She’s Been Special
I went to throw the canoe up on the truck. The date scrawled on the side caught my attention and took me back in time, “built by dwight yoder 1997”. The fiberglass and epoxy that held the wood together, also preserved the writing underneath. We've been on lots of trips together, she and I. But it started in ‘97.
I was working for John Diller, world renowned canoe designer and builder. John mostly built high end racing canoes, but at the time was designing a recreational tripping boat that would be superb on long canoe trips, qualify as a recreational canoe in recreational racing classes, and would be fast enough to win races when it was used in a race. After a lot of pencil pushing, John came up with a design that he dubbed the Blackhawk.
I was paddling a Coleman RamX at the time. Those things were tough, heavy and floated, but that was about it. John jokingly referred to it as the bathtub. Along with the jokes, he made an offer where if I bought the supplies and did the work, he would let me build and have the prototype for the Blackhawk.
To help you understand what canoe building entails, just a bit, let me dig a little deeper.
Most recreational canoes these days are made of plastic which is poured into some sort of roto mold and spun out until it hardens. But the higher end canoes are laid up by hand with different composites such as carbon fiber and kevlar and other specialty materials. These materials are laid up in a mold and wetted out and saturated in epoxy. The mold is built from a plug. The plug is a lot of wood strips laid up precisely over a wooden framework, and then covered with fiberglass, sanded immaculately smooth and then covered with a release agent, after which thick layers of fiberglass and epoxy is laid. This becomes the mold. A seam is also built into the mold that allows it to be removed in two halves after it cures. It's a lot of work but this mold can then be used to make hundreds of composite boats.
The prototype is basically made the same way as the plug except that lighter wood, preferably cedar is used and it is covered with a clear fiberglass. After it is covered with clear glass it is removed from the framework and the inside is sanded and glassed and what you have is a lightweight and most beautiful canoe, one that floats like a feather and is a pleasure to handle. If the prototype is a good one, then you make a plug, just like the original canoe, and then build the mold from that.
I took John up on his offer. It was probably the best deal I ever made. Not only did I get to learn the art of wood canoe building, but the prototype was a great one. I ended up with an awesome canoe that has taken me places and allowed me to experience things that can only be experienced by paddling a canoe.
After making sure that the Blackhawk was seaworthy, I talked my cousin Mark into heading out for some adventure. Since there was still snow on the ground here in the mountains, we headed to the Florida Everglades. When we finally got to the Everglades there was a Small Craft Advisory in effect. We camped for a day and paddled through some smaller swampy stuff, but we really wanted to get into the Everglades. To do so meant that we needed to paddle across Chokoloskee Bay. Day two still had strong winds and the Small Craft Advisory. The ranger station was firm in its position of not allowing canoes to launch from their ramp. At the time, we didn't know how dumb and naive we were, but we realized that our vacation time was slipping away and so we found a different place to launch from. I remember those scary couple of hours of trying to keep our canoe at 45 degrees to the waves as we paddled hard over swale after swale and in the calmer spots bailed water out of the canoe with our hats. Somehow we made it across the bay and it became a week of great memories.
Since then, that canoe has been on lots of trips, floating down rivers, lakes, and saltwater bays. Scratched, beaten, and even busted a time or two. Duct tape always works while on a trip, at least until you have time to fix it right. I've totally re-fiberglassed it once and varnished it numerous times. I've redone the caned seats. But all in all it still looks great and paddles like a dream.
It's taken us to so many places and I have so many good memories with it, that I wouldn't trade that boat for anything. Those memories of kids napping while we paddled on lazy rivers, to the excitement of faster waters or even the memory of a canoe trip on the eastern shore and a shark coming up as we were thrashing our paddles in an attempt to go faster. Or those times where it served as a table top along some distant shore, or even propped up as an impromptu rain shelter when getting caught in a downpour.
A couple of years after building the canoe I met Jenelle. We paddled a time or two or three and loved to spend our time floating around on the Savage. Jenelle would read her book, while I paddled around and fished or checked out the rocks along the bank. When we got married the canoe somehow became an important part of our wedding day. Although it was only meant to be a fun little extra for making our wedding special, it turned into a significant ceremony, because as we paddled away from the reception, somehow it became a launching point of the biggest and best trip of my life.
This past Saturday was our anniversary of 22 years of marriage. That was the reason that I was loading up the canoe in the first place. We packed some dinner and put our wedding album in a dry bag and headed down to the Savage. It wasn't anything fancy. Just some solid time for the two of us, eating our dinner by the lake, looking at our wedding album and laughing at our younger selves, missing the people that are no longer with us, and just remembering the journey. Like every marriage, ours hasn't been perfect. We've had some unintentional scratches and we've had to re-varnish things a time or two. But it's been a really good journey, and packed full of so many good memories. Memories of funny things the kids have done or said, vacations we've gone on, camping, cross country skiing, road trips and backyard ventures. Canoeing in Florida, Boundary Waters, Breton Bay and a triad of other spots. Or the time we thought it would be neat to leave our wedding reception in a canoe. Now that was one of the best. That old Blackhawk has been special, but even more than that old canoe, well, I wouldn't trade my life with Jenelle for anything!
If you are looking to buy a great canoe, the Blackhawk is still available from Savage River Works. Although my canoe is made of cedar, several different composite layups are still being built. John is pretty much retired but his son Ben continues to run the business. Checkout the Blackhawk at https://www.savageriver.com/
If you are wishing for a better marriage, yours is definitely worth working on! For the most part, Jenelle and I have been blessed with a good marriage. But like every marriage, we've had our times, our bumps and scratches. Your marriage is definitely worth taking care of! Some of the things that have helped us along the way are giving lots of grace to each other, forgiving each other, spending time together on walks and talks, discussing and praying for our kids and their lives as well as our own, and sharing our exciting moments and disappointments with each other. And I'm still trying to be a better listener. Oh, and canoeing together definitely helps as well. You can't get anywhere in a canoe if you're paddling without being aware of what your partner is doing.
Another crucial part is being willing to be stretched and ironed. A wrinkled up shirt that just sits in a corner pretty much remains wrinkled.
So we've also taken the time to attend marriage retreats and counseling.
Here are a couple of links to some of those retreats that can better your marriage as well.
