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Q Why the SnowShoe14™? 

I found your site through the Geodesic Airolite Boat site. I've just ordered the video and the guide book. I'm going to build a canoe, but I'm not sure which one. How's your canoe coming along?   Which one did you buy?  I was thinking of buying the  SnowShoe Explore 14™ or the SnowShoe Explore 16™ for use in the rivers and lakes in the Cincinnati area. Any suggestions?

Thanks,  Neil H.

A  We're just now getting around to starting the canoe, and there may be a few more interruptions before it gets done. But, that's life. As it happens, we're building the SnowShoe 14™. Mostly, I plan to use it solo after the fashion of how Nesmuck used Rushton's canoes -- sitting on the floor with a kayak paddle. Besides local river paddling, I plan to do some pack tripping with it. Otherwise I'd probably build the Explorer 12™. Mr. Monfort suggested that 180 lbs of me plus 50 lbs. of gear would be a bit much for the 12. Also, the 14 will take two day-trippers on occasions when somebody might like to join me. Mr. Monfort provided a design for a kayak paddle, but I think I'll make a Greenland-style paddle first. I'm curious about how well they work and you can chop one out of a 2x4 in a couple of hours. 

So far, I am impressed with both the plans and the kit for the 14. (I didn't get the video). Instead of using cardboard for the station forms, I decided to use a sheet of 1/4"x 4'x8' plywood paneling that I had laying around. Out of the same sheet, I can also get enough material to form the 4" side walls of the strong-back. I cut out the blanks and transferred the station contours to them over the weekend. Today, I'll be looking for lumber for the boat and for strong-back flanges. Procuring the required 1/8 and 3/8 marine plywood may be a bit problematic because I need so little of it. Even if we laminate 1/8 to get the needed 3/8, a quarter-sheet of 1/8 is substantially more plywood than the entire boat requires. Finding green ash sapwood for ribs and stringers may also be a bit challenging. If the canoe works out the way I hope, I'll probably build a second one (which is one reason for using plywood forms). Then, I will meet one of my sons near Charleston, SC, with canoes in the fall. We'll use them to explore the ACE Basin for a few days. (That's a nature preserve extending into tidal waters where three rivers meet the ocean). In fact, if I can get my other two sons fired up, I might build more.

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Comments on Wee Lassie

I built a Wee Lassie 10 years ago and it is still a super boat and an eye catcher. Use Epoxy for all the wood to wood joints and laminate the ribs and you'll never regret the building time or suffer the consequences of a structural failure. I used the old acid glue and several of my joints failed including the thwart far from shore! Luckily everything was easily fixed with epoxy.

Jim W.

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Tim builds a SnowShoe 14™

In the process of making one myself, slow going to say the least what with all the interruptions and Life obligations.

I've gleaned a lot of information from Platt's website and links, including this one. I tried going with cutting some local white ash, too, but I know from a few decades of "unplugged woodworking" that the wood would have to be split to avoid violating the grain. The surface just under the bark provides an automatic unbroken surface that would be the outside of the bend - just a little trick learned from making hunting bows. This surface can withstand incredible bending stress without breaking. I would have preferred hickory, as it's far more plentiful and easier to work as well as being stronger than ash, but I decided against it because it's durability in contact with water is terrible while ash is very good. duh! I forgot that I planned to coat all wood surfaces with epoxy from Clark Craft in Tonawanda, NY (Great stuff!!). 

Anyways, the real problem with the ash and the hickory and almost all trees from around here is this unbelievably twisted grain. Like propellers. At least 90 degree twist in 7 feet. it's nuts. Sawing it would just violate the grain anyhow. So I figured on splitting the ash out all the same and then shaving the pieces down to appropriate dimensions, but because of the severe twist I couldn't get more than 7 or 8 feet before the grain ran out the edge of the log. I had selected the straightest tree I could find, and the bark read like the grain would run straight. It was about 10" diameter breast height, 38' straight bole before the first branches. I felled it and bucked it in half, started splitting and the grain showed up right away....rats! At least the coppice growth from the stump will make up for the tree, and I have a LOT of staves to work with to make hayforks, arrows, handles, dough bowls, maybe a few bows as well. Not to mention making charcoal, in addition to some good firewood. All was not lost, but I won't be going through THAT again.

