Canoe
Ponderings by Red Rock Wilderness StoreCanoe
Ponderings by Red Rock Wilderness Store
Solo Paddling the Souris River Quetico 16
Q. What are your thoughts on a bow slider vs. a Spring Creek seat yoke? I have a SR Quetico 16 kevlar. Which do you recommend for a solo set up for me? (I had a few solo experiences last year when I needed to kneel in center to keep canoe tracking against wind.)
Thanks,
Kyle
A. A bow slider won't significantly affect paddling a Q-16 solo (sitting backwards in the front seat). You'll gain about 1 inch closer towards the center of the canoe which isn't going to do much. Also, you really can't add one after the canoe leaves the factory.
A Spring creek seat makes for lousy
portaging in my opinion. The bar that's always in front of your Adams apple makes me claustrophobic
and seat pads ALWAYS knocks your hat and glasses off every time you put it on or take it off your
shoulders. That can be REALLY annoying when the sandflies are marauding you. Plus,
paddling the canoe from dead center has to be the poorest position of all to effectively steer a
canoe. From the center, you will need to paddle twice on the left, twice on the right, twice on the
left, etc. Also, you won't be From the front seat (facing backwards) you can paddle
efficiently all day long with a J stroke on one side because the canoe tapers off behind you. Also,
you can't exercise leverage against the canoe when centered and one never sees a ship's rudder
positioned in the middle of the ship. It's always at the tail of the ship for a reason. As a
result, a lot of stern paddlers prefer a longer paddle in the back to get the paddle further behind
the canoe to effectively re-direct the line of travel by turning the "rudder" while doing a J
stroke.
What will help in your situation is to add a bit more weight in the bow of the canoe (bag of water,
sand, a rock, or heavier gear). You need to make the bow (which was the stern before you went solo)
bite the water a bit more so the canoe will hold its line of travel (track) in a cross wind.
Sometimes, you'll need to drop to your knees if it gets ugly out, but a bit more weight would
definitely help as well. I witness this on a regular basis watching folks demo canoes here on
Jasper Lake. We make a small forward weight adjustment and the problem noticeably improves every
time.
A second consideration would be to use a 250 cm kayak paddle. This'll make you fly down a
lake with less paddling finesse as required by a regular paddle. It doesn't look as cool as the
traditional method but the function is there 100% and sometimes more with no loss of forward travel
as is caused by the slight paddle-drag from by a traditional paddle in completing a J-stroke
follow-through.
Hope this info helps you out.
Joe
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