Paddler building watertight storage fore and aft Invention for canoes attractive and useful

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For nearly a year, Kerry Parker – avid paddler, accomplished furniture restorer, and recent inventor – lived a secret, shadow life he couldn’t share with anyone outside his family.

During the day, the Belfast man continued to run his furniture-restoring business.

At night … after the final customer had been dealt with … Parker would sneak upstairs and begin dragging prototypes-in-progress down to his workshop.

“It takes some time with the patent process,” Parker said on Friday, showing off the models he developed during those months of work. “You can’t do anything in the open until that clears, and nobody could see the product or it voids [the patent].”

As of last June, he received word that his patent was pending. And as of now, you can place an order for one, if you want.

Parker’s invention illustrates the essence of Maine ingenuity: It’s simple, well-built, attractive, rugged … and useful.

He calls it the “Bow-Stern Canoe Box.” Simply put, it’s a handsome box, hand-crafted from white cedar, that is water-tight, easily carried, and clips under a canoe’s gunwales to provide stable, safe flotation and storage.

Since he couldn’t let anyone see what he was working on, Parker admits that testing the product was a bit challenging.

“I was doing furniture work during the day and dragging them down at night,” he said. “I’d drag a canoe in here and fit boxes to it, then get them out before morning. We’d take them out to the camp and try them at night and on weekends when nobody else was around.

“We were way down in the woods, tipping canoes and floating them [to test flotation ability]. We couldn’t do it if anybody else was around.”

After perfecting the design, he decided to scrap the furniture-restoration business after a fortuitous day in the shop.

“A fella came in and wanted to go into that business,” Parker said. “He bought my equipment and away he went.”

And from that day on, Parker was into the canoe-box business … full time.

“[I’d had enough of] the fumes, the chemicals and stuff. I figured I’d lost enough brain cells,” Parker joked.

Parker said the Bow-Stern box comes in four sizes which fits nearly every model Old Town Canoe produces.

The reason for that is simple.

“This is Old Town country, and that’s what I had available, what I used, and what the guys I canoe with use,” Parker said.

The box comes in two styles – insulated, which can work as an onboard cooler and costs $200, and uninsulated, which serves as a watertight storage space for $150. Boxes don’t sit on the floor, but slide slightly up when moved into position, leaving room for the bow paddler to slide a foot under the box.

Parker said everybody wants to know the capacity of the insulated model, and he has a stock answer: “Two 12-packs, [of soda, he points out], plus ice.”

Parker said the impetus for his invention was the experience he’d gained leading scout groups on canoe trips.

“We’re always fishing things out of the water. Things are getting ruined,” he said.

“I wanted a way to secure my stuff and keep it dry, whether it’s raining, or if I do something stupid and end up upside-down.”

So far, he has produced about 200 of the boxes, and guides and sportsman’s show attendees have enthusiastically endorsed the idea, Parker said.

“Everybody likes ’em,” he said. “The places I’ve taken them, people have been saying, ‘It’s about time.'”

The uninsulated boxes weigh about 7 pounds, while insulated models are a couple of pounds heavier.

And Parker is happy to report that they have stood up to tremendous wear and tear.

“They’re Boy Scout tested,” he said, referring to the scout trips he leads. “And those kids are tough.”

At first glance, that seems too bad: The shiny boxes have three coats of epoxy, inside and out, and gleam from every angle. They almost look too attractive to beat over a rocky river bank.

Parker said that’s exactly what buyers should do with them: Use them. Enjoy them.

His paddling friends were also encouraged to test the boxes under actual conditions.

“We used them the way you use stuff when you’re in the woods,” Parker said. “When you get to shore in the afternoon and you’re done paddling, up over the river bank they go. You heave them up and sometimes they roll back down.

“You sit on ’em. You eat on ’em. You cook on ’em. You wash dishes in ’em. You use ’em. That’s what you have to do when you’re in that situation, and we used ’em. We used ’em hard, and they stood up to it.”

Parker had some models available late last September – a slow season for canoe-related sales – and decided to hit the market aggressively in the spring.

He’s encouraged by the response, and hopes the company – B-S Canoe Box Co. – is prosperous.

If not? Well, he’ll likely deal with that, too.

“We’ll see if it works out,” he said on Friday, surrounded by boxes in his shop. “If it don’t, I’ll get a job.”

If you’re interested in getting more information on the Bow-Stern Canoe Box, you can reach Parker at 6 Mill Lane in Belfast, 04915. His phone number is 338-1831.

If you’re a semi-regular reader of this column, you may realize that my opening day of fishing season didn’t go exactly as planned this year.

In short, here’s how it went: freezing temperatures … no fish … and a broken fly rod.

Plenty of column fodder, you might say.

Well, Paul Hansen of Verona Island called this week to tell me what I’d already suspected: Things could have been worse.

Hansen headed Down East to Grand Lake Stream on opening day and reported that one pair of anglers snapped four fly rods in a day’s angling.

Hansen was a spectator to the carnage, as he (and his fly rod) came away unscathed.

“You’d get three casts in and you had to clear the ice [from the guides],” Hansen said, pointing out that early temps hovered around 10 degrees.

While Hansen did manage to hook and release some fish, one twosome was particularly unlucky.

“They fished, broke a rod or two, came into the [Pine Tree Store], broke another rod, then came back [to the store] and bought a rod,” Hansen said with a chuckle. “I told them, next year I’d bring a dozen rods.”

Hansen said several anglers gathered at the popular dam pool at Grand Lake Stream – but far fewer than had been reported in past (warmer) years.

“[The weather] separated the boys, I’ll tell you that,” Hansen said. “You could always go out and fish. It was never combat fishing, but there were about a dozen or so.”

Hansen, who normally fishes opening day on the West Branch of the Penobscot, opted for Grand Lake Stream this year after published reports from 2002 documented the fishing bonanza anglers enjoyed.

While he did catch a few fish, Hansen shared a popular fishing sentiment about the day.

“It’s always ‘You should have been here last week’ with me,” Hansen said.

Many of us can relate to that, I’m sure.

John Holyoke can be reached at jholyoke@bangordailynews.net or by calling 990-8214 or 1-800-310-8600.