Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Alaska Canoe's in Alaska

I bought plans for a big 20' stitch-n-glue about 15 years ago. Fiberglass dust doesn't agree with me now, so I plan to convert it to aluminum. We'll see...

I called NorWest a few years ago about their 26' Chisasibi. They were years out and don't ship. Hate to hear they had a fire.

Can't get a Scott in Whitehorse anymore. I tried to contact the company with no response. I called the only distributor in Washington and got the run around. Too bad. Covid and Communism spread the same way but the later will be harder to get rid of.

I have owned quite a few had a Grumman Sport boat for probably 15 years loved it, ran 4 to 8 hp 2strokes Yamaha 8 was probably the best right weight to power, Vern has it now.

Bought a Saturn 15 ft inflatable Kaboat used it all over with a 9.8 HP 4 stroke good boat.

Had 21 ft Scott Hudson Bay canoe with a 20 hp 4 stroke Tohatsu. Used a jack ass lift with a 8 hp on the Grumman Sport Boat and the Hudson Bay Freighter. The 20 hp was too heavy for the lift.

Had several other canoes.

Bought the Solar Inflatable Jet Boats and prefer them for the Shallow rocky rivers of South Central Alaska, Fish trout in the AK lakes
in a Inflatable Kayak with electric trolling motor.

My feedback on canoes I have used here in Maine:

17' MichiCraft (doubled ender aluminum). I like it more than a 17 ft Grumman, as it has sponsons. These are bulbous areas formed into the hull just above the waterline, about 6" high x 10' long on each side. Adds significant stiffness to the hull, and increases stability, as it makes the canoe about 2" wider ( 1" /side) down low where it counts. Aluminum is 0.050" thick ("heavy duty"). Some Grummans have 0.040" or 0.050" thick aluminum, as noted in their model number("1740"= 17' with 0.040". Vs "1750" = 17' with 0.050"). I prefer the 0.050" thick models, heavier yes, but more durable.

19' Grumman square stern (aluminum) Light (0.040" thick material), hauls a lot, I use a 4 HP 2-stroke on mine. Great canoe. Hauls ~1000 lbs. Discontinued model. Get one if you see one.

20' Grumman double ender (aluminum): A true beast. Heavy gauge aluminum (0.050" thick), 40" beam, , high sides (a lot of freeboard for a canoe), weighs about 120 lbs, very stable. I use a side mounted 1980 Johnson 4 HP 2-stroke, (32 lbs), but is rated for 7.5 (?) HP. Love it. Not made anymore, and hard to find. Grab one if you can. Got mine for $450 in good shape last year. They typically are in the $800-$1200++ range.

Note, if you use a side-mounted motor on a double ender canoe, make sure you use a side-mounted counter weight up front. You want the canoe to be level, especially when making a sharp turn to the motor side (reduces chance of swamping/ water over the side). Also, if you are alone in the canoe (with a motor), bring at least two 5:gallon buckets (with lids) to fill with water and put up front to level you off. You will "squat" in a canoe, with your body weight way back, which isn't good for a lot of reasons (reduced visibility, less freeboard in the stern/unsafe, less fuel efficient, the high bow acts like a sail, and moves you around in the wind). You can use rocks too, or instead.

I had an aluminum 17" Grumman square stern (0.050" thick). Another great canoe. My brother needed it. and still has it. Handles a 2-stroke 4hp well, but it does great with a Honda 2.4 HP 4-stroke.

Old Town Canoe makes several 17' ABS/Royalex (Royalex no longer made) polyethylene canoes. A favorite for the Allagash Waterway in Maine is the 20' Tripper XL. Hard to find, and usually start at $1000+++ used. Hauls about 75 % of what a similar sized aluminum canoe hauls.

For trailered canoes , I have owned a (fiberglass) Scott Canoe 22.5' James Bay freighter. A great big water canoe, hauls 2000+ lbs (sold it, loved it, but bigger/heavier than I needed), and currently own/use a (fiberglass) Scott Canoe 21' Hudson Bay freighter canoe (8 HP). If you will be dragging over rocks, you don't want a fiberglass canoe (not durable for that).

