Sure you can Tim....but two things to note.
1) You can often turn the canoe around and use the bow seat, put a
little weight of course in the new bow...wilderness-tripping style.
or
2) Remove the middle thwart...but remember to put the seat-setup in
Behind the center mark. Don't know how much paddling you do...if
you're sit-&_switch or kneeling...you always want the "catch" to happen
near center, but the actual area of one's power pull wants to be behind
center a bit. You want to look at your canoe's design...and gauge
where it paddles the most efficiently from....to specifically mark
where your weight should be.

Have fun,
Steve

Tim,
In browsing over my Usenet groups...I'm skimming over this one...your
canoe is a Solo Plus? or have I missed it somewhere... cause it
sounds like you're thinking about putting a LOT of people(Too Many!) in
a canoe....and remain stable...!, especially for your first canoe. I
don't know how long you've been paddling, but...overload a canoe and
you're asking for a potentially exciting(of the wrong kind) voyage...

Steve

Steve D. wrote:
Tim,
In browsing over my Usenet groups...I'm skimming over this one...your
canoe is a Solo Plus? or have I missed it somewhere...

No, mine is an off-brand made for Dick's Sporting Goods. It's shaped
very similar to an Old Town Osprey 155 - mine's about 14' long, but the
bow seat is installed too far forward so it doesn't work well as a solo
seat.

The main problem isn't putting too many people in it, but that I want to
use it solo. I've purchased a seat and will be relocating the bow seat
about 10-12 inches more toward the center. I've also drilled the
appropriate water-letter-outter holes as directed by this group.

Who say you can't get good info on roff? ;-)
--
TL,
Tim
---------------------------
http://css.sbcma.com/timj/

"Tim J." wrote in message
...
Steve D. wrote:
Tim,
In browsing over my Usenet groups...I'm skimming over this one...your
canoe is a Solo Plus? or have I missed it somewhere...

No, mine is an off-brand made for Dick's Sporting Goods. It's shaped very
similar to an Old Town Osprey 155 - mine's about 14' long, but the bow
seat is installed too far forward so it doesn't work well as a solo seat.

The main problem isn't putting too many people in it, but that I want to
use it solo. I've purchased a seat and will be relocating the bow seat
about 10-12 inches more toward the center. I've also drilled the
appropriate water-letter-outter holes as directed by this group.

Who say you can't get good info on roff? ;-)

Um........holes?........plural?

You NEED a water-letter-outer-hole......that's obvious. So, if you drill
another hole......guess what happens?

Uh huh.

Make sure you have an odd number!

Wolfgang
ya gotta explain EVERYTHING to some people. :(

Wolfgang wrote:
"Tim J." wrote in message
...
Steve D. wrote:
Tim,
In browsing over my Usenet groups...I'm skimming over this
one...your canoe is a Solo Plus? or have I missed it somewhere...

No, mine is an off-brand made for Dick's Sporting Goods. It's shaped
very similar to an Old Town Osprey 155 - mine's about 14' long, but
the bow seat is installed too far forward so it doesn't work well as
a solo seat. The main problem isn't putting too many people in it,
but that I
want to use it solo. I've purchased a seat and will be relocating
the bow seat about 10-12 inches more toward the center. I've also
drilled the appropriate water-letter-outter holes as directed by
this group. Who say you can't get good info on roff? ;-)

Um........holes?........plural?

You NEED a water-letter-outer-hole......that's obvious. So, if you
drill another hole......guess what happens?

Uh huh.

Make sure you have an odd number!

Good thing you told me now. I had twenty-six, but twenty-seven shouldn't
be a problem.
--
TL,
Tim
---------------------------
http://css.sbcma.com/timj/

In article ,
lid says...
No, mine is an off-brand made for Dick's Sporting Goods. It's shaped
very similar to an Old Town Osprey 155 - mine's about 14' long, but the
bow seat is installed too far forward so it doesn't work well as a solo
seat.

The main problem isn't putting too many people in it, but that I want to
use it solo. I've purchased a seat and will be relocating the bow seat
about 10-12 inches more toward the center. I've also drilled the
appropriate water-letter-outter holes as directed by this group.


Dude, if you had a rod that wasn't quite perfect for some situation,
would you try to modify it, or would you go buy 3 new rods? Now, go
out to the garage and practise saying "Dear, we need to get a solo
canoe," until you can say it with a straight face.


