Aug. i 7, 1912 
FOREST AND STREAM 
209 
Let the Gasolene Twins Do Your Work 
By E. T. 
IME was, and not so long ago at that, when 
most canoeists could, within an hour of 
dropping their boats overboard, find them¬ 
selves in a nice sequestered place with wood and 
water and a good camp-site awaiting them. To¬ 
day the proposition is so vastly different that 
the man who wants a reasonable amount of soli¬ 
tude finds his hours’ paddle multiplied by three 
or four. 
Yes, I know it’s exercise all right, and what 
the average canoeist is after is exercise. 
At the same time it’s a mighty big difference 
when you break camp on Sunday afternoon, and 
find that the calking has all been pulled out of 
the clouds, whether you travel through that leak¬ 
age for one or for three hours. 
Furthermore, when a man quits at 1 o’clock 
on Saturday it makes a big difference whether 
he reaches his camp site at 3 or 4 o’clock that 
afternoon, or sometimes about 7 p. m. 
That’s why so many hardened canoeists who 
have sworn that there is nothing to beat sailing, 
are casting sheep’s eyes at s®me of the many 
attractive little marine motors that give more 
power than a man at considerably less than the 
average paddler’s weight. 
What kept the canoeist out of the marine 
game was the fear of encountering difficulties 
when installing the engine and boring for the 
shaft and attaching a shaft log, but with the ad¬ 
vent of ready-made shaft logs with adjustable 
fastening adapted to any style of canoe or small 
boat, the only part of the work that was beyond 
the average canoeist’s ingenuity has been so sim¬ 
plified as to cut no figure in subsequent pro¬ 
ceedings. 
For use in a canoe the 2-cycle engine, by 
reason of its light weight, has a much greater 
advantage over its brother of the 4-cyde type 
than when installed in any other type of boat. 
The 2-cycle engine to-day may be obtained 
running in weight from less than 40 up to about 
150 pounds and capable of producing from 2 
horsepower up to 10. 
These engines develop their rated horse¬ 
power at all the way from 750 up to as high as 
1,150 revolutions per minute, and swing two or 
three-bladed propellers from ten inches up to 
fourteen inches in diameter. 
On a craft as small as a canoe, where shoal 
water must be navigated, the diameter of the 
propeller has a very important bearing on the 
cruising radius of the craft, and it is better for 
this reason to utilize a three-bladed wheel, as 
it enables one to obtain the same power and 
speed from a smaller diameter than would be 
required in a propeller of but two blades. 
Furthermore, particularly when used behind 
a deadwood or slceg, there is less vibration with 
a three than with a two-bladed propeller, and 
vibration is something to be carefully guarded 
against in a craft so lightly built as a canoe. 
KEYSER 
For this reason it is well, when installing 
the engine, to see that the bed is of good stout 
material, and that fore and aft stringers are just 
as long as the canoe will accommodate without 
unduly sacrificing her seating capacity. 
In general practice to-day the motor is in¬ 
stalled as far aft as possible in the canoe as it 
may be placed without giving an undue rake to 
the shaft. 
Undoubtedly the reason for this is that there 
is a saving in the length of shafting, and that 
with the fly wheel at the forward end of the 
engine it is easier to start up the motor from 
this position when afloat than if it were placed 
forward of the passengers. 
On the other hand, from its very form of 
underbody the canoe is more or less of a “squat¬ 
ter,” principally more. 
Now, although this defect is an inherent 
trait of the peculiar form of the canoe’s after 
under-water body, this may be reduced some¬ 
what by placing of the weights, such as gasolene 
tank and engine well forward, so that when at 
rest the boat will be down by the head; this will 
not eliminate “squatting” entirely, but will re¬ 
duce it considerably. The fly wheel of the en¬ 
gine may be transferred from the forward end 
of the shaft to the after end, just forward of 
the shaft coupling, or one of the small light and 
very effective rear starting devices may be util¬ 
ized, so that the engine may be started even more 
easily than in its other position, which requires 
the engineer turning around and facing aft when 
turning over the fly wheel. 
