Aerodynamic Advantage of a canoe cover?

I recently did a five day trip down the Saint Croix and part of Mississippi river. Up here there’s very little current and a predominantly southern wind. Consequently, I spent four out of five days paddling into the wind. The Winona prism handled great no troubles tracking and no water over to gunnel.

However, all the wind resistance gets tiring. It had me wondering if I had a deck cover at least in the front, would that have made much of an aerodynamic difference? Would it require less effort to paddle into the wind. Does anybody have an experience with this or data?

My experience was with a 17’ 6" solo, Wenonah Voyager.
It was great , upwind or down, but with a side wind it became a battle. It would fight to turn into the wind.
I put a cover on it and that reduced the side wind problem by half.
Into the wind, I felt like we were flying.

2 Likes