Who say you can't get good info on roff? ;-)


You just gotta learn to apply it,

Kevin


--
reply to:
kevin dot vang at minotstateu dot edu

"No, mine is an off-brand made for Dick's Sporting Goods. It's shaped
very similar to an Old Town Osprey 155 - mine's about 14' long, but the

bow seat is installed too far forward so it doesn't work well as a solo

seat. "

Umm, are you sure you aren't already paddling it backwards?

--riverman

riverman wrote:
"No, mine is an off-brand made for Dick's Sporting Goods. It's shaped
very similar to an Old Town Osprey 155 - mine's about 14' long, but
the

bow seat is installed too far forward so it doesn't work well as a
solo

seat. "

Umm, are you sure you aren't already paddling it backwards?

Myron, I'm not very canoe-part saavy, but *sometimes* I can tell my ass
from a hole in the ground. ;-) I guess once I pull it out to work on
it I'll have to provide the before and after shots to prove it. I'M
TELLIN' YA, the bow seat is MUCH farther forward than any other canoe
I've seen. I thought so when I bought it, and I know so now that I've
used it.
--
TL,
Tim
---------------------------
http://css.sbcma.com/timj/

Myron, I'm not very canoe-part saavy, but *sometimes* I can tell my ass

from a hole in the ground. ;-) I guess once I pull it out to work on
it I'll have to provide the before and after shots to prove it. I'M
TELLIN' YA, the bow seat is MUCH farther forward than any other canoe
I've seen. I thought so when I bought it, and I know so now that I've
used it.
--
TL,
Tim

Personally, I could never tell MY ass from a hole in the ground,
because I never have actually seen my ass. :-)

Yeah, quite a few shorter boats (13-15 footers) have the bow seat too
far forwards. I've seen them placed almost symmetrically in each end,
which is foolish. Thats because the hull really is better suited for a
solo boat, but they are rigging them primarily for tandem. That puts
the stern in a rather nice spot, crammed way back there, but then the
bow paddler has to be crammed up front in order to counterbalance.
Either that, or the guy installing the hardware had his head up a hole
in the ground.

The third seat in an Osprey is too centered to be a solo seat; its for
a third person. Your initial plan of moving one seat closer to the
center is just fine, but you ought to consider moving both to keep it
balanced. A good way to estimate the correct position without floating
the boat is to go to a site like www.oldtowncanoe.com, and look at some
top views of their boats, and get the proportionate distances off the
pictures. I think the arrangement in the Stillwater 14 is about what
you want, but I'd move the stern seat about 1/2 seat width closer to
the center. That particular rigging they show would be stern-heavy with
two people: it's actually set up as a solo boat with tandem capability.
Compare that setup with the Stillwater 12: (the pictures are scaled to
the same size). The bow seat in the 12 footer is almost a full seat
width farther from the midline. That boat is set up as a tandem.

One thing about Old Town that I could never understand: they put their
carrying yokes in backward. When you have the canoe on your shoulders,
its nice to have that secondary thwart in front of you to hold on to.
We always turned the yokes around on all our new OT boats.

Wish I was there to help you...this is the type of thing I understand
and can pitch in with.

--riverman

riverman wrote:
One thing about Old Town that I could never understand: they put
their
carrying yokes in backward. When you have the canoe on your
shoulders,
its nice to have that secondary thwart in front of you to hold on to.

We always turned the yokes around on all our new OT boats.

To which Jon replied:
Huh. I haven't used our canoe in a few years (OT discovery 15'6"),
but I've always cartopped it solo (and portaged a similar OT in
Grand Teton NP solo) and never noticed this. You're probably right,
my recollection is always holding on to the sides. I'm hoping to get
it out this year, so I'll check this out.

For most portages, like from the car to the water, the sides are
completely adequate. But for some long wilderness portages (the longest
I ever did was about 5 miles around a gorge on the Chimachouane in
Quebec), you really appreciate being able to move your arms around to
different locations. You can also use just one arm for a bit, on the
center of the front thwart. And best of all, there is this clever way
to rig your two paddles running lengthwise, tied to the two thwarts so
that you can shift the boat forward and back and adjust the weight. It
works especially well if you are hanging excess gear on to reduce the
number of portages you need to make.

--riverman

I never put the canoe into the side of a car, but I have knocked
innocent bystanders on their ass a few times.