Savage River Canoes

My mind is bouncing all over the place, build another cedar stripper, buy a tripping boat or maybe a race boat… and winter is just getting started…



I’ve known Savage River has always made racing canoes, but somehow stumble into their website and noticed they have a rec line. A tripping canoe with racer bloodlines, sounds fast…



Looking mainly at the Blackwater, this boat meets the requirements for the stock C1 racing class so that tells me it’s pretty quick. So I’m guessing if I entered the Clinton Regatta it would do just fine. But how will it’s racer bloodlines affect it in a different world, like the Boundary Waters?



And then there is the question of how durable is a 17’ hull that weights 27# How well do these boats hold up? I would think similar to an ultralight wenonah? Never had one. Lets compare it to a gel coated kevlar hull?



Any thoughts on these boats is greatly appreciated.



Thanks, Mike

Susquehanna in carbon kevlar
is also accepted in C-1 stock for the Clinton and the ACC-90 miler. A good fast and light boat that’s becoming more popular in upstate NY and elsewhere. As for durability, I wouldn’t take it on any rocky rivers, but it’ll handle the usual scrapes and dings associated with the portages between bodies of flatwater.

Susquehanna
In C1 stock?

C-1??
Randy,

Every Savage River Susquehanna i have ever seen has two seats.

Bill

What have you been smoking Randy ?
Or are you planning on removing one of the seats in mine and making it a solo for yourself?



Jack L



PS: the little travel trailer model looks great on our little Christmas tree on the picnic table here in the Keys

That’s it Jack
Randy is looking for an XL solo. Better keep your canoe locked up.

Savage River
I owned a Savage River Wee Lassie set up for kneeling and paddled it a lot for 3 years with a lot of ADK wilderness tripping. Mine was the carbon/kevlar with an extra layer of kevlar making a whopping 15# weight. It was unbelivably tough. I thought I wrecked it many times and never found any damage. This included nasty beaver dam downstream runs,running into rocks dead on and glancing,and once dropping it off the top of my packframs onto solid rock. Enough said.

Turtle

Sorry
I didn’t address the comparison to gelcoated hulls. I have cracked the gelcoat and stressed the laminite on several boats doing the same things that didn’t hurt the Savage River it just flexed with no cracks. I know it’s been duscussed before,but exceot for abrasion and uv resistance,boats without gellcoat hold up better for me.

Turtle

Blackwater

– Last Updated: Dec-16-12 5:56 PM EST –

You could always get the boat made in the whitewater layup. I came very close to buying that boat a few years ago. I test paddled the Otegan and a strip built Blackwater that was used to make the mold. The Blackwater was quite stable and had good speed. The only reason I didn't buy it was that I was able to get a better deal on a Rapidfire which included a paddle. I still would like to get a Blackwater though. As for durability, I don't think you could go wrong with his lighter layup either. I looked at many of the boats John uses and stores at his shop. They all look to be up to the task of handling some abuse.

I would think IMHO a carbon outer with an extra layer of kevlar in the bottom of the standard layup would be a tougher boat than a ultralight layup Wenonah.