May 06, 2013 - The other day we were busy right up to darkness but the evening was so nice I decided I was going to go camping, by jove, anyway. My saying is "Events conspire." They conspire to stop me from doing a lotta things. Try to do something and watch other things rise up and stop it. So sometimes ya just gotta do it anyway even if it's a li...
April 28, 2013 - I've been long inculcated with the racing side of paddling fever. I love a stripped-down maximally lightweight fast boat. Well, I've come to see that there's more to a canoe than that.
Like, if you go out for over an hour, it's nice to have a snack or a bev. It's also fun to decorate a boat a bit, why not.
I did an adventur...
April 28, 2013 - The 14th Annual Hugh Heward Canoe Challenge, hosted by the Verlen Kruger Memorial, went off with eclat and aplomb on a gorgeous day yesterday.
The usual pattern seemed to hold true: most boats chose the ultimate 50 mile distance, a "Full Hugh." Fewer did the Half and fewest did the Quarter. Probably 70 or so paddlers in all wer...
April 21, 2013 - I went on a canoe outing yesterday with a group of guys who've been paddling together for 30 years, since before some of them were born. It's a multi-generation group that grows from 10 to 20 depending on the outing. They have an original outing in mid-Feb up north on the Pine River for a few days. Snow, straw bales, tents and cano...
March 22, 2013 - Knocking on Death's Door
Robert Mosher's log of a Door Peninsula Cruise, August 27-29, 2010 (More Pictures Will be Added Soon)
...
'I am not afraid of danger, I have knocked on danger's door and run away'. the Goon Show as I remember it.
Seagoon - The Internal Mountain:
"My name is Lord Hairy Seagoon, doctor of Philos...
March 20, 2013 - I've tended to think of canoes and kayaks as separate from small boats. Small boats go on trailers and are super-versatile but heavy. Canoes and kayaks are more specific and focused in function.
I'm considering changing this view.
I suppose that means I need a semi-decked Kruger Seawind type of boat.
Mostly I'm pondering ...
March 20, 2013 - I'm thinking 12 feet long, fast lines but with some rocker, kevlar. 15 lbs? Perfect for standup in twisty, narrow, clogged waters where you're in and out a lot.
November 15, 2012 - Here's an absurdly long video of Flatwater Canoe Poling, Scootering and Boatocross that Tom and I did last summer. 18 minutes! I'll try to chop it down to 2 min's when I can. I already spent an hour editing it down from an hour. I suppose I just got mesmerized.
I suppose just forward around the thing.
...There's a Grand F...
August 23, 2012 - New canoe technique invented! -- "Scootering." When you hit some shallows, put a foot out, kick off the bottom and GLIDE! It's fun and works great. If kids tried it awhile I bet they could do it without holding onto the gunnels -- I'm almost to that point.
Keep other foot in center of hull. And let kicking foot fling back out ...
July 15, 2012 - Whenever I've gone on a bike tour I always end up fantasizing about boating. In particular I dream about combining biking and boating. Say if the day is windy, if I'm riding downwind along a coast I think that I could be just sailing along. ...What if I had my 25-lb kevlar C1 canoe and used it as a trailer to pull behind a 25-lb fol...
May 29, 2012 - Canoes just aren't fast. I suppose I should just accept it. Still, it might help us appreciate the situation if we take a look at the speeds of various types of canoes. It's worse than I thought.
Here's a canoe pal's estimate:
Racing canoe: 4.5mph
Fast sport canoe: 4
Cruiser: 3.5
Tourer: 3
This is when these are paddled ...
May 15, 2012 - Supreme canoe paddling tip: Reach forward with both upper hand and lower hand. Arms straightish. Rotate to reach. Hit it hardest at the catch. Drop upper hand inward to lift blade out to the side at hip. Don't bend arms much. --This method saves energy and makes a boat go much easier/faster for a given effort. You can also tilt forwa...
May 14, 2012 - We had a blast canoe racing a couple days ago as the finale of our neighborhood Adventure Race.
It was a several-mile leg that really challenged our skills. We had four teams and all boats and paddlers had differing skillsets -- it was neat to see it all play out.
The river was VERY challenging -- very twisty with 3 portages ...
May 09, 2012 - I have a hunch that many SUPers are going to start to want a board that will keep their stuff dry and maybe let them easily bring another person along and will go faster. It won't matter so much if it gets blown around so much because it'll be used on inland rivers.