Never have been in a 15' Grumman Sportboat. Could be a good option.

Hope you can find a 19-20" Grumman, but a good 17 footer will serve you wel, particularly a square stern model, if you can find one - if you intend to mount a motor.

My 2c.

MichiCraft: https://www.meyersboat.com/#/michicraft/models.html

Grumman: https://www.marathonboat.com/grumman-canoes

Hey buttstock, very informative post thanks. I have both the 17' Sq stern Grumman and 19' Sq stern Grumman. Mb

Yep I've outgrown my 22 footer. I want to be able to put 15-20 malamutes in a freighter and run cross the sound and up the kobuk river. Or down the Yukon and up the koyukuk. I need that type of load capacity in shallow water or big water.

So 28 ft long x 6 ft wide x 4 ft sides x 5 ft bow Freighter Canoe powered with a big 40-50 horse mud motor. None of that Canadian garbage wouldn't last half a second with that kind of weight while hitting rocks or gravel riffle.

I've about had enough of interior road-system Alaska. It's a fkn joke: suburbia cock suckers everywhere, mining trucks spun out on my hill, military convoys crashing all over my hill, non-stop sonic booms from the fighter jets, and non stop noise from the helicopters.

For the ill-equipped running canadian-cu nt-canoes, here's what a real canoe hull looks like (customer Andrew's boat):

Brought to you courtesy, of the red white and blue. This big dog will bite, if you rattle his cage......


Gawd dmn it, I got that Toby Keith song stuck in my head.

Mainer,
If you decide to travel up the Koyukuk you might be surprised by the lack of rocks. I traveled up the Koyukuk to the Huslia and beyond (several times) and every time we bottomed out we hit nothing but mud.
Great work on the canoes.

Mainer, are those canoes fiberglass or one of the more exotic materials?
Cool looking boats.
I like the amount of tumblehome in the aft portion. There more I see those mud motors the more I like the concept.

I like the design of that red freighter. The bow is relatively low. For solely MY opinion, the only thing that would make it more appealing to ME is a true "proud" bow ( vertical, not curved back/round like a typical purposeless canoe bow). The red freighter's bow is pretty close to vertical ( maybe it is, but the angle doesn't reveal it). That is just personal preference. Most freighter curved-back bows are just too high, interfering with visibility.

Do you have a kevlar skid plate on the forward keel area (wear protection when beaching on gravel)?

I really like "big red".

Biaxial cloth, marine foam core, epoxy resin.

No keels like that brittle polyseter resin scott garbage, that stupidity grinds away on rocks and gravel hence the need for kevlar maxi-pads.

The bottoms are either coated with 1/4" umhw, or coated with 6 coats of Teflon impregnated epoxy bottom paint. Always slick as fk, ready for war on drought condition rivers. Always throttling down, to launch over a gravel piles to get to another channel of water I'd prefer to be on.

Tig welded, cnc cut 1/4" exoskeleton aluminum transom over the biaxial/epoxy/foam core transoms. Overbuilt, because we Alaskans run an insane amount of gravel/dirt to get where we put-in. Very hard on the transoms.

Polyester and plywood transoms, wtf scott?! Also, pop-rivited c-channel rubbish over the tops of those pigs adorned with glossy, lipstick gelcoat. Or the all-plastic-transom rubbish on those esquif jokes. Built by half-assed, trudeau-lovin mother fkers.

Buttstock, you dont know, what you dont know.

Shut the fk up and learn from an old Alaskan man like customer Lonnie. They are a different breed than you comfortable, neighborhood types. Ole Lonnie is about your age:

Mainer, you're ready to go back to the wilderness? You sure? You're getting old!
There's a nice camp up the hog river. Guy that owned it passed some years ago. His widow sold it to the mine owners near there. Might be able to wrangle a deal with them to use that camp. I landed there once, winter time. Met the wife. Long time ago.
Ever heard of the Pah River? Up the Kobuk R. comes in from the south. I was up there once with some guys from Kobuk. Pretty remote.
Probably be better off if you just went back to Kotz. Find a good woman your age who's family has a camp over on the Noatak side.
If you put 20 malemutes in a big canoe and run a few hours, you'll only have 15 when you get there! Stupid fighting hairy hounds!
Gas is 7 to over 10 bucks a gallon in most of rural Alaska.

