The more time we spend in the pedal canoe, the more natural it becomes switching between pedal, paddle or sail just depending on the situation. Mixing pedal and paddle is especially fun for maneuvering. For the record, sail trolling has never gone well for me, but that doesn’t seem to stop me from continuing...
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Video: Self-rescue practice in the pedal drive solo canoe
I still don’t understand if it’s really possible to self rescue a solo canoe? Here I’m doing some self rescue practice with the smaller of the two pedal drive prototypes. It’s not really much different than doing the same thing without the pedal drive, although it is a little more dicey because it’s hard...
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Video: Sail testing the pedal drive canoe
I’m playing a little game today. Wind picks up sail goes up, wind dies down, sail comes down, petal Drive goes in. I even managed to clock a few miles with the Bixby electric motor. There’s definitely worse things to do with one’s time… ___ This post was originally featured on our Instagram feed....
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Video: “We probably should have learned how to paddle the canoe before filming ourselves doing it”
Actual quote from this paddle: “We probably should have learned how to paddle the canoe before filming ourselves doing it.” The reality is we’ve done almost all of our canoeing in solos, which limits my tandem experience to Boy Scouts and Liz’s to none. I wish I had an audio recorder running the entire...
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Video: Transforming the pedal drive canoe back to a “regular” canoe
Here we are transforming the pedal drive canoe back into an ordinary canoe. The finished results ends up about 3 pounds heavier than the same canoe without pedal drive capability, which isn’t too bad. In the original prototype all these parts collectively weighed about 5 pounds more, so we’re definitely making progress. ___ This...
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Video: Thoughts on using the latest solo/tandem pedal drive canoe
Some thoughts on using the latest solo/tandem pedal drive canoe prototype in solo mode: I love paddling/pedaling this boat! I was afraid that the pedal drive would steal some of the magic of normal canoeing, but it turns out that it’s just a different flavor of addictive. With no paddle tipping in the water...
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Video: Crashing the canoe into an underwater dam
The audio from this clip is quite entertaining, but despite two very frustrating hours of trying I just can’t get it to upload. This was our first time at this particular lake, and we were not aware of the remnants of an old dam just below the surface. The pedal drive fins kick up...
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Video: Underwater view of the Mirage Drive
I’ll definitely get more and better footage of this later but I just wanted to share a quick clip showing how the Hobie Mirage Drive works and what happens when it hits submerged obstacles. This is of course the kick up version, it’s more expensive, but I wouldn’t even consider not purchasing this style....
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Video: A cool feature of the new tandem pedal drive canoe
A cool feature of the new tandem pedal drive canoe is that it can be pedaled from either seat if used in conjunction with a reversible Mirage drive. Here I’m pedaling in reverse (Liz is facing forward and steering with the rudder) then I pull the forward lever and Liz pulls the drive and...
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Video: First trip in the new pedal drive prototype
First trip in the new pedal drive prototype was exceedingly pleasant, if not quite perfect. Just a recap of yesterday’s post, this new version is 33” wide and 15’6” long and can be used as a day trip tandem for lighter paddlers, or a solo capable of carrying quite a bit of weight. I...
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Video: Walkthrough of the second pedal drive canoe prototype
The second pedal drive canoe prototype is finally finished. You haven’t seen much of this canoe yet because I had to choose between documenting the build for social media and actually creating the video course for how to build it. I really want to push this design over the line this year so I...
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Video: An on the water ergonomics check
Just another quick trip down to the river to check the fit of a new backrest design, and various other aspects of the ergonomics before I fully commit to those decisions on the current prototype. I was lucky to get a big barge wake for a little bit of rough water testing. Interestingly, the...
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Revisiting upwind skin-on-frame sailing
Over the years I’’ve built a handful of skin on frame upwind sailboats, and they worked fine, but at the end of the day I still think that plywood is the better material for the job because it’s stiffer, heavier, and you can build in watertight bulkheads. It’s also just a better match for...
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Video: “Land canoeing”
Seems like I’m spending about an hour a day in the driveway right now “land canoeing” while I try to to finalize the backrest and seating details for the next pedal drive canoe prototype. For me ergonomics are everything. ___ This post was originally featured on our Instagram feed. See the original post and...
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More progress on the new pedal drive canoe prototype
More progress on the new pedal drive canoe prototype. Started the day by opening up some oak billets that I let sit in plastic for too long, and was not surprised to find them covered in mold. Fortunately, after resawing them into ribs and rounding the edges very little of that actually remained. After...
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