so, today i saw a nice looking (demo) Nova Craft Outfitter 16 (SP3) http://www.novacraft.com/canoe_sp3.htm at a reliable store for a good price (about $200 off MSRP) and did a bit of research.
turns out it's the same characteristics as the Prospector 16, just heavier and made out of plastic instead of Royalex or Fiberglass.
so it got me thinking. i could probably purchase this canoe, use it for as couple years (maybe more) and sell it for close to what i paid, if i keep it in good condition and wouldn't have to blow the budget on it.
i could then purchase a side motor mount and a couple of sling seats for the kids for when we all go out.
i know i keep going back and forth between boats, but it's getting close to canoe season and i would rather get one sooner then later.
as nice as a 17' canoe would, it may be too larger for me (newer paddler) to head out on an open lake with a 5y old or solo it in the mornings or evenings.
NC SP3 "Prospector" Bruce, the 16’ SP3 is about 6lbs heavier than my Royalex 16’ NC Prospector. For me, that’s at or above the high end of weight that I am willing to deal with by myself - but if you don’t have to carry it any distance and you don’t have any back problems, I think it would be as good as the Rx version on the water at least. I’ve looked at the SP3 version, and it seems to have the same shape. Don’t care for the plastic seat option, but seats are easy to change. SP3 seem to be pretty darn tough. One I’ve seen has been abused pretty bad (including crashing over a local waterfall with some regularity) but is still intact, though rough-looking.
I think that Prospector is a good way for you to go for your all-around use, but I would still lean towards the 17-footer if you can get it and if you can deal with the added weight (I can’t)…Give your kids a little more room to grow, and you could still solo it Canadian-style okay - so long as you don’t need to do too much quick maneuvering. It will get tossed around by the wind some when solo - but so does the 16-footer. And you can always add ballast to calm that down.
re: we purchased a Canoe well after much debate and research, we ended up with a Brand New 16’ Lil’ Missourisan by Osagian.
we’ll add a couple of slings (already tried them out) and get the whole family in there on the water, square stern so we can add out little electric motor.
i know it’s not a TRUE die hard canoe, but it’ll get us out on the water, will be easy for us to go out alone, or with a dog and will withstand the hard canadian winters and kids.
once the kids get older, we’ll look at a double ender and/or kayaks.
thanks everyone for the suggestions and comments and help. although we didn’t buy anything you suggested, it did help us make the decision we thought was best and we didn’t buy too small, like we would have, if i hadn’t found this forum
thanks again, and i’ll post pictures when we get it on the water. it was quite easy to car top and take off. the 79lbs is distributed nicely over the 16’, seems lighter then out last one and will be nice and durable.
The Osagian has been sold...on to bigger and better things. Luckily, we only took a couple hundred dollar loss on it and got 4 summers out of it.
Our new Nova Craft Pal is ready to hit the water this year!
Thanks Paddling.net for all your help and tips over the past couple years. I don't post as much as many, but am often using the site to read, research and browse. I Must really not post enough, I am referred to as "Old_User" in my older posts.