{Tidal Potomac Fly Rodders} Canoe Outriggers/Stabilizers

All,

Dan and Miles asked me to post some pictures of the canoe outriggers/stabilizers I built for cruising in bigger water and to give me more stability while fishing.

The attached photos show all of the parts of my outriggers and how to attach them (and a set of oars) to my canoe.  In use, these are remarkably stable even in steady wind and fairly heavy waves in the open water of Virginia's back bays.

One final assembly step, which I have not shown it in the pictures, is that I now tie each float's eye-bolts together with cord to prevent them from separating, which would release the float.  Skipping this step is not a huge problem because I rarely lose a float and I have reattached a lost float while under way; nevertheless, this is a good modification because it is easier not to have deal with the issue at all.

Actually building the parts of the outriggers was fairly straight forward.  The main issue was getting the two main sets of components (the heavy-duty aluminum square tube for the outrigger arms and the four lobster floats).  Potomac Steel had the aluminum square tube and I ordered commercial 8x18 lobster buoys from Hamilton Marine.  One smaller issue I had was that, since I use this rig in saltwater, I had to insulate the dissimilar metals (aluminum arms and the ferrous eye-bolts, washers, wing nuts, and conduit hangers) to reduce corrosion.  I did this with PVC spacers, neoprene washers, and electrical tape (for the conduit hangers).  Beyond isolating the dissimilar metals, almost all of the ferrous hardware is stainless, except the conduit hangers, since I could only find them plated.  Nevertheless, if they corrode too badly, they are cheap to replace.

Thanks for your interest.

Best,
Per

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http://www.tpfr.org
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