Hi Ralph, Thanks for the great comments. Ya have a heck of a strong paddle stroke. Was fun watching these canoes jump off the line when you hit the forward button! Appreciate you starring in this one!

My pleasure, thanks for watching. NW solo has better glide too. Phoenix has a bit more kneeling room and fuller around the paddler imo.

The E6 does shave a couple lbs off and gets back to StarLite Alum weight but with the stiff feel of double Carbon. You feel the difference between StarLite and BlackLite on the water for sure. I love wood trim too. A personal long ownership solo of mine is not going to have alum trim…just my preference. I don’t mind Alum trim on my utility tripping tandems or ww/river-runners. But for my touring solos I like wood or the no maintenance/light weight E6.

StarLite, BlackLite and Whitegold will all see damage (but in a slightly different way) if you take a loaded impact on sharp rocks. The outer skin coat resins will chip or get little fractures first. Then, with heavier impacts, you can flex the lamination and you see some light colored “stretch marks” on the inside. StarLite will do this first and Whitegold is less likely to do so (I think it may be stouter than BlackLite under some hits). Pretty unlikely to fracture all the way through a Whitegold unless you pin and fill/strain. The outer resin hits are easy fixes so I basically don’t care about those (as you saw in vid w StarLite). Bigger flex hits might need a little glass reinforcing which is easy but a bit more noticeable. So…if I’m on a class 2/3 run and I see deep water routes I know I can hit then I would run Whitegold. But, if I’m not sure, I’m carrying. And, my comfort level with the sound of my canoe slamming into rocks may be a bit higher than yours after having trailer flips and airborne canoes in windy parking lots. My first Bell…I babied it!

@@HappyPaddlin great, thanks, that makes sense. I have an old Royalex Old Town Hunter (14ft) that I often take on the river so I don’t beat up the precious Solo😁. But I suspected that I was babying it slightly. Heck, if I’m going to put my nerves fully at ease, just gonna need another boat…

@@carllamb1565 IXP = Me never paddling a plastic canoe again ;) The stuff is amazing and stronger than Royalex and definitely more fun to paddle. I've split Royalex boats open right at the bow and stern with good impacts. But....always good to love the canoes you have too! Have a great season!

Phoenix!

Curious, why the phoenix over the northwind? Thanks for the replies and content, I have been going through pretty much every video you have related to northstar. I found you via your echo review, then you answered a question of mine and mentioned ixp. An ixp search led me to northstar and what a coincidence, that led me back to you. Appreciate you and your content

Bear from Northstar says it best the Phoenix is for rivers and lakes (the first/rivers being the priority). And the Northwind solo is for lakes and rivers. More rocker in the Phoenix. A bit more stable. And easier in small rivers to manage and maneuver. The NW Solo could work too if your rivers were bigger with less quick moves required.

Thanks for the feedback and watching the vids. More coming now that the busy busy summer is behind me.

I'm looking on your site and I see the seat pad with saddlebags. I have zero experience in using those with a padding for kneeling.

Essential Canoe Gear and Hacks for Your New Boat with Happy Paddlin kzfaq.info/get/bejne/bZqChL1q3q_QY6M.html

I’d guess around 210-220lbs. Taller and bigger than me for sure.

@@HappyPaddlin Thanks!

I have a Firebird in StarLite and have paddled it hard in moving water w lava rocks here. It’s doing pretty well. I like it light and am prepared to have to touch up later if need be!

But understand each to their own! And IXP is awesome and my Phoenix is in that lay-up.

Peel their stickers off over 60 seconds and go paddle incognito. Problem solved!

@@HappyPaddlin I figured they were under an epoxy coat! I was just kidding anyway. I’m probably getting the Northwind Solo

Ha, yeah that's my biggest gripe with Northstar. Not so much the branding, but the style. Looks very generic and utilitarian on otherwise beautiful boats. I'd probably peel it off. The star on the front looks nice though. They should integrate the name into that logo instead.

@plmn93 Good comment. If peeling off model and brand text, I’d recommend calling Northstar and buying replacement stickers sooner than later to apply back if you plan to sell (or include with resale). I think textless boats look great too but I have also lost $ on the resale on boats that don’t have them that are out of production (like an old wildfire I had). Some folks want the text stickers and it sometimes makes the boat look more “owned” without them. Just my experience after having sold more Bells/Northstars than I can count since ‘96.