The Indian Otter &
The Indian Atkinson Traveler
Jeanne's Canoes (from left to right): |
|
The "Indian" in Otter or Atkinson Traveler is in reference to the Indian-style deck profile which mimics the Ojibway style birchbark canoes.
My own first wood/canvas canoe was the brown 16' Chestnut Indian Maiden pictured above in the back.
When it came time to design my first canoe in 1987, I used the hull shape from the Chestnut Canoe, added 6" length for more volume, and changed the profile (the shape when you see the canoe from the side, the amount the gunwale curves up, plus the "stem profile", which is the re-curve shape on the ends). I changed the profile to look and build like the E.M. White 18' Guide Canoe; a much easier shape to build and more suited to the wood/canvas kind of construction. Voila… The Otter.
I still continued to paddle my Chestnut; I still brought it to shows, and quite often potential customers asked if I could build one with the Indian profile.
Finally in 2005 I re-lofted the Otter with an Ojibway profile and figured out how to build it on the Otter form. This added 6" to the length of the canoe (1 foot overall) but didn't really add much volume.
The 17.5' Indian Otter is now my husband's and my favorite triping canoe. This longer version of the Otter is very fast and handles our tandem weight better than the 16.5' Otter does.
I have yet to build a 18.5' Indian Atkinson Traveler, but yours could be the first.
