Last summer I bought a new canoe and managed to get out in her for several extended trips.  In the course of putting her through her paces an old issue came up around what to do with the painter.  The painter is one of the least sexy pieces of equipment in anyone’s canoeing kit but that doesn’t mean it isn’t important.  The painter is a tie off whether to a dock, at a campsite to keep your investment from blowing away in a gale, or to a tree while you do some scouting along a rugged shore.  It is a tow rope whether you need towing, somebody else does or to haul your canoe up a steep incline or cliff side.  Of course it is a critical piece of gear for lining white water.  The painter can sometimes be detached altogether for unexpected emergency use.  There are even some people (not me) who use their painter as a tie-down for transporting their canoe atop their vehicle.  In the past I’ve mostly tied my painter to the carry thwart behind the bow deck, coiled it up and let it dangle under the deck.  But that is a poor solution for a lot of reasons and even drilling holes in the fore deck for a bungee loop to store the coil doesn’t resolve a couple of key issues.  First, the carry thwart isn’t really meant to handle the force that might be placed on it when the painter is in use in some of the ways I’ve mentioned.  Though it has never happened to me, I have heard many stories of a carry thwart snapping or causing damage to the hull because of the force exerted on it by the painter.  The second problem with tying off to the carry thwart is that it is in the wrong place for lining or manoeuvring the canoe when it’s in the water but you’re not in the canoe.  In such a case, to be effective, the painter should be attached at the very front (and rear) of the canoe fairly close to the water line otherwise your efforts to pull it around can as easily lead to capsizing as not.

So I decided that I’d like to have my painter attached where it will be most effective.  There may be others of you who have had the same notion but were put off by the thought of drilling holes into your shiny new (or not so new) vessel.  It certainly put me off.  But then I found out about this product which is so clever that I thought I’d pass it on for your interest.  The product is called Tugeye and while I confess that I haven’t yet installed it, I’m told by others who have (and judging by the mounting instructions) that anyone who can use an electric drill can do this job in 20 minutes.  Here’s the link: (You need to Login or Register to view media files and links)

Since I rent a canoe, I do what Ranger does.
It is okay, but there have been times when lining a canoe it was evident that being closer to the water line is the better way to go and offer the least chance of the canoe rolling toward you if enough force is being applied.

I would add the Tug-Eye without reservation if the canoe were mine.
The detailed instructions and ease of doing, along with simplicity of design should ease any fears you might have.

Their right on with the rope suggestion, bowline and no knot in the slack end.

I'd still loop and secure with Bungee Bob on bow and stern if possible for quick deployment and security on portages.

Seems like a simple solution to task that could prove unnerving if your not confidant in your handy man skills

The original Tugeye for Royalex boats is indeed easy to install. The newer version for kevlar is more difficult/awkward - that comes with a little tube/ring whatever that kept falling off when I was pounding it home.  Of course, once it fell off, it rolled somewhere in the garage and I had to hunt it down - luckily, I found it hiding under the truck.  take care with that.

Its a whole lot easier, pretty simple, to drill the royalex boat; the UL kevlar was more difficult, as its a thin, flexible surface and the resin tends to chip, not cut - putting a piece of masking tape on where I drilled helped a bit with that.

The royalex version has an inside diameter of about 1/2", or maybe 5/8" (don't have a canoe handy to look at) which makes it easy to run a line through - I use cheapo floating poly line from Home Depot - it looks like kernmantle climbing rope (its not that yellow crap - this has a good "hand" and knotability), but I don't suppose its more then 300Lbs tensile strength - not gonna winch a canoe off a rock with it, but fine for painter use.  Don't need to do any lining in Quetico.

The kevlar version is smaller, with an inside diameter of about 3/8" and won't take the bigger diameter rope.  I only installed one Tugeye in my UL boat so far, in my Northstar, but will get around to putting one in my Merlin.  I don't worry about the carry handle not working for a painter line attachment - the reason I installed the tugey in the kevlar boat was to be able to lock it to my rack, which locks to my truck (I run a cable thru the frame and rack and the canoe is attached to that) - or to lock it to anything else, to add one small deterrent to keep someone from just walking up at night and cutting a couple of ropes and making off with three thousand dollars worth of boat - at least this way, they need a bolt cutter with them to cut the cables.  That's one thing I don't like about the smaller tugeye for kevlar - I can't find a "good" cable lock that will fit thru the small hole - I could only find a cheap bike lock with a 1/4" diameter cable that will work, but at least its somehting.  The royalex version, with a larger diameter, I use a kevlar reinforced bike lock that's about 3/8" diameter - had to file off a flange at the end, but that didnt' affect the cable strength.  One trip last year, I had to leave my Rx boat unattended at the put-in while doing a shuttle - it was nice to be able to lock it there. 

It may be rare, but boats do get stolen - I seem to read about two or three each year on P-net or C-Boats.  Last time, as I recall, a paddler left his boat at a takeout along a highway while he went back for his vehicle - somehting he'd done several times before at that same spot - this time, boat was gone when he got back.  Here in Colorado, there are always a few kayaks stolen in similar circumstances each year. 

So for me, installing the tugeyes is more about having a bit of insurance, being able to lock my boats, than it is about lining or anything else.  They work fine for that.

Yeah...really not a big concern here.  I've never needed one to the point that I would drill a hole into my cedar stripper or kevlar for that matter.  I do have a brass loop mounted on the deck of the bow and stearn where I attach a rope if and when needed.  

My concern about attaching a line near the water line, is that your water line changes with different conditions and weight, etc.  I know there have been several times, especially in rough conditions that the bow of my boat is breaking and cutting waves, unfortunately sometimes over the bow.  That being said, I want my boat to be as clean and efficient as possible when cutting through the water. If I were to  do this I wouldn't do it more than a couple inches below the gunnel.  

But, "differnent strokes for different folks"  Good luck, I hope it works for your desired purpose.

I'm with Wally on this one. I always keep rope readily available and have occasionally just tied it to the handle when I need it but the need is exceptionally rare. Most of the time I want my canoe out of the water when I'm not in it. I wet foot and when I get to shore I pull everything out, put it on shore, then either carry the canoe across the portage or put it next ot the gear, depending on circumstances. It always ends up bugging me on portages when I carry someone elses canoe that has a painter because it always seems to get in the way somehow, though I guess tieing it down better would eliminate that most of the time.
I also agree with whoever it was that mentioned wanting the canoe to slice cleanly through the water. It seems to me, you start getting too close to the water line and you're going to, at least occasionally, be dragging that rope through the water.
All in all, I think a painter is pretty unneccessary regardless of how it's attatched.