A friend calls them "boomalooms"
Because of their noise.
But if that’s what a person can afford to get on the water, nothing wrong with that.
I take exception
with Charlie. I like McDonald’s coffee.
Consumer reports
rated their “Premium” coffees better than Starbucks 
I agree with Mark (NM)
My opinion
– Last Updated: Nov-30-08 8:53 AM EST –
I dreamed about but never owned an aluminum canoe because they were expensive when I was young. It was always a joke to say that you could tell a rich person because they owned an aluminun Grumman Canoe.
Even to this day (and some call it noise) the sound of water bouncing of the hull of an aluminum canoe is wonderful and brings back pleasant childhood memories.
They seem to pass the test of time.
G_K
for fishing or hunting?
I think an aluminum canoe would be very noisy for fishing especially on shallow water flats where stealth is part of the technique. Are you using the canoe for fishing or hunting? If so, look at royalex if cost is an issue.
Agree with most of what was said especially with Charlie’s post. My childhood and teen year experiences with canoes involved aluminum canoe rentals. When I got into paddling again I never even thought about buying a canoe because I could only remember how horrible it was back then to paddle those noisy canoes. Kayaks were the way to go!
canoe material
– Last Updated: Nov-30-08 11:21 AM EST –
You have it a little backwards.Aluminum is the one material that will outlast them all .Light they usually arent.Zero maintanance.Not expensive. Now for the bad part.Noisy killing the serenity of a wild place of paddle, cold in coolweather hot in hot weather youd better protect your skin. Seats are set no changing them for position to trim canoe or paddle backwards if you wanted to solo.I think they are also flat bottomed hulls and so that has there set of problems as well(louzy secondary stability, most wetted surface so not a fast hull).Kevlar and their composites are the lightest,followed by glass, aluminum ,Royalex and then polyethylene plastics.Heres a few pointers .Number one--weight,keep it down to 55lbs or less and if strictly solo 45-50.any less and it could be too fragile less durable and blow with the wind too easily and less prim stability. Number two keep the length very conservative for the job.Solo around 14-15 max,tandem 16-17 max.Keep the beam middle width-solo 30-33"max,tandem 33-35" max.Rocker-have 1" but no more than 1.5" for solo and no more than 2" tandem .Depth- never less than 12" and less than 14".Also stick to a shallow arch hull shape . Number three-buy Bill Masons Quietwater paddling dvd and learn some of those strokes especially the various Js.ps- my favorite paddling canoes are all wood canvas,first removed from the original birchbarks,they paddle sooo beautifully,look gorgeous,can last for ever,weigh perfectly,and are a family heirloom .To me plastics are all clones and just dont fit right in the environment you paddle.But you would never know this unless you have one.Oh yeah and four-unless your doing whitewater steady get a narrow bladed wood paddle no more than 6" wide so theres less stress on your shoulder joints .Ottertails or Beavertails shape Solid cherry would be a nice start.
Aluminum canoes aren’t inexpensive.
Cost as much as royalex, these days.
A good aluminum canoe
tends to be heavy. If the gauge is too thin, you might as well paddle in Reynolds Wrap.
At least dont go on a true whitewater river. Wraps are kind of permanent and ripped aluminum boats litter the boreal forest.
They are just fine for getting out there and paddling. You can do BWCA type trips in them until you get old and decrepit which is sooner for some than others.
Some designs are good and some bad. We have an aluminum canoe that we like to do FreeStyle in mostly to demo that its not about the boat per se. Grummans make decent Canadian Style Solo boats but you have to rail them to get the keel out of the water.
Its pretty funny watching a lousy beat up boat dance.
Other pros: They make a good lobster cooker and sun bath tub. And they make a good compost container. The heat of decomposition will not melt them. We use one to empty the outhouse cone in. It has a skull and crossbones on it as its too leaky to paddle and because of its “off season” use.
Ergo it was pretty alarming to find two people paddling it, blissfully unaware also that it had drainage holes drilled by my husband
Somehow I have Caught
I have caught soooo many fish while fishing out of an aluminum canoe…what have I done wrong??? I have an aluminum canoe right now . I had a Gruman eagle canoe that was very good and light. Aluminun is tough. Iwrapped one a long time ago it was a cheap sears 17’ and got out on shore. Pulled it off the rocks with a hoist and then after beating it back into shape with a log and a rock paddled it for two more days to finish the trip. Once home I beat on it some more so that it would look better. It never leaked!!! I sold it a year or two later. I would much rather have aluminum than fiberglass. But to each their own. Plastic boats are great and we have 5 plastic kayaks right now. But plastic scratches so very easily!!! Plastic doesn’t take prolonged sun exposure very well. I left two aluminum canoes out in my back yard for over 10 years and they showed no effects from weathering. Try putting a plastic boat out in full sun for 10 years!!!
