Wenonah Argosy vs Wilderness

You can get the Argosy in

– Last Updated: Oct-28-12 5:27 PM EST –

Tuf-weave as well, windwalker. You just have to ask.

Speaking of which, I can run a tape over my Tuf-weave Argosy Charlie. Just confirm exactly where you want me to measure to?

Cheers. Jacob.

Kevlar Ultralight Argosy
I have one, and I’d be willing to measure, too. Let me know where to measure if you’d like this info.



Jeremy

estimating waterline length with a tape
Just lay the tape down the keel line of an upside down hull, hold it tight and straight. For Argosy, have a friend hold the end of the tape at estimated 3.5 inches up st the stern due to minimal stern rocker, then estimate ~2.5" up from tape to the bow, compensating for bow rocker, and read the number.

Wildfire
I went and test paddled the wildfire on a lake yesterday afternoon. In a one word description - predictable. It did everything I asked, and didn’t give me any grief. Felt fine flat or on a rail.



So I added a nice old Wildfire to my stable. The previous owner said he had purchased it from Karen Knight, but I couldn’t find her autograph anywhere.



Was gonna hit up a Class II+ run with it today, but the wife wanted to paddle so we hit a nice scenic creek. The cool part was when we got to the put-in they were releasing water from the dam in prep for Sandy hitting hard tomorrow. I knew this before we went, by looking at the river gauge, but didn’t tell the wife. :wink: Everything else was too low. It was pretty cool getting on a flooded creek before the rains even started. It was running fast and in the trees. No WW just fast current with some swirly eddy lines. The Wildfire yielded no surprises and we got along just fine.



So for know my search and desire for a solo river tripper is quenched. Pending further adventures with the Wildfire.



Thanks for all the informative discussion.



Mike


For someone
With the skill to control that loose stern, you probably got the best of the litter.

Got to like a happy ending.

– Last Updated: Oct-29-12 4:44 AM EST –

Just to wrap things up: the composite Argosy waterline length, for all intents and purposes, is 14' lightly loaded.

One more
endorsement. We recently brought an old Wildfire into our household for my wife to paddle. She had been practicing freestyle moves in an Argosy. The Wildfire is a big improvement. It turns easier and heels further and more predictably. And, it feels faster. Should have started with the Wildfire. We’ll sell the Argosy in the spring.



Peter

I think his Wildfire is Rx
from what I read earlier in the discussion.

Wildfire. Not Wildfire. Confusion.
No one has any idea what canoe is being discussed when someone says Bell “Wildfire”. That’s because Bell immorally named two different canoes with the same name, causing massive customer confusion that still continues 10 years later, and that borders on fraud.



The real Wildfire is the symmetrically rockered hull originally produced by Bell, then Placid, and now Colden. The differentially rockered and changed shouldered hull that Bell first and immorally called a Wildfire was later changed to Yellowstone (as others have pointed out above), due probably for legal reasons when the real Wildfire production was moved to Placid.



This name confusion poisons all the “Wildfire” reviews on this site. It’s hard to know which hull is under discussion.



I vote never to call a differentially rockered hull a Wildfire no matter what Bell originally called the Yellowtone. Call it a Yellowstone. Only the symmetrically rockered hull should be called Wildfire, and it has never been made in Royalex.



I think Windwalker got a Yellowstone because he said it was Royalex. Because of this confusion, I have no idea which hull Pete Georg’s wife is paddling, though I have little doubt that in either case it’s a better freestyle canoe than an Argosy.

RX verse composite hulls

– Last Updated: Oct-29-12 7:01 PM EST –

It seem Royalex hulls are always differ from their composite versions. This goes back to the Mad River Explorer, which was shorter with blunter ends and less V in RX than in composite.

It is also true of Argosy, Cascade and Wilderness and the Mad River Guide/ Freedom as well as Bell's offerings. Of course those variations pale into insignificance when looking at Hemlock's composite Shaman and the Mohawk RX version.

The RX WildFire had do differ from the Composite because the abrupt shoulders wouldn't release from a vacuum forming mold, and of course the RX sandwich cannot bend to yield as tight an entry line. That we also halved the stern rocker doesn't seem to be a moral sin, hell, everything else was different, we were trying to improve performance for an entry level market. [RX was ~half the Kev price.]

The name change had to do with contractual arrangements. Bell de-emphasized the Wild in favor of the composite YS Solo because they owed fewer royalties for YSS.

It's probably not worth getting to exercised about which $0.50 decal got stuck on a canoe. There is more variation between other Comp[/VFRX hulls by several other manufacturers.

