Harry Roberts in the old CanoeSport Journal once had an article about 10 canoes that changed the world...got me to thinking about what would the list be like for WW OC's and C Boats?
There's lots of possibilities...the good old aluminum Grummans probably still have more first decents than any...but not enough differences to be on the list. The Mohawk Challenger/Bluehole Sunburst type boat...first smaller solo WW boats, what was the first true playboat?, Frankie Hubbard's Edge...led to the Vipers and Ocoee and on, Nolan Whitesells big water boats, seems like the Encore was a departure of sorts, the CUFly...first flatwater trick capable playboat, the early plastic C-1s, Kaz's cab-forward slalom boats, what about the Squirt boats? and slalom C-1s? The first Royalex playboat, first poly boat? Twintex? Adam's Mentor looks like it might make a future list
It seems like there should be ten trendsetter/difference makers?
What do you think should make the list?
Mike
My first "whitewater" canoe was a Keewaydin KT-17. 17' long! That was in 1976. It was some sort of plastic, not ABS. I believe that Keewaydin made the first plastic canoes in this country. They had a few other models too.
JKaz
Kaz, in the late 70s and early 80s, some sort of sharpish Keewaydins appeared in droves to be raced in the Southeasterns downriver cruising class. I inspected a bunch of them. Always thought they were ABS, but never asked an owner. By the latter 80s I never saw another one.
The Atom was the first nimble C-1 in plastic. It offered the opportunity to make stupid moves and know the boat would survive if not the paddler. It is one of the most comfortable boats I've paddled.
The Viper is the next most comfortable C-1 I've been able to fit in. It offers good cruising speed and interesting edges that can be explored by the paddler. I have paddled this boat for 4 years now and I still learn things from it. I might be a slow learner, but that is good.
Hahn-Sweet (or Sweet-Hahn) ... I believe the first of the short 'Whitewater' OC1's... it was way before Dagger-Sunburst's and Mohawk-Challengers. It was a true 4meter (13'1.5"+) boat.
This is the boat, that John Sweet made off of the Hahn C1. He raced it in OC1 slalom, not sure of the years. Paddled one for quite some time, that was from a John Sweet mold. Very good boat, especially for the time. There was a separate mold for the sides, that bolted to the bottom mold of the C1, in order to create a OC1. Had that mold for a quite while, although never owned it.
This was the predecessor to boats like the HD1, and Rattler.
And when did the Keo-wee, the boat by Ann Dwyer come out. We use to joke with Frankie, about him re-inventing, when the Skeeter come out.
Last edited by philcanoe on Thu Dec 20, 2007 4:30 am, edited 1 time in total.
The Sweet-Hahn is a decked boat - a Hahn tweaked by John Sweet. There is also a Morrison-Hahn.
The HD-1 is the boat made from a Hahn hull, as I recall.
As for other boats that changed the world, I tend to think of the either really popular (HD-1, Hahn, ME, Gyramax, and many of the Hearn-Lugbill designs), and the "out there" designs...Oxygen and Groove being two of them. I'd also through out the Acrobat, as I think more of us have tried squirt moves (attempting mysteries and the like) in an Acrobat than any other boat.
So far I think we have a pretty good "historical" perspective, but I'll add in two more boats that I've seen really change things within the last few years- the Wheelboy and the Sith (which is still catching on, I think).
Though I do think the Atom is a good design, I think it filled a need of a "new" plastic C1 rather than moving things forward. The Slasher is pretty zippy...
) and the Quake is a fun boat.