my question  was directed to magic paddle who had said he had one of these boats for a couple of years and i was interested in how he liked it. i bought it blind after doing research this weekend.

yes it will be shipped next week. Of course i did not order any extra colors. just plain and a couple of accessories. he is only having the glued in seat now no sliding seat and no wood trim which is ok. also looked at some other boats, but I think he makes a good boat. not that I know anything. never owned a canoe before been kayaking last 3 years.

you said you were just up there do you live out east or do you live in Mn?

robryan wrote on Mar 18^th, 2014 at 11:46pm:



Was just up there this morning. I guess I'll have to go back and pick yours up sometime. Did they give you a completion date?

I just purchased a rapidfire today from placidboat works. I live in mpls. how do you like the boat?  I was going to get a spitfire 13 but since his fire not quite a year ago he does not have the mold made yet. he thought the spitfire may be too small for a 200 lb person so talked me into the rapidfire. plan on using it mostly for photography and video work. taking on vacations to various parts of the us to use while on vacstion at different lakes and rivers.

Welcome Bear.  Thanks for the intro and info.  I'm very interested in that NW Solo.  I really like my old NW17 and looking forward to seeing the solo in production.  Best wishes to you and Ted and co. getting Bell back where it should be.  If you need someone to test that solo around the end of July up in the north woods, I'm your Huckleberry! 

pd

Hey all,

My name is Bear. I'm working with Ted. I spent 6 years at the pre-ORC Bell Canoe managing the Accessory Program. We are Northstar Canoes. We're aiming to have the website up in late May.

Here are specs to the boats in question.
Magic: same as before
Northwind Solo: 15'6": widths 26/30/27: rocker 2.5/1.5: shear 17.5/12.5/15
Phoenix: 14'6": widths 26/30/27: rocker 3/2.5: shear 18.5/12.5/16.5
NW Solo is a slightly larger Merlin. The Phoenix is a slightly larger Wildfire/Yellowstone Solo. We expect to make molds for both boats soon, but the Phoenix has priority. We didn't expect the NW Solo to arrive so quickly.

If you have questions, don't hesitate to email me at info@northstarcanoes

I hauled the prototype to Ted from Dave Curtis. I couldn't get Ted to "open" the canoe, but he told me some about it. I'm pretty intrigued. I love my job!

I just got the answer today in the mail.  A new Piragis catalog arrived with a full page of Bell boats. (okay, maybe 3/4 page....). Page 8 shows overhead and side profiles for the Northwind 20, 18, 17, 16, the Magic, and the Phoenix. 

The specs on the Phoenix are 14'6" LOA, 3" bow rocker, 2.5' stern, 18.5" bow depth, 12.5" center, 16.5" stern, mw is 30", gw is 26", wl is 27", kevlight @ 32lbs, blacklight @ 35lbs and $2250/$2650 respectively.  The description says "Ted Bell's sport utility solo canoe. Carries a load and maneuvers easily." 

See them on Piragis' website at (You need to Login or Register to view media files and links) Interesting is the Northstar Canoes label and logo at the bottom of the Bell ad.

Anyone have any experience with the Phoenix yet?  Looks like a good bit of rocker for so short of a canoe.

pd

not much there, on the Northstar website, just an intro page  -  it says full website coming in summer 2014

probably just wanted to pin down the domain name

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