I think your approach is reasonable and sound.  Only recommendation I would add is to consider using a "painter" line when portaging. 

A Painter is a long, lightweight cord (think paracord thickness) tied to the bow and the stern with enough slack so that when the canoe is resting upright the line could hang outside the boat and just about drag in the water at the lowest point.  When you pick up the canoe and place it on your shoulders, you can then grab that painter and use it to manage any pitch rather comfortably.  I personally like the canoe to be ever so slightly bow-heavy so that I am putting just a small amount of tension on the painter and pulling the stern towards me.  It keeps the canoe level when portaging and also tends to keep the yoke in a sound position on my shoulders.  I usually have enough slack in my painter to do a couple quick loops around three or four of my fingers to get the right amount of tension to be comfortable.  In this way, you can do any portage with your arms at your sides instead of up on the gunwales - I find this to really extend the distance I can portage without my arms getting tired.

I've thought about using a painter in the past, but I always seem to forget about it - maybe your comments will finally make me remember to try that.  Generally I'm balanced enough that I carry with one hand on the gunwale and one at my side, occasionally switching up.  But there's no doubt that the hand in the upward position gets tired faster over distance.  I'm just glad I can carry the boat given the shoulder thing.  Actually I should update the injury progress while I'm logged in.

My "painter" is tied to the bow and the first thwart or seat forward of the yoke. After loading the canoe on my shoulders I can reach out and grab it. It has enough slack so can hold it in a variety of positions and also easily switch hands. It;s nice when weaving through trees on the portage you can use the painter to steer. However, when the terrain gets particularly tricky I find that I put my hands on the gunnels to provide maximum stability. Also, I use 4 mm static cord as its thicker and more comfortable than paracord.

Last edited by solos (7/10/2018 4:42 pm)

DGD, one of my old canoes had a slippery wooden yoke that tended to slide off the shoulders... a very quick fix (10 min) was to staple open-cell foam to it. The OC foam stays grippy on the shoulders even when wet and sliding around is eliminated. Closed cell foam, like the blue foam pad material or ensolite was still slippery, so sticking with the OC. It has to be replaced every few years but it works. The yoke is old and the staple holes aren't a big deal but you might not want to inflict that damage on an expensive new yoke.

BTW, there are worse things when porting than carrying slightly stern-heavy... certainly preferable to bow-heavy which is a real pain since the arms work much harder trying to keep the bow up and out of the ground. Enjoy the portage & good health to you.

Last edited by frozentripper (7/10/2018 8:45 am)

I find that blue foam, wrapped with duct tape provides both comfort and grip. 

M
 

Thank you everybody for your input!  I put a painter in the Nova Craft (after centering the yoke pads).  The boat is pretty even front to back now, maybe dips just a tiny bit toward the back, which is fine.  The painter is positioned so my right hand/forearm rest on it with my elbow almost at a 90 degree angle, and that is pretty comfortable.  Relative to the shoulder injury - for one thing, the shoulder feels very good now in general (there are moments....), and carrying this way is very rotator cuff-friendly. 

The painter worked so well that I put one on my Old Town canvas.  The boat weighs 58 pounds, but somehow the boat always carried heavy, and I never understood why until I put the painter in.  With the painter, and my shoulders down, I can feel the pads wanting to slide off my back.  A-ha moment - the pads are placed too far back in the yoke, so with my neck tucked into the yoke, the pads don't quite get all the way up on my shoulders.  Argh. 

Sparing some explanation, I need to move the pads forward to some pre-existing holes so they rest up on my shoulder properly, and I need to move the yoke backward to achieve something akin to balance.  
 
I'm officially a fan of using a painter.  The biggest downside is that if I leave them in the boats full time, they will pose a hazard in getting the boat on and off the car.  I really need to make sure I'm clear of the roof rack bar and not wrapped around it or that could lead to unpleasantness!

dontgroandaddy wrote:

... The biggest downside is that if I leave them in the boats full time, they will pose a hazard in getting the boat on and off the car.  I really need to make sure I'm clear of the roof rack bar and not wrapped around it or that could lead to unpleasantness!

I pass the painters up under the seats and thwarts just before loading the canoe on the truck. They get tied together around the yoke. That keeps them out of the way. 

I will note that I also use a Yakima Boat Loader extension bar with my racks which gives me a place to rest the canoe and adjust the ropes before I finish loading. 
 

Overall, I think there isn't much downside to having a painter as it only takes about 30 seconds or less to untie mine. This is something I do regularly because I don't have the luxury of owning my own boat (yet somehow we spend twice the cost of a quality boat on our annual family vacations ... some day !). My painter has a bowline on one end that I use to feed the other end through, such that it is looped around the "front handle" of the canoe. The other end is tied in a simple buntline hitch to a thwart or seat. My painter often serves double duty as a small clothes line at campsites.