A HAPPY RESULT OF WINTER CLEANING - A $700, 42lb CARBON FIBRE ALCHEMIST CANOE

There were a few abandoned canoe shells in some kind of potentially recoverable condition stored outside the 'factory' when I started helping out last year, so when Jeff did an 'inventory' of all the canoes that never made it out of the shop for some reason or other last fall - mostly 'cosmetic defects', a few 'demonstrator boats', and the odd prototype, we decided to salvage as much as we could to avoid taking anything to the dump.

Here is a perfect example. A three year old carbon kevlar shell that had blown away just after the top was cut off, and suffered from some minor structural and major cosmetic damage. I found a buyer, a friend who absolutely needed a half decent canoe that was as light as reasonably possible, yet didn't want to drop the two to three grand typically spent on a lightweight canoe. A fantastic structural repair and interior paint job by Jeff, a decent set of used gunwales, and all new interior fittings installed by me, resulted in a tough, durable carbon/kevlar boat with a final price tag of $700 and a weight of just 42.5lbs. Sweet!

H20 COMPOSITES 2009 FACTORY CLEARANCE SALE!

I finally received the Excel inventory file from Jeff, and can now begin posting information on the boats that will be offered in the first ever "H20 Composites Factory Clearance".  The list Jeff compiled includes absolutely everything that we will have available for sale, and includes prototypes, demonstrators, brand new cosmetic defects, and used, as well as a small selection of boats from other top quality manufacturers (how else does one do research sometimes?)

As this represents pretty much all existing inventory from over four years of operation, there is quite a flotilla available! There are over a dozen canoes, a few kayaks and some recreational rowing shells, and about fifteen lightweight performance racing shells available. The boats are presently either finished and ready for sale, or unfinished requireing some work prior to sale. My plan is to offer the boats for sale starting with the ones that require little finishing, or are ready to go, and as we sell those, work on finishing and selling the rest of them.

Here is a short list of the first boats to be included in the sale:

CANOES

H20 Canadian 16-6' 2009 Superlight Kevlar red/white, 46lb, new, cosmetic blem and repair, retail $2695 now $2195.

H20 Canadian 16-6' 2008, Carbon Kevlar clear/white, 43lb, lightly used, two minor repairs, retail $2995 now $2100.

H20 Cottage Classic 14' 2009, shot fibreglass red, 58lb, new, retail $1095 now $745.

H20 Cottage Classic 15' 2009, shot fibreglass white, 65lb, new, retail $1145 now $795.

H20 Cottage Classic 16' 2009, shot fibreglass red, 70lb, new, retail $1195 now $845.

Alchemist (by H20) Saga 17' 2009, Carbon Fibre clear/white, 44lb, new perfect cond, retail $3095 now $2795.

ROWING SHELLS

H20 Offshore 21' 2009, Carbon/Fibreglass white/white, 40lb, new blem thin paint, retail $4495 now $3495.

H20 Offshore 16' 2008, Fibreglass lime/white, 45lb, used good cond, retail $3495 now $2200.

RACING SHELLS

MISSION/FISA Rec Racer 22' 2007, Fibreglass red/white, 55lb, used trade-in good cond, retail $3795 now $2400.

MISSION ROWING Rocket LT 25' 2008, Carbon black/carbon, 35lb, rentd 2008, excellent cond, retail $6995 now $4200.

KAYAKS

CURRENT DESIGN Kestrel 14' 2009, Kevlar orange/white, 40lb, demo excellent cond, retail $2995 now $2200.

PELICAN SOT 9' 2007, Polyethylene orange, 35lb, used excellent cond, retail $495 now $350.

Please email me at theaccidentalcanoeist@live.com if interested in any of these boats, or others that may be available. Payment may be made by MasterCard, Visa, Cheque or Cash, payable directly to H20 Composites. Retail sales taxes will apply to all new boats and those purchased using payment other than cash. For used boats and paying with cash payment can be made directly to me, and we can consider the transaction a private sale, as I am not a retailer.

UP THE CREEK WITHOUT A PADDLE (WE ACTUALLY HAVE PADDLES, JUST NO CANOE!)

Well it is about 10pm now, and we are at the Rainbow Inn in beautiful Huntsville Ontario, far from our destination of the cottage in Barry's Bay! I find it a bit ridiculous that we are smack dab in the middle of cottage country without a canoe on the top of the van!

In any event the day started uneventfully, leaving North York just after 7:30am with the van packed full and two gorgeous new Alchemist boats on the roof. An easy almost 2 hour drive got us to the Paddleshack store just outside of Gravenhurst to drop the boats off, and then we were on the road again to Barry's Bay via Huntsville, Highway 60 through the park, and on to Carson Lake. Only we didn't make it quite that far!

A minor ticking in the brakes on the drive up, which I attributed to the sound brake pads make signalling the end of their service life turned into a terrible sounding clunking just as we pulled off Highway 11 onto 60 at Huntsville. I hobbled into the Walmart Lube shop parking, with the van continuing to make horrible clunks, and as soon as I stopped, the left rear wheel nearly twisted off the van, held on by the last remaining lug nut of five originals.

Two hours later, after being towed to Midas, the news came in. Seems one or more wheel nuts were loose, and the four eventually backed off completely. How this happens 5 months and 6000km after the wheels were off for a brake job is a bit beyond me, as if my shop had left them loose the wheel would probably have dropped off within a few hundred kilomtres. Which then makes me wonder, did someone loosen one or more of the nuts within the last week or so? I would love to find out, but probably never will!

Fortunately Midas is close to downtown Huntsville, on a commercial strip with 3 motels within walking distance, and Katherine, Rudi, and Alexander went off in search of a room, and finding a decent rate at the Rainbow Inn we booked in. An hour later I had walked up all our luggage and we got settled in.

THE PERFECTIONIST STRIKES AGAIN!

Okay, I am a perfectionist - well, most of the time anyway. I won't even apologize for it, so if for some reason you were expecting one, I have to disappoint you. Here are a few shots of a boat I recently finished, showing the some of the fittings and fasteners on the gunwales. These are Alchemist Legend (Prospector) canoes, being delivered to the Paddle Shack in Gravenhurst tomorrow. So if you happen to become the proud owner of either "YFKLE 99G909" or "YFKLE 100G909" you will notice that even though a lot of work was done by hand, and lined up visually, the spacing and position of things like the bolts through the gunwales and the float tank hatches are virtually perfect. It doesn't actually take a lot of extra time to make sure a completed job makes an exceptional grade as opposed to sloppy, and I think the results are worth it! Just a good eye, and a steady hand, and you get everthing lined up nicely. Unfortunately I didn't have my Nikon Macro lens, so the photographs themselves are a bit pathetic - as I said, most of the time, anywyay!