I am an avid paddler with over 30 years experience in canoes and kayaks. I have paddled all over the world -- on long multi-day flat water pack trips, several week sea kayak camping trips and various whitewater. Was recently able to test out a very well made Nielsen Outrigger on my 17' Bell Northwind Canoe. The owner, Wayne Nielsen, modified the clamps to fit the kind of irregular shape of my aluminum gunwales on the Northwind.
The outrigger has a aluminum tubular center mount that runs across your boat and clamps onto your gunwales and locks it in very tight. All fasteners and clamps are stainless steel and the mount itself is very stout and conveniently extends out; adjusting in length from your gunwales to a considerable distance. On the ends of the mount are your pontoon floats -- again of very high quality thickly sealed fiberglass.
Everything in this outrigger system is of the highest quality and easily adjusts and sets up without too much fuss. I also found Wayne to be very willing to want to help me and modify his unit to fit my Bell. Just a great guy to deal with. Recently paddled my local lake with my wife and our two 100 lbs labs. I was shocked at the stability of the boat using the outrigger. Both of us could stand up and move around and there was no chance of the boat flipping -- even when the dogs got up and moved around. I was equally surprised at how the pontoons did not seem to slow us down that much when paddling.
I highly recommend this outrigger to fisherman and others who require stability in their canoe. I also found the boat handled well in the wind with the outrigger system attached. It actually helped its tracking. I plan on using my canoe with the Nielsen Outrigger down at the coast for fly fishing. I am also currently working on modifying a Balogh upwind sail rig to use with this outrigger.
Overall, I very pleased with the ingenuity and quality of this product. Please contact Wayne at 715-825-4336 or www.nielsensoutriggercompany.com for more information.
