Paddlers?

[motocrash]

I know you're out there...
I'm an avid paddler of the many local rivers and creeks here. Thought I'd share a few pics.

Cacapon River, Caudy's Castle
See interesting story below.

Shenandoah River (Main Stem) In my circle we call this section "The Doah" as it is downstream from the North Fork and the South Fork, which are refered to as such. Interestingly enough most all of the rivers and creeks around here flow north and into the Potomac.

Deer crossing the 'Doah. Crappy pic, but you can see'em. There were 2 more that spotted us and went back into the woods.

Back Creek, named such because it is behind (west) of North Mountain, which was "the outskirts" of civilization then.
Back creek is 1.5 miles to my put in bridge from home and it can be floated to Shanghai and beyond! Shanghai, WV

My "Birthday Party" last year, also Back Creek.

My boats:
Old Town Discovery 158 - Trippin', general canoe
Elie 8' kayak - Creekin', day trip boat
Old Town Next - Solo Hybrid canoe, hasn't seen the water yet.

Thanks for lookin'.
Post up some pics of your paddling adventures....

 

[mr_whipple]

Awesome pics.... Let me get back with the pics of my adventures of the last long time! Done the James, Rapidan/Rappahannock, New, Shenandoah etc for many years but I have to admit it's been a while since my backside was in a beautiful flowing Virginia river in either a canoe or a yak. Good times!!!!!

 

[chopsaw]

Awesome thread Bill . I have nothing to add , but those are beautiful pictures .

 

[pc farmer]

Beautiful pictures. Thanks for sharing

 

[JLeonard]

Great pics! Thanks for sharing.
Jim

 

[BBQ Bird]

Great pics. I went to high school with a guy named Shenandoah and everyone called him "Doah"....he didn't like it very much.

 

[yankee2bbq]

Cool pictures. Beautiful scenery.
I enjoy kayaking. Don’t do enough of it. I live near 3 rivers and two lakes. One river is the Buffalo National River. The sites are unreal. Here is a few pictures of me kayaking Crooked Creek, and branch of the White River.

 

[6GRILLZNTN]

Awesome pics. Yakin on a pretty river is a slice of heaven. Caney Fork last fall with my Jackson Cruise 10.

 

[TNJAKE]

Awesome pics. Yakin on a pretty river is a slice of heaven. Caney Fork last fall with my Jackson Cruise 10.
View attachment 657637View attachment 657638

Caney is beautiful but too cold for us lol. Nice trout though

 

[civilsmoker]

Moto, here is a paddler pic for you…… this is a concrete canoe….. 20 ft and is @ 80lbs. My wife and me have paddled this one in the Potomac many many moons ago……

Black purple pearl coat paint…..

Both the pics are taken at George Washington University

 

[motocrash]

Let me get back with the pics of my adventures of the last long time!

Thanks man, can't wait to see your pics!

Awesome thread Bill . I have nothing to add , but those are beautiful pictures .

Thanks Rich, I'm not the best photographer, but getting better.

Beautiful pictures. Thanks for sharing

Thanks Adam, I love to be on the water.

 

[motocrash]

Great pics! Thanks for sharing.

Thank you Jim. I have many more and will soon take more.

Great pics. I went to high school with a guy named Shenandoah and everyone called him "Doah"....he didn't like it very much.

Thanks. Interesting name, where did you go to school?

Cool pictures. Beautiful scenery.
I enjoy kayaking. Don’t do enough of it.

Nice pics! Thanks man, get on the water!
I sometimes have a hard time getting my buddies together when the conditions are good - water level and weather. Seems the lawn and such is more important. That B... S... can wait!

 

[motocrash]

Awesome pics. Yakin on a pretty river is a slice of heaven. Caney Fork last fall with my Jackson Cruise 10.

Your pics are beautiful too. Yeah, floatin' touches my soul. Shangri La.
A late friend of mine was a Jackson paddler.

this is a concrete canoe

I must know more about an 80Lb concrete racing canoe!

 

[mr_whipple]

Ok.... I scrounged up a few from over the years. Not sure where all my digital pics are but you get the idea. I bought my Manta Ray 12 in 2011 right before I retired from the navy, and man have I put some miles on it in a lotta places here in Virginia. Before that it was always an Old Towne canoe we used.

In no particular order

The Nottoway River is gorgeous and very undeveloped. This is somewhere north of Courtland, or for the ol' timers New Jerusalem.

Me and my road dog's mango Tarpon 120 heading out somewhere to fish....

More Nottoway, but closer to Emporia and Stony Creek.

Back Bay Wildlife Refuge.

James River, somewhere down river of Bent Creek

More James...

