Wenonah Advantage discontinued?

I checked the Wenonah website today and I can’t find the Advantage anymore. It used to be under the “Racing Canoes” tab, but it’s not there anymore.



The new website has been kind of funky since the beginning and it still gives me problems sometimes, so I don’t know if it’s just a glitch or it’s really gone from the lineup.

Retired, but you can order
The model isn’t current anymore, but they will still build one for you. TW Flexcore, Kev Flex, Kev UL, and Graphite are available, starting at $1999.



Contact your local Wenonah dealer and they can take care of it for you.

If the mold is OK
Wenonah stores at least some of their molds not being used for current production outdoors and sometimes they warp. I sure hope that is not the case for the Advantage.



They will probably charge you at least a $50 mold reconditioning fee.

not be surprized if it came up again
In Germany the advantage is still in the 2014 catalogue. I had a chat last week with one of the wenonah guys who should know. He recommended the advantage for the padling I do.

What is the new
go fast solo for the USCA stock class? Is Wenonah planning on just letting Diller and The Newman brothers

dominate the stock racing circuit? J-Boats are fine

but many of us do not have access to venues to paddle a J-boat on do to wakes and wind.

What are the current class regulations?
If I wanted a fast touring canoe… I’d not even consider the Advantage. Options include:



http://www.placidboats.com/shadow.html

http://grbnewmandesigns.com/classicxl.htm

http://www.savageriver.com/canoes/racing/blackwater

http://www.swiftcanoe.com/canoe/solo/shearwater.htm



…though if Ted Bell is now producing something like the old Bell Magic, that would still remain my preference :slight_smile:

Magic
Magic has been in production by Bell Composites, Zimmerman MN, for over a year.

Web Site
And yet when you go to their 2014 Web Site the first picture to pop up is titled “Advantage at rest”

True
The still have that picture.

Changing the subject a bit
I’m looking at a used (20+ years) tuf-weave Spirit II, which is supposed to be in good to excellent condition. I have yet to see it. Any ideas about how much it’s worth?

Really depends
20 years ago Wenonah made the Spirit II in layups that are no longer used. Some are more desirable than others. The trim levels vary from basic aluminum to all wood. Seats can be buckets or cane or web, fixed or sliders bow and stern. Three different yokes. Weight could go from low 50’s to high 60’s. Condition also makes the price change. Value could vary from $500 to $1000.

Bill

depends on the build
as previously noted, they made it in a couple TW layups back then.



If it has brown/tan interior paint with ribs along the floor, it was the stock TufWeave layup. If it’s not scratched and banged up and it has the stock silver alum gunwales, maybe $400-600 (new they were $900 back then).



If it’s TW with a clear interior (you can see the diamond core), it’s TW/core and in good shape with standard equipment, $600-800. Add $100-150 in value if it has wood gunwales, or $50 if it has black aluminum trim. Subtract $50 for cane seats, since you’ll be spending to replace them with webbed seats sooner or later.

shearwater?
I can see those others getting cruising up to about 9 kmh. as well as the advantage.

If the shearwater is a big osprey, it will not come near that kind of speeds.


Thanks for the advice
From what I can gather and the pictures I’ve seen, it has bucket seats and aluminum trim. The owner seems to think it’s in the low 60 lb. range, maybe 62. That is too heavy for my wife to handle her end when loading and unloading. Plus he wants too much ($1,200) and doesn’t seem to want to budge. So fuggedaboutit.

You need a different loading method!

– Last Updated: Jan-28-14 12:37 PM EST –

Here I am on my kick about people doing things the hard way. If you've read any of my numerous posts about why it is completely unnecessary for a solo boater to lift the boat over their head when loading, you can imagine that the same can be true for a tandem couple.

(Bear with me through the intro part here). My method for solo loading is to put the rear cross bar close enough to the back of the car that one end can be put up there while the other end is on the ground, or one end can be guided up there while carrying the canoe on the shoulders, then I step out from under it with one end on the rear bar and the other on the ground, so I can simply grab the other end and slide it up. I've done that with heavy aluminum canoes and fishing boats too. Clearly if your wife doesn't want to help load the boat, you should be able to do it alone if your rack is set up for this kind of loading (and there are about three other methods that work in the same fashion, one of which I'll mention below).

When I load a boat of the weight you describe here with the help of my girlfriend, who like your wife, can't lift her end of the boat overhead, so she simply holds her end of the boat at waist level while I lift MY end up onto the back cross bar. And if she couldn't hold her end that long, she could simply set it on the ground while I lift my end. From that point, it's just as described above, except that SHE pushes the boat up onto the roof. Once you've got one end of the canoe overlapping a bar, a child can accomplish the rest (the free end of the boat gets progressively lighter as the boat is pushed forward).

Now, if you can't put your rear cross bar that far back on the car, buy or build a loading bar that extends out off one end of one of the existing cross bars (If you lived near me, I'd custom build a clip-on loading aid for you). Use any of the normal one-ended loading methods (solo carrying or tandem), then once one end is up on that extender and overlapping by a few feet, you can go back and pick up the other end and shuffle it to the side so it's on the other cross bar. Then go back to the end that on the extender bar and shuffle it sideways onto the main cross bar as well. A side-extending bar can also be used at the rear cross bar for loading the boat from the rear, and though requiring a bit more boat-handling dexterity, the effort required is much less because as you slide it farther forward it becomes necessary to lift only a very small fraction of the boat's weight (just as when you can use your rear cross bar alone as your loading aid). But even when a side-extension bar is used the normal way, once the overhead-lifting part comes, you'll only be lifting one-third of the boat's weight, and in the case of this boat, that's just 20 pounds.

There's nothing wrong with wanting the lightest boat practical, but to assume a boat must be below a certain weight to allow overhead lifting is short-sighted. Just because many people DO use the overhead lifting method doesn't mean it's the only way.

Right about the loading technique
And I had forgotten all about the extension rod that Yakima sells, which telescopes out of one bar. It makes it a piece of cake for one person to load a heavy boat.

Oh good
You didn’t even need an explanation of the “how” and “why”. Maybe the explanation will help someone else.



Good luck finding a decent boat at a better price.

does the
Shadow fall into the stock class or pack canoe class? The shearwater looks like a fine boat but I doubt it is fast enough to compete against Advantages, Shockwaves

Dy specials Dillers or Classic XLs.

Once again is Wenonah deserting the go fast segment or the market?