk was minimal.



We tried to tie or lash everything in tightly in a whitewater environment. It was harder to drain the boat when it was swamped with the packs lashed in. Without tie down points (like d rings) it was hard to get stuff escure. Usually we just focused on the biggest, heaviest, most essential items.



If I was boating in ky I would want ww outfitting for the Cumberland below the Falls, Rockcastle Narrows, or the harder parts of the big south fork, upper red .



If Camping overnight on Clear Creek (TN) I’d tie in my gear tightly and perhaps some other stretches of the cumberland, kentucky river.



never paddled the green but I would think the clovehithc method would be sufficient.

Dry bags
in packs hold air and will float a 17’ poly boat. I know this from personal experience :wink:



What most of out boats are outfitted with a pallet like rack about a inch high that fits between the thwarts. We have everything from ones that were made by a machinist that you cant pass a piece of paper between the hull and the wood, to 2 pieces of 1" conduit with plywood screwed to. The packs go on those, and the whole thing is lashed to the thwarts. There isnt any wiggle room. The pallet keeps the pack off of the deck so it doesnt get wet with getting in and out or a wave or paddle tossing water in. If you go over, the whole thing is tight to the boat. Everything is packed in drybags, in backpacks. The only thing I lost was a fishing pole that was sitting in front of me.