I think SUPs will always stick around but that a side-niche will...
May 02, 2012 - I'm wondering about what's a good canoe for a long day paddle.
Say you want to paddle 30-50 miles in a day.
With a pretty long lightweight canoe you'd be tempted to paddle with a faster stroke-rate and a bit more 'pop'. Such a boat would be fast. And it would glide an "x" amount per stroke.
Now consider a bit longer of a boa...
May 01, 2012 - OK, Tim Feldkamp and I paddled the full 50-mile Hugh Heward Canoe Challenge last Saturday. I was still tired on Sunday and creaky on Monday. Whew!
We had a dandy time. It took us 10 hours. The river was pretty slow and clear. But nice'n'clear in many places. Our onboard GPS said we were going 5.5-7mph most of the day.
I really...
April 24, 2012 - This Saturday is the annual "big canoe day" for Michigan paddle-tourers -- a rare chance to do a 50-miler with friends.
About 100 people do it. I've done it and posted several times about it here. I plan on being there again this year! I'm going to partner for the first time with Tim Feldkamp in his superduper carbon Hassel rac...
March 24, 2012 - Dang, here's another new sport for us to enjoy and develop!
Man, these things are everywhere if you just open your eyes.
Here we have a culture where outdoor activity seems to be bizarrely shrinking in some ways and booming in others. Yet there's so much room every which way for more fun, creativity and growth.
The rule ...
March 05, 2012 - Two big small boat races are currently under way in Florida: the 300-mile Everglades Challenge and the 1200-mile Ultimate Florida.
I missed the start notice.
WaterTribe is a series of challenges for 6 classes of canoes/kayaks (with and without sails), sailboats and multihulls. There's a new class for electric-assist.
Ther...
February 03, 2012 - Mark it on your calendar to go to the site and follow the news and action online via the Spots and report-in's.
300 miles self-supported around the Florida peninsula by canoe, kayak, small sailboat.
It seems to take the winners and hard-chargers a few days to a week.
But then there was the year with the strong beam-r...
January 09, 2012 - Here's the various SUC and Poling concepts wrapped into one. It's the text from a story of mine that "Silent Sports" ran this November... It's a nice summary of the "Everyman" variations on SUP that I'm promoting...
Here's a link to the story on their website: http://www.silentsports.net/paddling/standup-canoeing-132990223.htm...
October 18, 2011 - Didja see the big news about the Great Lakes waves last weekend? Oct. 15-16, 2011. They were HUGE.
Check out the "wolf map" for the weekend. (I love the map of Lake Superior. It looks like a wicked wolf, don't it? Mischievous.) Notice the 25+ foot waves in the SE corner? Whoa! I would LOVE to see some freighter pics or vids f...
April 30, 2011 - Henry and I did our first big canoe day today. It weren't too big, though -- just right for him.
We did the 13-mile Quarter Hugh of the Hugh Heward Canoe Challenge -- an annual paddle on a wild'n'scenic portion of the Grand River near Lansing, commemorating the day in 1790 when HH outran hostile locals as the first white guy to...
March 21, 2011 - April 30: the Hugh Heward Canoe Challenge on the Grand River thru Lansing, MI. 50, 25, 13 mile options. Commemorate the 1790 "big day" when Hugh and his pals escaped from the Indians, paddling 50 miles on this same stretch of river. They were the first Anglos to paddle across the peninsula. About 100 paddlers will be out. The 2nd h...
January 09, 2011 - I remember seeing pics of Skijaks way back when, under the category of "goofy water sport." Well, it's been brought to my attention that they're still at it. And I suppose I'd have to give it a try before I laughed too hard. Mostly, it looks like a good way to hurt your knee/joints.
But who knows, maybe it's a bit like SUP or ...
November 18, 2010 - In slight contrast to my earlier punk-sailing link, here's one to a vid from the gurus of simple, classic, smallboat living: Lin & Larry Pardey. They've lived for decades on the seas around the world, in a wood boat (or two...always designed by Lyle Hess), without an engine. Their first book, "Cruising in Serrafyn" was an inspir...
November 11, 2010 - Here's my new favorite adventure movie...
Moxie Marlinspike and his 3 pals find an abandoned, trashed sailboat, fix it up, name it the "Pestilence," of all things, and sail the high seas through the Caribbean and such. What a story! What filmmaking! I'm in awe. These kids ROCK TOTALLY. They peg the meter.