In the beginning there wss one WildFire mold; 14 'X30", symmetrical 2.5" rocker. There is also just one vacuum forming mold for a similar RX hull with differential rocker, length maintained but shoulders softened and a single mold for a differentially rocker composite variant with higher shoulders.

LOL
Karen always liked a boat too big for her, but I never remember her paddling a Wild. Always a Flash. But that was too big for her too technically.



I think you will have some happy paddling with that boat.

It is a Royalex Yellowstone Solo

Karen Knight in a Viper 12
There is some footage in the video “Drill Time” of Karen paddling a Viper 12 OC-1, which would be a very big boat for her indeed.

Really?
It sure looks to me that the proud stems on that boat overhang the LWL by more than a combined 6". I would have guessed that the LWL of the Argosy was somewhat under 14’ as Kim said.



To thoroughly beat a dead horse, if the true LWL of the Argosy is 14’ the LWL/BWL ratio would be 6.2. Wenonah lists a BWL of 29.75 for the Wilderness for a LWL/BWL of 5.95, virtually identical to the Yellowstone Solo if the ratio listed on Bell’s website is correct.



I do suspect that the Argosy can be driven a little faster than the YS by a really determined paddler but to me the YS feels subjectively a little quicker to accelerate.

Lotsa replies huh!
I bet windwalker didn’t expect such numerous, thorough and experienced number of replies to this thread! Very informative and lot of experience here! For one, I certainly do appreciate the knowledge of most replies here! Thanks

It’s more than just mold differences

– Last Updated: Oct-30-12 1:36 PM EST –

Yes, it is common for a Royalex version of a hull design to end up with dimensional differences from the composite version, simply because of the differences in material and the molding/manufacturing differences that accompany those different materials.

But the Yellowstone is clearly a different design from the Wildfire. Compare the composite Yellowstone to the composite Wildfire, a case where we can factor out molding/manufacturing differences occasioned by Royalex. They are different boats, and not just in the rocker line.

The sin is not in reducing stern rocker. That may be an advantage to many paddlers. And I'm not claiming the Wildfire or the Yellowstone is the better boat. They are both very nice boats. But they are different boats.

Different boats should have different names. Otherwise, you could have 30 very different hulls called a Prospector. Oh, I forgot, we do.

Bell's original sin of trying to eat too frequently of the successful Wildfire apple continues to snake its confusing legacy throughout all of canoeing mankind, frequently here on this board, by rendering almost useless many of the "Wildfire" reviews as well as rendering ambiguous many classified Wildfire ads. Many people are simply unaware of what hull they own, or what hull they are buying or selling, unless they are aware of this tortured nomenclatural history.

When I was negotiating to buy a used composite Wildfire from a seller 500 miles away, the seller had no idea about this issue and no clue as to whether his stern rocker was the same as his bow rocker. Professor Wilson was a great help in identifying the year of manufacture for me, but couldn't recall at the time when the composite Yellowstone mold was made or whether Bell had called its early Yellowstone composites by the Wildfire name, as it had its Royalex version.

So he went the extra mile and contacted Dave Yost to reconstruct the timeline of this whole issue. As I recall, he and DY concluded via the mold history that no composite Yellowstones had ever been marketed by Bell as Wildfires. This gracious effort gave me confidence that I was getting the hull I wanted.

However, it really shouldn't require these kinds of divine interventions to figure out what the hull you are buying.

So
So what do I have? The HIN says it’s from 2001, it’s green RX and has a Bell Wildfire sticker.



Not that I really care as I like the way THIS boat handles, I’m just curious.



Great info for sure, albeit a bit confusing.

Is it Royalex?
If it is a Royalex boat with a Wildfire label it is the hull with differential rocker that was later renamed the Yellowstone Solo.



If it is composite, it is the symmetrical hull that was always known as the Wildfire.

Your royalex Wildfire = Yellowstone Solo

– Last Updated: Oct-30-12 10:58 AM EST –

I have one of those, also.

If you refer to it from now on as a royalex Yellowstoe Solo, most people will know exactly what you're talking about and you'll avoid confusion.

Another option is to refer to it as a royalex Wildfire/Yellowstone Solo.

pblanc: my W/L length for the composite
Argosy is a rough estimate at best. I tried to include an appropriate amount of stem depth as per Charlie’s instructions. Put a bantam weight paddler in one with no gear and I’m sure it would be less. But load it up and the W/L length would be more like 14’2", maybe even topping out at 14’3". Charlie’s the closest well get to a constant on this. So until he puts a tape over one…



Cheers. Jacob.