It would be hard to find a WORSE boat. Too short, too wide, an absolute
barge to paddle that will fill easily with water. IMHO, Old Town has never
been able to design a decent boat. Look at Mad River Canoes if you want to
paddle flat water; for whitewater, Mohawk's Probe-12 can't be beat. The
Pack boat also has very little room for FEET - your feet, that is. Try
kneeling against the seat and see what I mean!

Rainy from Roosevelt
"Chicago Paddling-Fishing" wrote in message
...
CanoePam wrote:
: I've had one for 7-8 years. Nice little canoe for getting in tight
places.
: It isn't fast and it isn't sleek, but it is wonderfully light and works
: great with a double-bladed paddle. I find the seat a little high, and
I've
: been saying for years I'll lower it an inch or two. It feels "tippy" to
: inexperienced paddlers at first, and I've had people tip it over the
first
: time they've been in it. I've never had a problem though.

Yep, I agree.... one of our boats is a discovery 119k (similar size but
about
10 pounds more). It's no problem with me in it, and we've carried small
kids
in it too...

--
John Nelson
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Chicago Area Paddling/Fishing Page
http://www.chicagopaddling.org http://www.chicagofishing.org
(A Non-Commercial Web Site: No Sponsors, No Paid Ads and Nothing to Sell)

The Old Town pack canoe is really good at only one thing: packing in to
beaver ponds & other remote quiet waters where a 4-weight fly rod is the
rule of the day. For anything else it's a disaster waiting to happen. As
for Old Town canoes in general, I'll put my XL-Tripper (20') up against
anything any time any where under light load or heavy and heavy weather
or light (except Class 4+ extended rapids). And my Discovery 169 - when
going solo - is about 80% as good as the XL-20. Admittedly, many of the
middle-of-the-road ahem-stream Old Town models there are as good or
better models forthe same money. As for Mad River, the low initial
stability & higher secondary stability takes some getting used to,
especially in the 3'-5' waves northern Maine lakes will spring on you
with less than ten minutes' warning.

Yours in the north Maine woods,
Pete Hilton (Reg. Me. Guide) aka The Ent

--
Freedom is participation in power.
Cicero

pmhilton wrote in :

The Old Town pack canoe is really good at only one thing: packing in to
beaver ponds & other remote quiet waters where a 4-weight fly rod is the
rule of the day.

A 4-weight for fishing beaver ponds? I use my 4-weight (a Sage RPL 490) for
the annual fall run of large brown trout (most in the 4-6 pound range) and
landlocked salmon (many in the 8-12 pound range). I've got a 7' 3 wt. rod
for small waters or I've got a nice little Southbend bamboo rod that I
sometimes use.

Snowleopard wrote:
: It would be hard to find a WORSE boat. Too short, too wide, an absolute
: barge to paddle that will fill easily with water. IMHO, Old Town has never
: been able to design a decent boat. Look at Mad River Canoes if you want to
: paddle flat water; for whitewater, Mohawk's Probe-12 can't be beat. The
: Pack boat also has very little room for FEET - your feet, that is. Try
: kneeling against the seat and see what I mean!

Not sure how old this post is... but... I pulled the seat and put in a foam
saddle in our 119k (I bought a few different ones to play with in my Dagger
Caption and this was what I chose not to mount there). Much more comfortable
and puts the weight on the bottom instead of the gunnels. It is short and
wide (that's the point of the boat), but really isn't hard to paddle. I would
call it high initial stability, low secondary stability... the opposite of
the Caption.

First 2 pics are 2 kids and I in my 119k, last is my wife and son;
* http://www.chicagopaddling.org/mat.jpg (Kankakee River)
* http://www.chicagopaddling.org/ka3.jpg (Kankakee River)
* http://www.chicagopaddling.org/im3.jpg (I&M Canal)

I don't know if I'd like it to be my only boat, but it's a ok member of
the fleet (5 kayaks, 3 canoes).


: Rainy from Roosevelt
: "Chicago Paddling-Fishing" wrote in message
: ...
: CanoePam wrote:
: : I've had one for 7-8 years. Nice little canoe for getting in tight
: places.
: : It isn't fast and it isn't sleek, but it is wonderfully light and works
: : great with a double-bladed paddle. I find the seat a little high, and
: I've
: : been saying for years I'll lower it an inch or two. It feels "tippy" to
: : inexperienced paddlers at first, and I've had people tip it over the
: first
: : time they've been in it. I've never had a problem though.
:
: Yep, I agree.... one of our boats is a discovery 119k (similar size but
: about
: 10 pounds more). It's no problem with me in it, and we've carried small
: kids
: in it too...



--
John Nelson
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Chicago Area Paddling/Fishing Page
http://www.chicagopaddling.org http://www.chicagofishing.org
(A Non-Commercial Web Site: No Sponsors, No Paid Ads and Nothing to Sell)