Laurel Bed Lake on top of Clinch Mountain. Awesome smallie fishing.

North Fork of the Holston right in Saltville.

More Laurel Bed

Here's the Blackwater River... just outside of Windsor on the Isle of Wight / Southampton county line.

Been playing around in the waters of Virginia for a long time... I hate to think of the day when I can't do it anymore.

 

[civilsmoker]

I must know more about an 80Lb concrete racing canoe!

Well, it is constructed out of a composite polymer modified concrete panel that was 5/8" thick. The panel had a 3/32 inch outside layer with 10K PSI ceramic micro hollow bead aggregate and the cured concrete weighed in at 60lbs/ft, ie it would float by itself... it had an alkaline resistant fiberglass micro grid reinforcement embedded in each outside layer. The panel core was what we called chocolate mousse, which was a 500 to 800 psi with silica spear aggregate (super toxic stuff) and alkaline resistant fiberglass micro mesh (3 layers at 1/8 spacing). This panel was crazy strong... The panel was through the bottom and through to hull radius where it transitioned to a 3/16-inch side then up to a 1.5" radial gunnel with a mouse core. There were strategic 1/2-inch composite panels placed at key stress points and for paddlers seats.

The actual hull design was developed with 3D modeling and scale model (many models) tested in a controlled water flume to measure and determine drag and flow efficiency. We did extensive research and testing on laminar flow/vs turbulent flow aft of the wide point to reduce overall drag. If you look closely at the picture of the bottom you will see a "rough" area just aft of the wide point that causes a localized low pressure (turbulence) which moved the point of laminar flow separation 42" further aft on the canoe. We calculated that this would yield almost a full knot at racing speed. The principle is similar to flaps of a wing to extend the wing length and shape to get lift. Many high-tech aircraft have wing panels that do similar things as well, it's just very very guarded on the design side of things.....

This was part of the annual Civil Engineering Concrete Canoe competition, our canoe took 3rd best in the nation that year, the report was 8th and our overall team with racing was 12th. However, as an undergrade, I did a 4-credit independent research project documenting the design of composite panels and overcoming the stress transition between composite panel to mono panel which we did on the canoe.....IE this transition point has to be done at the right place because the internal moment stresses of a composite panel will go to infinite at the transition if the forces aren't balanced by geometry and load path isolation/redirection.......

Oh, and just in case you are wondering, not counting the labor, it cost 12K to build almost 29 years ago! We had to raise all the funds ourselves......

Oh and you did ask to hear more about it.......

 

[motocrash]

mr_whipple Awesome pics man! Of all the rivers you named, I've only been on the New and the James.

 

[motocrash]

civilsmoker Yeah, I asked, and your answer was what I was expecting and hoping for, a full explanation. Very cool !

 

[civilsmoker]

civilsmoker Yeah, I asked, and your answer was what I was expecting and hoping for, a full explanation. Very cool !

Thanks, oh and I will add as we were doing the laminar flow testing and research we found that for the induced low pressure to work, it had to be in front of the separation point about 12 inches, if it was 16 inches is didn't do anything, if it was less than or at the point it wasn't very effective, on our canoe the 12 inches was like magic, it had sleek flow lines.... It was a beautiful canoe to paddle! It sat on display for some time in the engineering building and after about 3 years of hard use as a practice canoe it self-destructed

 

[Murray]

Self-destructed? I would have thought that canoe would last a lifetime. I’m guessing there’s more to the story…

 

[civilsmoker]

Self-destructed? I would have thought that canoe would last a lifetime. I’m guessing there’s more to the story…

Concrete is very strong in compression, but not at all in tension ie the need for reinforcement. A canoe cycles through compression to tension load frequently and they experience very large point loads and stresses. A 20 ft Kevlar is typically 80 plus lbs but epoxy resin has very good tensile strength and has flex qualities..... two things concrete is NOT.

The moral of the story is making a concrete canoe isn't an easy thing to do and they are very "fragile" by the nature of use.....espesially with college students, ie transporting it sticking out of the back of a truck unsupported and such.... Many of these canoes don't last much longer than the competition....so I was way impressed it lasted as long as it did.... selfishly I would have like it to have it preserved on display at the school since it the only time the school has been to the national competition.

The ironic thing is it was named "Black Magic" ie which is the same name of the New Zealand vessel (build out of carbon fiber) that bested the American "Young America" vessel in the America's cup that year (1995) ..... We didn't know the name connection at the time.....but I did watch the races....

At the time I was a crew member on a J-22 race team and did "off shore distance" races on a C&C 27, so our hull design was closely modeled after a sail hull....Just look at the lines of the two Black Magics (above and below)......