Just in time while it’s still summer, completed a DIY project modifying my dad’s old square stern 17-foot Sportspal fishing canoe for rowing.
Off-the-shelf & scrounged materials included:
- Sliding seat + rail scavenged from an old rowing exercise machine
- Off-cut top tube from a steel fence + some re-sized clamps
- 3/8-inch carriage bolts, washers & nuts
- 1/4-inch U-clamps, washers & nuts
- 4-inch ring clamps
Special for rowing items purchased included:
- Pair of 8-foot oars with leather wrap and stopper ring
- Pair of oar lock horns
- Acetal sheet off-cut (atrociously expensive material)
Provided everything holds together, I’ll be able to “row, row, row the boat” up and down the Credit River with friends and relatives enjoying the scenery from the bow and stern seats (two at a time) …
As a renowned fisher who plied the waves of Marian Lake (about 40 miles north of North Bay, Ontario) for some fifty years and who had the reputation of never returning to camp empty-handed, I’m not sure my dad would have approved of my re-purposing his trusty fishing canoe for sightseeing excursions …
However, except for turning around the bow thwart so the bend better corresponds to the rower’s backside at the end of the stroke, no modifications were made to the canoe itself.
In fact, the outriggers together with the sliding seat rail can be disconnected and removed by undoing just 4 pipe clamps!
