Water Works Canoe Company 

     Mansfield Center, CT 06250 

       The Bag Lady -nobody does it better!

       Phone 860-456-4906 email: baglady@charter.net 

July shutdown soon to take place, bag orders placed before July 1 will be delivered. However, we are taking a mid-season break and will not be back sewing until the third week in July. Call for details                      The Bag Lady also makes canoe top covers!

Who Are We?                     2010

 Well that is pretty easy question to answer!

We are two people who love the sport. Paddle sport has been in our lives since 1973 when we bought our first Old Town Canoe, a Tripper which proved to be entertaining beyond our expectations. It lead to camping trips, river running, paddling as a family, and in Sue's case a racing career that covered four decades, culminating with a berth on the United States Canoe and Kayak Marathon team. in 1988. If that weren't enough we operated a retail canoe and kayak store (Water Works) for 25 years, growing it to a powerhouse in Eastern Ct. We love every aspect of this sport but were curious as to how it all got started. So Sue took it upon herself to find out. Seven years of research and three of writing led to the publication of "The Old Town Canoe Company: Our First Hundred Years" with David Baker in 1998. It is an outstanding book that any paddler will cherish. The business continued to grow but our lack of energy, or rather our expenditure of energy lead us to leave the retail business in 2005 but we maintained the one thing that has been with us the longest- The Bag Lady! 

The Bag Lady began simply. Sue, a sewer (that's sew-er not sue-er) since seventh grade, thought it prudent to cover her first Kevlar race boat. She appeared at the race and created quite a stir. Before she knew it, others wanted one too. The first bags used panty elastic and bra hooks for closures. Frank Stasz- our first customer remarked, "I'll have NO problem, undoing that set up, I just have to do it in the dark!" We have made many changes in materials and some in design over the years but what has not changed is the quality and character that goes into each bag. We have seen many imitations, but none equal the work done by The Bag Lady. Unlike most, we will always be paddlers, and thus understand your needs. As we celebrate the start of another season-below says it all...

Nobody does it better than the BAG LADY. 

OVER 30 YEARS OF MAKING BAGS!!!!