Some nice water craft there Mariner, apparently there's a lot more than just pottery happening around Tenderfoot!

And maybe thats done?

Spent some time with a sport boat on the Charlie, didn't get real far, had a lift and a bigger OB than we should have, it was interesting.

Sport boats are 19' square sterns with 4 feet whacked off, not sure there is any real advantage over a 19 other than more flotation in the rear.

Mainer,
What is the secret to getting the 1/4" umhw to stay attached?

Arthritis

Martentrapper, you are the ultimate wingman. You used to be such a grumpasoraus-rex.

Now that youre married to a good woman and getting laid, you fkn ROCK!

Sht yeah, give me a call when you're free. That hog river place may be a lead worth looking into. Gawd dmn you have some good ideas.

Mainer,

Don't know why you are attacking me. I complimented the red freighter, love the lines. Don't get it.

If you didn't like my offering to the OP about easy to haul lake fishing canoes, then again I don't get it. I replied and offered what I experienced in the criteria he provided. He wasn't planning on going over gravel, just lake fishing for now. He didn't want to drop $5-6k on a boat at this time.

I have owned and used Scott Hudson Bay and James Bay freighters. Sold them both. I don't like their design of fiberglass keels ( hollow, with encased aluminum rods in them to add "stiffness"). Both my port and starboard "side keels" cracked, due to boat flex. Water got in tbem. Froze, and created a bigger problem. Had to fiberglass the keels inside and out, and put down 4 more layers inside to reduce hull flex on the bottom. I've encounter a half dozen Scott Hudson Bay freighter owners with the same expanding ice keel cracking issue due to the hollow keel area cracking due to hull flex ( quite a bit of flex on the floor a foot behind the front seat). I've heard that Scott got away from hands laid glass and started using chopped, spewed glass ( lower cost and faster to produce. Not good)

In attempt to address the water in the hollow keel area freezing and cracking I drilled a 1/8" hole at the front and rear of each hollow side keel (on the inside) in order to let water drain out before freezing/expansion (bow /trailer front lifted way up. It helped, but I decided to go "all in, and just make the keels solid-then added 4 layers on top for stiffness. Still didn't like it, and I sold it. It is a better boat now, than it's original configuration.


I also expoxyed half-round stain!ess on the port/starboard keel tips and the center/main keel. It's better protection if you beach it, but the area in between them is still soft fiberglass.

There aren't a lot of freighter canoe options out there to buy. I'd prefer a high-sided battue-style 22-24 foot long freighter, made from 0.100" welded aluminum, but I don't see anything like it on the market. Call it a longer, less beamy jon boat

Don't know why you jumped ugly on me. I never criticized you or your methods. I enjoyed the moose hunting video. Thanks for sharing it.

Woah buttstock, eat some fresh brookies and fiddleheads. Calm down, there are more lessons to come.

Yep, those fking aluminum tubes for keels are foolish. I've been at this since before Scott canoe went out of business. I've repaired many of them pieces of brittle sht.

A bunch of unoriginal bums, cloned the design. Must suck to be unoriginal........

Barry retired owner of Two Rivers (when it was in Medway) is one of em. Called it the "maine freighter" what a joke. That morbidly fat fk could barely walk across a flat parking lot without losing his breath, but you'd think he was Daniel boone himself.

Buttstock, lesson number 2:

A truly remarkable, gifted writer, adventurous gal from Maine bought an 18 footer from me. Her and her helper ran that dmn thing over 870 river miles from Nenana to ARCTIC VILLAGE?! Most of that was running UP RIVER. She has lived in more remote places than I can keep track. I'd imagine she has about 6,000 hours on her mud motor.

I'm still shocked by what she did:

https://chasingpiggens.com/adventures/tanana-yukon-chandalar-2017/