I worked on this today..Converted my Bell tandem NorthStar to a Solo.
Seat Color is a little different, but worked out great. Now all I need is the water to un-freeze.
Can't wait to try it out!!
SunCatcher

Suncatcher, that's one nice looking boat. What's the length of your Northstar and what compelled you to convert it?

16.5 feet in lenth and I want to be able to SOLO and didn't have the funds right now to buy a "true solo boat" this one had a kneeling Thwart, I have used in the past. But sits to high up only a couple inches. The new seat I put in has a 4 inch drop and will add to stability. I am planning a solo up the gunflint and possibly Quetico
First timer on the solo..but have plenty of time to practice.
SunCatcher

Awesome idea!

Being fortunate enough to have a wife that just ok'd spending our retirement on a couple of canoes, we just picked up the Northstar and Magic in BlackGold from Midwest Mountaineering in Minneapolis (great place/great people). Can hardly wait for water as well. Anyway, I was planning to put the kneeling thwart in the Northstar so that I could go soloing along with one of my kids, which would be a ton of fun, and still use it as a tandem with my wife (or one of my kids), and one of the grandkids. Now I see your center seat idea, and realize that that's the cat's meow for the grandkids instead of plunking them on the floor. And as a solo, that's got to beat the kneeling thwart by a country mile! Thanks for the terrific idea.

Howard

SC, I'm very interested in how easy the NorthStar is to paddle solo. With a 34" beam it seems just a tad wide. It could be a great tripping boat with a dog and the usual gear. I'd adapt my MorningStar to solo use but the 36" beam is just too big.

Koda, that kneeling thwart that came with it was back to FAR in my estimation. So the Seat being placed ahead and lower will help a lot.
Most of the time I would kneel when soloing it when the Kneeling Thwart was in...but got tired of kneeling, especially fishing. So decided to go this way. It's Really only 31 inches where the seat is so will paddle just fine I feel, but won't know till the hard water leaves.
SunCatcher

SC I think you could sit in the bow seat faceing aft pull out the support and put your pack up front (back) of the canoe to keep the nose down. I've done this in my SR Q17. When I don't have a pack I take one of my waterproof bags fill it half full of water to keep the bow down in the wind. Works pretty good, moving to far forward your gonna be sitting at the widest part of the canoe, might be a bit hard paddleing. Anyway you did one hell of a nice job on your canoe I hope she works out for ya. I have to agree hard water has got to go.

Other reason for doing is I want to take Molly my black lab.
I will have a lot more room for her and my shit.

I think a solo canoe that wide would be easier to paddle with a long (260cm or longer)yak paddle.

Nice work Suncatcher. I see no reason why the North Star wouldn't make a good solo canoe. I have a middle seat in my Northwind for when I take trips with just my kid and that works fine and the Northwind is about a foot longer.

Bells are such perdy canoes!

your present specs are similar to the sriver 16 tandem/solo.
i owned one for 5 years, it was a dream to paddle and fish out of solo. actually the sr 16 is 16.2.
i am taking a solo again this may for the first time in 5 years.
renting a sr 16. can't wait to paddle that boat again.

i also chose the SR Q16 (tandem) as my solo boat. the specs for this particular boat are identical to what has been considered the recipe for long distance solo travel on northern waters. stable, safe, easy to paddle in a variety of conditions, generous load capacity that doesn't sacrifice freeboard...and fast enough. bought a year old boat at half of new retail.

guys want to put speed up at the top of the list when selecting a solo boat. i want safety at the top of the list, with speed in there at around 4th or 5th.

i got caught in a big wind crossing a lake near the manitoba border in 08 and surfed the last 2km into a portage landing. scared the hell out of me, but also convinced me i was in the right boat for this type of solo travel. you're on your own, and you want a boat that will get you home.

Please post how this works out. I have thought this would be a good "Big guy" solo with a conversion. My river solo I use now is a "Converted" Mad River Explorer 15 that I installed center seat and put in a couple thwarts and pulled the gunnels in about 1.5-2". Looking forward to hearing your input! Here's a picture of my converted boat. TW

I dropped a center seat in my Bell Starfire - but didn't take out the other seats and it works fine as a solo. If I wanted to save weight or needed the extra room I would pull the seats and put in thwarts. This boat is more of a river tripper than a open water boat because of the the 15' length and the rocker (3"/3"-I think bought it used)- but if I need to keep up with someone that is haulin a$$ I can take out the yak paddle that I bring as my spare.

I've removed the stern seat of my Bell MorningStar and turned the bow seat around so it slopes down toward the middle of the boat. Also moved the forward thwart so it's in the new forward position. It remains to be seen how well it paddles with gear plus dog.

Thanks everyone for the feedback...when we hit liquid water instead of frozen will give update on paddling pleasure.
SunCatcher

Hey, Jolietlake, if you get tired of that Starfire I know someone who's been looking for one in decent shape for a few years now (ME)! TW

I have had the NorthStar out 3 times since converting to Solo. After two trips out decided seat was to far forward. Sooooo moved it back about a foot from where I had it. I took it out today for 1.5 hours fishing and paddling. LOVE it. Narrowed it up where I am sitting so paddles easier then before because a little narrower where the seat is now. Also got to try our my new Sawyer Ottertail (Cedar) Paddle.
Loved it to. I will take out tomorrow and take some pictures. Only drawback is drilled a few to many holes in gunwales (oh well) Nice part also it doesn't take long to drop old seats back in to tandem it.
SunCatcher (Oh yea caught a couple Nebraska Bass today.)

I will be using my SR17 in a solo trip. I simply removed the cross bar for the bow seat and then sit on it backwards. It works fine as long as I put some weight up front. I also bought a 260 cm kayak paddle and I highly recommend it. It certainly won't be as fast as a solo canoe but I really appreciate the stability