Well, let's see... I looked everywhere for the right wood, that's a story in itself. I have no access to a table saw (remember, I'm unplugged, meaning that virtually everything I do with woodworking is done the old ways, shaving horse, drawknives, spokeshaves, inshaves, adzes, etc.). So I figured, look harder. I finally realized that what I might as well do was do with what I have available. I made modifications to the forms (3/8" plywood) to accept 1-3/8" X 3/8" bullnose molding for the keelson and gunwales, and will be using them for the keel, inwales, outwales and cutwaters, as well. Just tonight I realized that I have a neighbor who has a Shopsmith-type machine, so I'm going to ask him to rip the stringers for me. I figure that there's just enough material in each to get 3 stringers apiece.

For the stems and knees, I'm using 7/8" cherry. Before you ask why, I have hundreds of pieces left from a lightning-struck black cherry that I had milled into 3-1/2", 4-1/2" and 8-1/2" X 7/8" boards and kiln dried. So, it's what I had and I made use of it. cherry is excellent and would have been used more in boat building historically if it could be found in longer lengths, I'm told - none of mine were over 8' long and I DON'T want to get into scarf joints, but it's good enough for the stems, knees, seats, etc.). So, cherry it is. The keelson is glued to the knees now, the gunwales are in and waiting for the glue to dry between the keelson/knees before I attach the gunwales to the stems.

Oh, as for other modifications -- there's a terrific article on canoebuilding.com regarding designing watercraft, so I made the canoe with no rocker except at the "bow stem" and the front 2' of the bow is about 1-3/4" shallower, and is angled more or less to somewhat of a pointier and finer entry into the water. This I further enhanced by moving the stem about 3" forward from the plan location. The rear/stern stem & knee assembly was also modified to give almost a right angled profile, and moved an inch less than plan location in order to present a more blunt or "fuller" cross section per the design article.

Now for the ribs... In the absence of suitable ash or oak, etc., and given that cherry is not known for its bending abilities, I chose to go with 1-1/8" X 1/4" pine lattice. With all the wood (lattice and bullnose), it took me awhile but I sorted through and made sure that I selected straight grained pieces and also edge checked them to make sure no grain was running off on them. I had figured on hand planing them or even ripping, but after emailing Platt his recommendation was to use them around an inch wide (so I'll leave them at 1-1/8") for strength (because they're pine, not hardwood), and to overcome the compound curves that will occur the farther from center combined with the wider ribs, to make them half ribs overlapped and joined at the keelson, but radially/perpendicular to the gunwales. Make sense? It took me awhile but I figured it out and I like the idea so I'm going ahead with it when I get to that stage. Platt also recommended that I change the rib spacing from 8" to 7", which I intend to do.

For the floor, I got some 2-1/4" X 1/4" lattice. It ought to work, I'll probably use 4 boards instead of 3.

Well, that's about it for now. I think by rights I'm going to have to christen this abomination, "The Frankenstein."  Thanks for putting up your site!

Tim C.

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Q  Coverings    

On the links page you list three covering companies Top Flite MonoKote,  Coverite 21st Century,  Carl Goldberg Models. Are these coverings equivalent to the Dacron?
Best wishes,  Dave

A  No, these are not fabrics.  Rather, they are plastic film materials that are sold primarily for covering model airplane flight surfaces.  (They are the modern miracle replacements for the traditional tissue).  I believe that they are made of Mylar� film -- like the drafting film used by architects and engineers.  Unlike drafting film, these films have a heat-activated glue coating on the back surface and they shrink when exposed to heat (much as the Dacron that we will be using to cover the canoe).  They are also substantially thinner.  They come in a multitude of colors and transparencies, in sheets up to 10 meters long.  Some model builders told me that MonoKote is the most durable of the three.

Now, why are we interested in these:  

Dacron fabric is not waterproof, so it is necessary to do something to prevent water from leaking through it.  Traditionally, fabric-covered boats are waterproofed by impregnating the fabric with paint or varnish.  Initially, I had intended to use varnish on this canoe.  It is simple to apply, inexpensive, and gives a wonderfully translucent appearance to the hull that I really love.

However, information provided with the SnowShow14 drawings mentioned that hulls that are finished with varnish or paint, tended to be susceptible to puncturing and tearing.  This canoe will be used primarily in streams, with strong currents and lots of snags and rocks, so puncture resistance is extremely important.

The information went on to suggest two materials that would provide waterproofing and improved tear resistance.  One was a rubbery paint called Plasti-Dip which is used as a dip for tool handles.  It overcoats with little fabric penetration.  But it is difficult to apply smoothly and thinly and it is opaque.  It also adds considerable weight to the canoe.  

