Retirement Boat. Suggestions?

[Hank]

Learn the fine art of getting an open boat onto your head and the weight issue is reduced to near zero. My humble opinion only.

[RodS]

Millbrook Defiant

[carter1]

Sent you a FB message.
c

[avlclimber]

My dad is ? ~170, 5'9" and has good river-sense, its just that he hasn't gotten out in anything other than a tandem canoe, much really.

these are great options! I know of a local a Prodigy which might be a great boat for him; I am intrigued by a Kaz boat, if it'll put up with scraping, and I find a design that suits. More thoughts?

--Z

[Neill.2]

I have paddled three times this year with folks over 70. I had three completely difference experiences, physical abilities and desires.
1) My own father who owned an outfitter, grew up on the river, and now could barely get his legs over the side of the boat, and struggled to get seated...but came alive on the river for the first time in years. He is in his low 80's and we are paddling a MR Kevlar Explorer on fast moving black water.
2) An Active couple in their 70's...they paddled an Old Town ABS canoe on a section of the French Broad with no rapids...Worked well for them.
3) I paddled with a 77 year old lady on the Lower Green (class2), who gave up her MR Outrage for a Dagger sit on top (notice I did not use the K word) after her knees gave out (double knee surgery). She needed assistance moving that hoss to and from the water.

My point here is really what are your Dad's physical limits, both now and next year, and what type of water he is going to be comfortable on.

A lot of great suggestions on here.

Peace
Neill

[clt_capt]

I'll second a Millbrook boat - they will take a pretty good beating (not like plastic) but will definitely save a lot of weight, and I'm sure Kaz will be able to suggest the right layup to balance weight/strength...

[craig]

Kaz boat for sure, just get the right model for the type of paddling he will be doing . They are tough boats. A heavy boat will just sit there

[TommyC1]

I pole a Milbrook Souhegan. When I say I pole I mean that I scrape it over more rocks than there ought to be in a river.
Except for the time I pinned it, (poor judgement and faulty flotation!) it has held up fine. The pin resulted in a few small tears which I patched with some 4 oz S glass. The patches are getting scraped off. The rest of the hull is fine.
From what I've seen Kaz boats will take most anything a royalex hull will.

The Souhegan is a good solo for someone used to standard tandems (MR Explorer, Old Town Tripper and most likely that Lincoln). It is much lighter than the big Royalex hulls. It turns nicely. It's pretty dry in class II-III rapids.
It is beamy for a solo at 32" and no tumblehome. Kaz does not put air tanks in them so you need to use decent float bags. Mine came with a center portage thwart and no seat. It is a poling boat. I took out the center thwart and mounted a bench seat just aft of center with a thwart behind that and another roughly 3' back from the bow.

re the Bell Fire series canoes (Flashfire, Wildfire and Starfire) Bell lost the right to make those when they and Charlie Wilson parted ways. Placid Boatworks made them for a few years but didn't feel they wanted to continue. Now Paul Meyer as Colden Canoe http://www.coldencanoe.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; makes them. Sweet solos but too pretty to scrape down rocky runs IMO.

[ezwater]

Regarding frictional wear, Millbrooks use S-glass for the outer layers. S-glass is the hardest cloth in common use. It wears smooth and usually doesn't scratch deep. Sharp local blows may produce little compression cracks, just in the surface layer, that are easily fixed.

Dynel is a trick fabric that sheds frictional wear in a kind of magical way. Unfortunately, it is not as structurally strong as S-glass or even E-glass, and soaks up a lot of resin, so it isn't commonly used for the outside of boats. I have no idea why it is used for edging paddles, because the edge of a paddle gets a lot of sharp compression blows, but isn't subject to that much frictional drag.

[Outsiderob]

Mohawk Odyssey 14, 60" end bags, maybe a center bag, big comfy saddle. Room for gear, tracks like an arrow, dry, stable, shallow draft, versatile boat. Great responding old school ride. Try and buy. 49 lbs. of love. 1200 miles + under mine.

[Einar]

The new boats in plastic are great, really pushing the envelope of what is possible.
That said, no boat lasts for ever, whatever the material, and my goal is the fun had along the way, not the longevity of the boat.

In this thread I am closer in age to the "dads" shopped for than the sons doing the canoe shopping and my opinion is buy the sports car, get the kevlar/glass/composite boat in whatever hull shape that suits your skills and rip it up, enjoy your day. Party like there is no tomorrow and some day you'll be right. If you are past caring about longevity the Mill brook boats seem to be an interesting paddle.

I have trashed my kevlar Viper 11 past the point of resale and if it wraps I'm just gonna buy another boat in glass and keep on going. Nothing, nothing beats the fun of hard chined light glass boat paddled
as if you don't give (ed.) large steaming pile of dog doo. Just saying my pov from the geriatric side.