ever, and you slide forward off the seat. Remember to be kneeling on a kneepad or piece of foam to ensure correct seat height and angle.
Perhaps the best insurance policy you can buy for your whitewater canoe is a set of float bags and properly installed bag cages. Float bags come in both nylon and vinyl. Vinyl bags are worth the extra money. They are lighter, easier to work with, especially in the cold, and far more durable. Voyageur 36-inch end bags are the perfect length for tandem tripping boats, tucking just ahead of the bow paddler’s knees and behind the stern seat. The Mike Yee Outfitting bag cage system is far superior to tying bags into the boat. Although all float bags have sewn tabs, tying bags into your canoe isn’t enough to keep them down. An upright boat full of water floats the bags, focusing all the stress at the sewn tabs. The water will displace the bag above the gunwales, rather than the bag displacing the water in the hull.
As we installed the stern bag cage, we realized the combination of moving the seat back and me having long legs meant that my feet were going to interfere with the anchors. This was aggravating, and dangerous if my river shoes caught when I needed out of the boat. We sim- ply moved the anchors back, shortening the cage area by a couple of inches.
photo 2 Photo 3
Vinyl-covered aluminum gunwales can easily be drilled without harm. Typically seat and thwart hard- ware is 3/16-inch diameter and stainless. Use a 3/16- inch drill bit so bolts fit snugly. Recessed washers tuck bolt heads inside and disperse the pressure on a larger surface area of the gunwale. Underneath use washers and nylon locknuts. Pack a Leatherman tool and a metre of farm fencing wire and you can fix any- thing on trip.
Photo 4
For legroom and working space we ended up mov- ing the Canyon’s seat back a massive eight inches to a more traditional tripping measurement of 24 inches
from stern. The seat had to be carefully narrowed to fit farther back in the tapering stern. Be sure to err on the side of too long when you are making your cuts and then trim and angle the seat bars for a perfect fit. A perfect installation has the seat just clear of the inside of the hull. Simply moving a seat forward or back affects the seat height and angle following the shear or gunwale lines of the canoe. Adjust seat height and angle using longer seat bolts and new seat pillars, or cut and drill wooden spacers for between the seat and pillars. We drilled the holes and loosely bolted the seat in place, tweaking height and angle after we installed the outfitting.
photo 3
By necessity, the copious legroom usually enjoyed by the bow paddler gets filled by the face of the bow cage; however, we were sure to lay out our kneepads and eye things up before we drilled the cage holes to set their location. We wanted to ensure there was still enough space in front of the bow seat for Tanya to sit up and stretch a little. Thin pieces of blue foam offer some comfort to the knees, but proper outfitting has so much
more to offer. Contoured knee pads and thigh straps stop your knees and butt from sliding around and connect you to the boat. Coming from a tripping and playboating background, we wanted the comfort and security of quality, well-placed kneepads and outfitting in our ultimate tripping boat. If the bow and stern positions will be shared, the kneepads have to be located to fit both short and tall paddlers. A tip from Brian was to be sure to space the kneepads far enough apart that you can drag a bailer between them. We also wanted this gap between the kneepads for stepping in and out of the boat. We anchored our thigh straps on the sidewall of the boat, centred between the seat sup-
photo 4
ports. Some canoe tripping outfitting loops around the seat pillar or around the seat itself but the ultra-fine stainless steel bolts used as seat hangers are not suited for the lateral forces exerted by the thigh straps. The bolts bend, work loose and can break under your body weight
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