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Chatting with Don D.

Arrow 14, flotation, paddles, trimming, rescue, rain covers, and other goodies

You guys are amazing. The experimentation and detailing that went into your canoe simply boggles the mind. The website is a monument.

I built a 14 foot Snowshoe Arrow using douglas fir for the stringers and gunwale, white oak for the ribs and breast hook, and sitka spruce for the inwale and floorboards. The oak was easy to bend in a foam steam-box (blue roofing foam). Your PVC steam disaster was hilarious.

When looking for white oak, some people will try to sell you red oak. I'm not sure how hard it would be to find in your area. Anyway, if some can be found I think it would be a lot easier to work with than the ash you labored for.

Don D.
Comox, BC

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January 20, 2002

Dear Don,

Thanks for your kind words.

I'd never heard of a SnowShoe Arrow, so I just visited the Arrow 14 page to see what it is. What a wonderfully enticing photo! I also noted that your name was mentioned prominently there. I quickly found your letters about it. Boy! Is my mouth watering now!

Tell me: Have you tried using a double-ended paddle with it? How did you finish the fabric? Did you install seats? Did it really weigh-in under 20#? For turning quickly, have you tried leaning the canoe over on its side a bit (to reduce the wetted length during the turn)?

I may end up wishing I'd built an Arrow with its narrower beam instead. I just couldn't resist asking you some questions about it before getting into our bending story.

The SnowShoe 14 plans called for ribs of ash or oak. Owing that the rib-spar structure in this canoe is an open lattice-work, it seemed to me that the ribs would be more vulnerable to rock-damage here than they might be in a more traditionally constructed canoe that had a continuous wood layer immediately beneath the fabric. I thought it would be smart to choose the strongest of the two materials.

One measure of material strength is how much work-energy it can absorb before it fails. Since I was most concerned about the ability of a rib to absorb a collision with a rock, that seemed like a good criterion to use.

Table 4-2 in the Wood Handbook gives Mechanical properties of some commercially important woods grown in the United States. One of those properties is, Static bending; Work to maximum load, in.lb. per cu.in. Just what I thought I needed! (See Wood Handbook: Wood as an Engineering Material, USDA Agr. Handbook 72 rev., 1974) That table lists five kinds of ash, nine kinds of red oak, and eight kinds of white oak. The work-to-max.-load figures for these various subspecies range all over the map (9.4-21.5). That much difference is definitely significant, if you can know exactly which subspecies that you are buying. But I didn't have any way to tell which subspecies was offered.

Specific values for four species that are common to our area are: white ash, 17.6; black ash, 14.9; pin oak (classed with the red oaks) 14.8; and white oak (among the white oaks), 14.8. So, strength-wise, white ash would be preferable. Among the other three, performance would be about the same.

I knew that baseball bats were traditionally made from both ash and hickory, but I'd not heard of any oak bats. (Bats need to endure repeated collisions with balls -- a service not dissimilar to canoe ribs.) I had also heard that ash was a favorite material for archery bows and that it was an easily steam-bent material. Likewise, I had never heard of an oak long-bow. (The function of a long-bow is to store as much energy as possible during the draw for later instantaneous release, so a good bow material should make a good rib material). So, I decided on ash.

We don't know which subspecies our dried ash belonged to, but that which we harvested was white ash.

We eventually did learn how to bend ash reliably, and I wouldn't hesitate to use it again -- now. But, had I known the trouble that that decision would get us into in the beginning, and had I had the benefit of your experience at that point, I probably would have gone with white oak instead, and we probably would have avoided all that extra fun. (Truth is, it WAS fun! And we learned a lot!)

According to Taylor, the minimum bend radii for one inch thick planks of American ash is 4.5 inches; and for like-sized American white oak is 1.0 inch. (Zachary Taylor, Wood Bender's Handbook, Sterling Publishing Company, NYC, 2001 -- particularly the table on p.137 that shows this property for about 26 species [the author's data source is not cited].) That supports your suggestion, too. Alas, we didn't discover this table until the week before we were able to declare success with the ash.

Peculiarly, it didn't seem to us that anybody else had experienced the level of difficulty with steam bending that we did -- either with steamer or with ash. Either the rest of the world is a lot smarter than we are, or they just don't like to admit it when things don't go right.