As a matter of fact, however, no canos 
should be equipped with power without the in¬ 
cluding of either a reverse gear or a reversing 
propeller. 
It is not entirely in a reversing mechanism’s 
ability to allow you to back up quickly that its 
full utility lies, but in the fact that you can 
“stand by” with engine turning and the boat 
making no headway, and yet be capable of in¬ 
stantly starting when you so desire. 
Without some reversing mechanism you can¬ 
not run your engine without moving the boat, 
and stoppage of the boat at a buoy, or while 
waiting for someone, necessitates that the engine 
be stopped, and later on—and probably with 
much inconvenience—restarted. 
In a larger boat this is not a particularly 
pleasant state of affairs, but in something so 
small as a canoe -— where cranking the engine 
necessitates moving around and shifting the 
positions—it is anything but safe. 
From my own personal way of thinking, I 
prefer, so far as the canoe is concerned, a re¬ 
versing propeller to a reverse gear. It requires 
less clearance, weighs considerably less — and 
these are no slight items in a craft so small as 
a canoe. Reverse gears, most admirable in 
larger craft, weigh nearly almost as much and 
occupy pretty nearly as much room as the twin 
motors adapted to canoes. 
Reversing propellers are now made, which 
not only enable the canoeist to go forward, back¬ 
ward and keep the engine running while the 
boat lies perfectly still, but also enables him to 
change his speed at will from scarcely headway 
to the greatest speed of which the boat is cap¬ 
able, without any adjustment of spark or throttle 
on the engine, so that with a steering wheel in 
one hand and the reverse lever in the other, you 
can do any manner of stunts with perfect ease 
and security. 
Single cylinder motors average lower in cost 
per horsepower than those of two or more cylin¬ 
ders. On the other hand the multi-cylinder en¬ 
gine runs smoother and more quietly. 
Speaking of quietness, the underwater ex¬ 
haust is a mighty good proposition on a canoe, 
and if the engine is installed forward, so that 
the boat trims down by the head when at rest, 
the exhaust outlet may be placed so that it will 
be just above the water when the boat is not 
under way. This will allow the squatting of 
the stern to submerge the exhaust when the boat 
is in motion and also allow of easy starting. 
Do not, under any circumstances, no matter 
how strongly tempted, pump your bilge through 
your cylinder jackets. 
Yes, I know that some canoeists have a two- 
way fitting so that the circulating water may 
come from either outside of the boat or from 
the bilge as desired. It is only a matter of time 
before one forgets to make the shift after the 
bilge is dried, and then the least of the trouble 
is that the paint is all off the outside of the 
engine; the worst possibilities are too horrible 
even to contemplate. 
Utilize one of the many admirable forms of 
power bilge pumps, which add very little in 
weight or cost to the outfit, and then, n® matter 
if a comber does come aboard once in a while, 
you will keep dry and comfortable. A bilge 
pump is a great deal more of a necessity to a 
canoe by reason of the lack of space beneath 
the floor than to the ordinary power boat, and 
the comfort of a power bilge pump aboard one 
is out of all proportion to its cost. 
Unless you intend to navigate on fresh¬ 
water exclusively, see that all your fittings be 
for salt water; that is, your propeller, shaft and 
all your water piping. Your exhaust piping may 
be of galvanized steel, and it is well to run at 
least a portion of the circulating water into your 
exhaust lines, which is an insurance against 
somebody getting an ugly burn or the wood 
charring. 
A little two-horse motor will drive your 
canoe, hour after hour, at a considerably better 
speed than a sturdy paddler can hit up for the 
first half hour after he leaves the float, while 
a 3 to 4-cylinder will give you a real speed of 
from eight to nine miles an hour. It seems at 
least twelve or fifteen on account of the boat 
being so small. 
The cost of equipping a canoe with power 
is so light, the advantages are so many that un¬ 
doubtedly the year 1913 will find power canoes 
among the fleet of most of our canoe cluhc. 
Furthermore the power canoe is so small 
and so light that it can be housed and properly 
cared for and tuned up in a manner that is im¬ 
possible with the average power boat, which must 
lay out in all sorts of weather at its moorings. 