Man, when I fir...
October 19, 2010 - Last weekend Henry and his pal went out with me and took some pics and video of me doing canoe poling and stand-up canoeing on the Red Cedar river down the street.
The autumn foliage was spectacular. The kids did a decent job of media-work, too. Although their amateur touches are easy to see and their patience quickly ran thin...
October 19, 2010 - I make myself laugh. What should this new sport of Stand-Up Canoeing be called? Lessee, there's SUP, Stand-Up Paddle surfing. Which actually doesn't make much sense. It should be SUPS, shouldn't it? Anyway, it looks like we're left with "SUC." Too bad we aren't also in punk bands. Hey, you can do it in a wide kayak with a big coc...
October 07, 2010 - ...That's what I'd like to do.
Because my extended family and friends live out west that's mostly where we've gone when our family hits the road in a bigger way.
But we have the sense that the country SE of Michigan has a whole lot to offer.
A few years ago a friend put us onto the idea of exploring the Cahokia Indian mo...
October 01, 2010 - Where's My Story?
Here's a new report on the fun sport of flatwater fast canoe poling. I had written it up years ago when I first discovered it but the link got lost on my webiste, due to malfunction. I just found it in my Backlist of old boating articles and reposted it, bumping it up to yesterday, for your amusement. ...
September 30, 2010 - [BUMP FROM 2005. It was in my Backlist of Boating articles. But It had a bad link! UGH! I thought I'd purged all those. Rats!]
CANOE POLING: Not for downeasters anymore.
For jetting the shallows, great views and an allbody workout!
by Jeff Potter
[originally published in "Messing About in Boats" magazi...
September 20, 2010 - A local guy who bikes with the TCBA also is an avid small boat sailor. That's the OYB way! In fact, I know a few other bikers who are also small-boat sailors. And at least two of them are Wayfarer buffs. And they've both sailed the little boats on the big Chesapeake Bay!
So, here's a report by mid-Michigander Robert Mosher o...
September 16, 2010 - Situation/Goal: I've long been a smallboat fan. I mostly do paddling these days. We're family of 4, with kids 10 and 12. I'd like to get us going sailing on occasion, for picnic outings and even an overnight. We live in Mid-Michigan but are starting to spend summers in Leelenau and I have inlaws near Kalamazoo (near Gun Lake, a...
August 11, 2010 - We passed this rig yesterday along the road (M37) while driving south from TC.
I don't know what it is, except versatile.
It's like the Cape Dory 14 I've seen around here, but bigger. And what's more, it has side-seating. The Dory just has a small side-seat at the back then 2 thwart-boards further up, mostly for rowing.
...
August 08, 2010 - It was blowing hard on Sutton's Bay recently and my pal and I decided not to go out in his O'Day 16 open boat. Other boats had reduced sail or were heading back in.
One little daysailor with cuddy caught my eye. It was small but they were sailing with a reef in the main. I'm no boat pro but little boats that reef aren't an eve...
August 07, 2010 - I'd like to see the return of Working Sail.
...Boats being used for something other than recreation.
Whenever I get out on the water I wish I could be doing something rather than just going back'n'forth.
Any ideas?
August 04, 2010 - While sailing in light zephyrs with a pal in a small O'Day, a Sunfish caught up to us bearing a middle-aged couple, the trim lady posed on the foredeck, as if she were on a yacht. It was cute and I said something funny. They knew my captain and we chatted. They soon tacked past our stern and were off elsewhere. My pal said "That's...
August 02, 2010 - This is old news for small boat people (last year even), but we no longer have the best small boat designer with us anymore. Phil Bolger was a tough old bird and he did things his way all the way to the end, and including the end.
He designed 650+ boats and changed the way we look at small boats.
His most recent effort is...
July 25, 2010 - I've been remiss in not letting you know about the AuSable Canoe Marathon.
It's happening RIGHT NOW!
It's easy to watch it online, so you have until about 1pm to enjoy the action.
...Or, just pretend that it didn't start yesterday and scroll through the results-updates whenever you like and watch the race unfold.
What I ...
July 25, 2010 - I'm lamely behind the ball on this sports reporting stuff this year for the Marathon. It's already over! But here are a few nifty YouTube videos to check out for some reverse inspiration...
*This one offers a bow-cam point of view of the start. Pure mayhem! Feel the fever... Watch the wipeouts...