Maybe its a typical case of "the emperor's new clothes." Who wants to embarrass himself by telling the world that he had trouble with something that nobody else did? (Maybe it would be better if you didn't answer that!)

Thanks again for your note!
Bob W.

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January 21, 2002

Dear Bob,

I built my boat with the help of a friend who is a skilled professional woodworker. He had some white oak left over from a job, and we used it because we had it. So much for knowledge guiding the way. As it turned out the oak was easy to steam (dumb luck). It is strong as hell. We used it to build my canoe and a sailing Classic 10, also from Platt.

I carved a 98 inch Greenland paddle for the boat, and it works wonderfully. If you build a Greenland paddle, be sure to carve a raised ridge down the center of the power face of the blade. Otherwise, the paddle will flutter. The great advantage of the Greenland paddle for these boats (over a Euro kayak paddle) is that you can do sculling strokes to turn the boat efficiently.

I finished the skin with Varathane crystal clear waterborne Diamond Wood Finish (outdoor). 4 coats on the outside, none on the inside. It has worked very well... and you can see the water flowing by, right through the skin. You can tell how fast you are going by watching the height of your bow wave! Go easy on that first coat of varnish to prevent runs on the inside of the boat. I used my finger to press the wet skin onto the stringers, just to push out bubbles and get maximum contact. I used the same varnish on all the wood.

No seats were installed because it would place the paddler's center of gravity too high. I sit on a 1.5 inch foam pad with cups cut out for the ischial bones of my tush. I tied in a piece of seatbelt webbing for a backstrap. It goes across the top of my hips. Pad it with some ensolite and it's very comfortable. Your canoe will have higher sides than the Arrow, so this might not work for you.

Yes, it really weighs less than 20 pounds. I'd like to try building one with spruce stringers just to see if another few pounds came out. Mine feels as solid as a bloody icebreaker. I get a lot of laughs out of watching the look on people's faces when they pick it up and find out just how light it is. I named mine "Lighten-Up".

You can turn in a slightly smaller radius by leaning the canoe. However, by sculling with the Greenland paddle, you will be surprised how quickly she turns anyway. Almost all my paddling is done on the sea, so I put a 3/4 by 3/4 inch keel under her. Tracking in cross winds is astounding, but you might want less keel if you want to turn more easily.

I was concerned about the strength of my boat all the way through construction because the scantlings are so small. What I found out is that the engineering on these things produces an astonishingly stiff and strong hull. The Kevlar locks out any torquing or flexing, and the skin bonds to the stringers when you varnish. Loads are beautifully distributed through the structure. There is virtually nothing you could take away from the boat without compromising its strength, but virtually nothing you could add to enhance it.

Platt is just a marvel to work with. He answered all my questions promptly, either by phone or email. He has so much experience with these boats, and is so generous with sharing it. Just what you want in a designer.

Don D.

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January 21, 2002

Dear Don,

Your welcome letter raises a thousand more questions.

Thanks for your tip on how to avoid flutter in a Greenland paddle. That's new information to me that I'm sure will prove valuable.

You mentioned that a Greenland-style paddle worked better for skulling than a Euro-style paddle. Is that because Greenland paddles facilitate sliding the hands up the paddle more easily (so as to lengthen the distance between your hands and the wetted blade during skulling)?

What wood did you use in your paddle? Would the beam and midship depth of an Arrow discourage the use of a shorter paddle?

I've roughed-out a spruce Greenland-style paddle that is 96" long. I'm hoping that a little paddling will show that I can shorten it (to reduce weight and to facilitate a higher cadence). But a shorter paddle may not work well in a SnowShoe 14. As you pointed out, the mid-ship depth of a SnowShoe 14 is greater than the Arrow 14's (by 2.5"); its beam is also wider (by 4"). What do you think?

The Arrow pictured in the photo at the Geodesic Airolite site is really beautiful. Is that your boat? It looks like the lengthening of the SnowShoe 12 design occurred mostly in the spacing of the four ribs nearest each stem. Also, the rib-to-rib spacing in those particular ribs seems to increase more-or-less logarithmically as you get closer to the stems. Do I perceive that correctly?

In the photo, it also looks like there is a longitudinal piece sandwiched between each inwale and outwale that covers the rib-ends. Is that so, or just an illusion?

