Noel Schutt » canoe http://schutt.org/blog Fri, 03 Feb 2012 15:07:49 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 St. Marys River Watershed Project http://schutt.org/blog/2011/07/smrwp/ http://schutt.org/blog/2011/07/smrwp/#comments Thu, 07 Jul 2011 10:32:36 +0000 Noel http://schutt.org/blog/?p=1245 After the success of the St Joseph River Watershed Initiative, its good to see that there is now a St Marys River Watershed Project. Before the SJRWI the St Joe water was so bad that it stung to touch it, now it is a good place to canoe. The St Marys Sewer River is in desperate need of a cleanup. I’ve paddled the St Marys from the Ohio border to its confluence with the St Joe to form the Maumee, and I wouldn’t recommend making this trip. In the summer there is a large visible and olfactory difference between the St Joe and St Marys rivers. In a short paddle through the confluence from the St Marys to the St Joe, the look of the water changes, the fish are swimming instead of floating, and the smell disappears. I’m hoping the SMRWP is successful and the St Marys becomes a nice healthy river.

]]> http://schutt.org/blog/2011/07/smrwp/feed/ 0 3RF canoe race http://schutt.org/blog/2008/08/3rf-canoe-race/ http://schutt.org/blog/2008/08/3rf-canoe-race/#comments Wed, 27 Aug 2008 03:14:22 +0000 Noel http://schutt.org/blog/?p=35 I just found a Journal-Gazette article on the Three Rivers Festival Canoe and Kayak Races. I haven’t been able to canoe much this summer, so I was very slow. It was still a fun race. It looks like it will be my only canoe race this year. At least I have been able to bike a lot this summer.

]]> http://schutt.org/blog/2008/08/3rf-canoe-race/feed/ 0 Bamboo canoe http://schutt.org/blog/2008/04/bamboo-canoe/ http://schutt.org/blog/2008/04/bamboo-canoe/#comments Tue, 08 Apr 2008 14:20:05 +0000 Noel http://schutt.org/blog/2008/04/bamboo-canoe/ Last night I received a link to a story about a canoe built of recycled chopsticks. This is an interesting idea, but I wonder about the durability. Granted, that isn’t the point of a project like this, but I like paddling canoes, not just looking at them. It seems that all the extra joints are extra potential failure points. But, this project does raise the idea of building a canoe from larger bamboo sections. I looked up the density of bamboo, and it is comparable to cedar. From the Forest Products Labratory:

Although bamboo is a grass, its hardness, strength, and dimensional stability make it a useful building material. Large species of bamboo, which mature in 3 years, regenerate without being replanted, and require no fertilizer or pest control, have been used in construction projects for thousands of years. . . . At least eight companies now import the material, claiming hardness and dimensional stability properties that compare favorably with those of red oak and other common hardwoods.

It should be possible to build a classic cedar strip style canoe using bamboo. Cost difference shouldn’t really matter in a project like this, because the major investment is time.

A bamboo canoe would make a great addition to a bamboo bike.

]]> http://schutt.org/blog/2008/04/bamboo-canoe/feed/ 2