AMC Outdoors, May 2007
Choose the right canoe.
The canoe is an evolutionary marvel, a basic design that, like sharks in the natural world, cannot be improved upon, only varied subtly to best suit its intended purpose. Choosing a canoe therefore depends less on overall design and more on what you plan to do with it.
I once bought an ancient canoe for $100. It had been wrapped—caught on a rock in a fast-flowing river—the hull literally turned inside out. The owner retired it to pond duty, where his kids used it for many years. Today I keep it at a friend’s cottage on the Chesapeake, where it sees occasional service ferrying friends to an idyllic spot around the point. That canoe is perfectly suited to its life purpose. I’d have been crazy to spend more. So before you buy, think first about your needs.
A GOOD REC In the Northeast, you probably want your canoe to do a little bit of everything, from navigating gentle streams topaddling interconnected lakes. A good choice for that purpose is a recreational canoe—a kind of waterborne jack-of-all-trades. Typically 14–17 feet in length, these boats are designed with a moderate amount of rocker, the banana-like curve along a boat’s waterline. More rocker makes a canoe easier to turn, but also slower and more difficult to paddle in a straight line.
With its moderate rocker, wide beam, flat bottom, and relatively sharp entry, recreational canoes do most things competently, and few things really well. They’re large enough for two adult paddlers, a child or a dog, and gear for a few days. Yet they are agile enough to handle solo. This type of boat will hold a course easily and can also manage easy rapids.
MATERIAL WORLD Recreational canoes are typically made of durable plastic and foam layups, which will take a beating and won’t break the bank. Royalex is the most commonly used material; a new Royalex canoe will set you back $800 to $1,200. You can also buy a boat made from molded plastic, which is heavier and less expensive, reflecting the classic tradeoff in all modern canoe materials: weight versus price.
The gold-standard for canoe performance remains composite construction, using varius combinations of fiberglass, Kevlar, and carbon fiber. A 16-foot molded plastic canoe weighs about 80 pounds—almost double the weight of a 16-foot Kevlar boat. The tradeoff? A top-of-the-line Kevlar canoe starts at about $2,000, and some models cost nearly twice that much. If you’re planning long trips with many portages—such as in the Adirondack lakes or in Ontario’s incomparable Quetico Provincial Park, you’ll appreciate a hull that glides easily through the water and doesn’t weigh too heavily on your shoulders.
SPECIALTY BOATS Tripping canoes, also known as cruising or touring canoes, range from 17 to 19 or more feet long. Thanks to their sharp entry and minimal rocker, trippers generally track straight and fast. They glide farther with each stroke and hold their course well in wind. These boats have plenty of space for gear—experienced canoe trippers can easily go a month between re-supply stops—and their lighter construction makes them far easier to carry over portages. If all that sounds irresistible, consider that touring boats are less maneuverable and often tippier than rec canoes. Prices depend on the material, starting at about $1,000 for Royalex and ramping up from there.
Whitewater canoes are another beast entirely. Short, heavily rockered, and typically built of plastic to withstand hard knocks, whitewater boats are perfect for their intended purpose and not much use for anything else. This is the most varied subspecies of canoe, coming in solo and tandem, eight to 14 feet in length, open and decked. (The latter is indistinguishable from a kayak by the untrained eye.) In the right hands, whitewater canoes can handle Class V whitewater—the most challenging level of rapids.
- Jeff Moag
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