I think the transparency of the varnished hull is one of the great attractions of the Geodesic designs. Alas, since I intend to use the SnowShoe 14 in rivers (with snags, rocks, shallows, gravel, etc.) I've decided to forego this pleasure on my boat in favor of Monokote. (See the discussion about coverings )

Since I hope to do some traveling with my canoe, I would very much like to outfit it with a storm cover that can be broken out and attached quickly, weighs little, stores compactly, and won't impede paddling. My rough vision of this is that it would be of rip-stop nylon with rope sewn into the hems. The resulting rope-filled ribs might slide into slots formed along the gunwales. In fact, I keep thinking that the right deck covering design could turn the canoe into a veritable kayak. Carried further, if such a cover design could seal tightly to the canoe and around your person, you could reduce the freeboard and end up with a true kayak that you could even Eskimo-roll. Wouldn't THAT be Cracker-Jack! Have you any thoughts on how to make and attach a good weather cover (even if substantially less ambitious)?

Have you taken any wash over the stems in your Arrow?

I like your idea of using seat belt webbing for a back support. It has to be more comfortable than leaning against a thwart. It also gives you the freedom to adjust the balance point by sliding your seating position fore and aft when needed for leveling.

Was there a functional reason for deciding to use oak outwales with fir inwales? [ED.NOTE: Bob misread the second paragraph in Don's initial letter.]

I've wondered a bit how this canoe would handle if its bottom vee were more pronounced amidships and if the broadest part of the beam were moved back a foot or two. It might make for an even faster boat.

Bob W.

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January 21, 2002

Dear Bob,

I'll try to answer your questions in order. You're right, the Greenland lets you slide your hand onto the narrow blade. That's one reason those blades are made narrow. I built mine wider than the usual 3.5 inches, expanding to 4 because I have big hands. I get a little more drive out of it.

I used a red cedar rough 2X4. Spruce is just fine. One thing you can do to reduce paddle weight is to bandsaw the loom in half after the thing has been roughed out, then carve out the inside (a router job), then epoxy it back together (Platt's paste epoxy is great for this kind of thing. I'm doing that with mine now. To get fancy, you can epoxy a strand of Kevlar along the inside of each stress surface for the length of the loom. Platt gives you extra Kevlar out of New England values and generosity.

I've used much shorter Euro paddles, and they work fine. I just thought the Greenland worked better, and it sure has been easier on my back and shoulders.

That is my boat in the photo. We just added more ribs midships, no other changes were made to Platt's design for the Snowshoe 12. The rib ends were not covered. Optical illusion.

I've been thinking of a partial weather cover, some at the bow and some at the stern (like Rushton's old Rob Roy). I thought I would just install snaps and snap it on. Haven't decided.

Eskimo roll? I doubt it. Better take a look at SponsonGuy. This looks like a more plausible solution. I think you could make functional sponsons out of two nylon sausage bags and some bubble wrap.

Another problem with adding so much stuff to the boat is that you end up with a mess of complications that defeat the simple beauty and usability of the craft. One of the reasons people don't use their ocean liner kayaks (besides weight) is that it takes them 40 minutes just to load in all the expensive gear they carry. Those outfitting catalogues look so tempting.

No wash over the stems. Had some at midships, which made me think I wouldn't want to be out in big ugly breaking waves. Take care. These are small open boats.

I used fir gunwales, sitka spruce inwales, and spruce outwales. I can't help but notice how blessed we are up here to have so many sources of good boat building wood, and so many options.

I wouldn't change the hull design at all. The boat performs remarkably well as is. The argument over fish-form and Swede-form hulls goes on endlessly, with no conclusion. A symmetrical hull is so much easier to build, and there are enough challenges in constructing these boats as it is.

Don D.

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January 21, 2002

Dear Don,

Great suggestion for hollowing out the paddle blade! [ED.NOTE: Building on that suggestion: avoid the band sawing by starting with two thinner boards taped back to back instead.]

I got interested in using a shorter paddle after I read about Douglas Alderson's paddle testing experiences. I now tend to think that a shorter paddle with a narrower blade is probably a better impedance match for the power delivery capability of a human.

I see a parallel in bicycling. Bicycle racers like to adjust their gears whenever their cadence moves away from their ideal. (Adjustable bicycle gearing is nothing more than a way to match the impedance of the load to the impedance of the drive system -- when they are equal, energy transfer is greatest). I think they generally accept the ideal as being about one rotation per second. I also find it interesting that the standard marching cadence for the US military is 120 steps per minute (that's two steps or one rotation per second). Of course, we're talking arms here, not legs; the ideal cadence for arms may not be the same. At any rate, I think you can see why I suspect that the fastest paddle may not be the hardest one to pull through the water.

I took a quick look at SponsonGuy. (I'll read the details later.)

Sponsons may not be the best approach to heavy seas. I just read John Doud, Sea Kayaking: A Manual for Long-Distance Touring. Doud is not a proponent of sponsons in heavy seas. He points out high seas become problematic when the tops start to break over. In particular, when rolling seas are blown by a trailing wind, the fronts become much steeper. That causes them to break sooner and the water to fall more vertically. In even a slightly breaching sea, a breaking wave hits one sponson before the other. Sponsons effectively broaden a boat's beam, so a breaching breaker will apply a greater capsizing torque to the boat axis than if the boat had no sponsons at all. The boat will more quickly roll over into the wave. Furthermore, once capsized, a boat with sponsons is extremely difficult to right. Thus sponsons can be problematic in two ways.

At this point, I'd favor inboard flotation over sponsons. I envision custom-shaped transparent inflatables tucked into the stems and tied down, although I suppose foam blocks would be more reliable. But it is a shame to have to consider adding anything that will muck-up that great feeling of lightness of a Geodesic Airolite design.

Before leaving the sponson subject altogether, I should mention that Doud doesn't think an Eskimo roll can solve all the problems, either. He also has little good to say about the viability of two-man rescues in heavy seas.

Thanks again. Sure nice to get your input!

Bob W.

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January 22 2002

Dear Bob,

I was out in Lighten-Up this afternoon. A beautiful flat sea, puffy clouds, snow on the mountains, and sunshine. Seals on the rocks, loons diving for fish, and harlequin ducks to make me laugh. My paddle cadence is about 60. I was watching an eagle dining on some reef creature, and ran my boat onto a barnacled rock. The big 3/4 inch keel got scratched, but the Dacron was untouched.

Capsized in the kind of seas Doud is describing, I think you say a few prayers of thanks for your existence, and get ready to depart this world. I'm more concerned about capsizing in calmer water because I missed a brace or was watching a bird through my binos and just fell over.

Flotation in the ends of a boat only give you a rolling log to try to mount (I've seen this happen with kayaks).

I'm going to try installing sponson-like flotation inside, along my hips. I think I'll strap it in so that it can be pulled out and fastexed to the outside at the waterline (just like the SeaWings).

Many of the folding kayak makers are now installing internal sponsons in their boats, both to stiffen the hull with an inflatable tube, and to provide flotation that stabilizes the boat even when water rushes in. See Feathercraft's Kahuna.

I'm going to experiment with the sponsons through next summer. I'll purposefully capsize and work with them until I get a system that gives me some chance of survival. Our water is cold. I'm sure a paddle float rescue would be hopeless with one of these boats, so that leaves nothing but necessity mothering more invention.

By the way, Platt's canoes are very sensitive to trim. Ideally, the boat should trim level (fore and aft) when underway. The only way I could work this out was to have a friend watch me paddle as I adjusted my weight. It was many inches further forward than Platt had indicated in his plan. If your weight is too far aft, the boat plows water and never reaches its performance potential. A friend recently taught me that putting a pad under your knees enhances comfort while paddling. It works.

Don D.

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January 22, 2002

Dear Don,

I see your point about distributing flotation laterally to increase lateral stability.

Like yourself, we are keenly aware of how difficult it is to bail and remount a capsized canoe that floats so low in the water when flooded (as Geodesic Airolite boats do). So we will be very interested in the outcome of your experiments to improve that aspect with sponsons and other flotation means. Please keep us posted on what you learn.

To gage the quality of trim in a canoe, someone suggested dumping a cup of water in the bottom and watching where it settles. That didn't work so well for me. A cheap level might be a better solution. I'm thinking about drilling a hole in a floor board and mounting one on the underside so that the bubble can be seen though the hole. I might mount one amidships and one in the stern. Johnson Model #100 bullseye levels might do nicely. Grainger Industrial Supply lists them at $1.84 (search for Stock No. 2H366).

Regards, Bob W.

January 22, 2002

Dear Bob,

Trust me on this, you need a friend to just watch you paddle by. From shore, the friend can readily see if you are balanced fore and aft, at cruising speed. Any movement you make while paddling (like looking down), will change the trim again. It's that sensitive.

Don D.