The noise factor can be greatly
reduced with some thin minicell and seats can be padded.
The biggest problem I have with them
How many people do you hear say they fell out of a canoe when they tried paddling? People often think canoes are unsafe and can’t be trusted, and when you ask, the only canoes they have ever been in are flat bottom aluminum canoes.
The flat bottom typical to aluminum canoes makes them feel pretty stable when sitting still and not in motion. They have high initial stability.
That flat bottom creates a suction on the water, BUT as soon as you start to tip it over to the side a bit, you break that suction and Bloop, it very quickly looses all stability and tosses you and your gear/lunch out into the water with very little warning.
A canoe with a shallow arch hull shape like most composite canoes have will feel a bit tippy by comparison just sitting around, but as you lean them over you have more boat in the water and they become MORE stable at you tilt them over.
I bought a barely used Wenonah Sundowner from a friend at work who was spooked by the lower initial stability and was selling it to buy a Grumman which he felt was more stable paddling on the pond he used it on.
Boat snobbery …
I’ve run large sections of the Snake (Wy & ID) and large sections of the Green River (Utah)in Aluminum canoes and had more fun than I knew how to deal with it. Personally anything that gets you out on the water is fine. Would I paddle an aluminum canoe in surf or down the Grand Canyon … no, but they are pretty versatile and durable.
Yup.
They are good.
Durable (especially in sun/snow/weather outside)
Tough (especially abrasion)
Stable (especially when loaded)
I like the 17’ Grumman.
I own 7 canoes, no aluminum. There are far better boats for my uses. If I had to chain a boat to a tree at the cabin, it would be an aluminum (though I hear they are getting stolen now because the price recyclers are offering).
The fish thing is nonesense, fish aren’t scared of bassboats, or trawlers, or anything, really - it is their downfall.
Fishing and noise.
I fish shallow tropical lagoons and bays where the slightest noise will send the bonefish and permit off the flats. Maybe it won’t make a difference where you fish but it sure makes a difference where I fish.
String made a good suggestion of using foam to help with the noise.
Stability
It’s not a matter of “suction” of the flat bottom to the water, because as the boat tips, one side goes deeper and the other slides up smoothly at an angle. It’s not at all like pulling a piece of plywood off the water straight up. See the Wenonah catalog for a very good diagram explaining how this works for both flat-bottom and shallow-arch hulls. What actually happens is that if you tip the boat far enough, the width of the boat which is in the water reaches a point where it becomes rapidly narrower with additional tipping, and THAT’s the danger point where most folks are apt to fall over the rest of the way. Boats with lots of secondary stability have a waterline width that gradually gets wider as the boat is tipped.
The fact is though, it IS very nearly impossible to tip over most aluminum canoes on flat water, but in moving water, where there are strong eddylines or obstacles to get pinned sideways on, that lack of stability during extreme tipping is likely to get you. Of course, the same is true of canoes made from any other material in hull designs marketed for the masses.
Aluminum, Weight, Longevity, etc.
The only “really lightweight” canoes made from aluminum are things like - I can’t remember the name - is it “Sportspal”? I’ll think of it later. Those boats really are light, but they are also very easily dented and torn. Regular aluminum canoes are usually about the same weight as Royalex, so the weight isn’t too bad, but they aren’t exactly lightweight either. These “regular” aluminum canoes will last forever though. Grumman canoes are the most rugged (more rivets per inch of seam than the other brands), but the few remaining brands (I don’t think there are many anymore), including Alumicraft, are fine.
Like almost everyone else, I got my start in aluminum canoes, and there’s a soft spot in my heart for them, but I wouldn’t buy one for myself these days. Again, it may be fine for you, as most of the mundane handling traits I and other posters have mentioned are not a concern to anyone who just wants to get on the water and doesn’t care too much about learning to make the best use of the boat. But with the price difference between aluminum and Royalex being so small, I’d still recommend Royalex. There’s a much larger variety of hull designs available in Royalex too.
Dunno, there used to be some real lite
Grumman lightweights. Not that much heavier than all the composite “Futzlight” canoes if you equate for carrying capacity.
My main problem with aluminum is that the hull designs are usually slow and conservative.
aluminum is great
aluminum is great for folding around a large rock,-Bert
I like aluminum canoes
That is, I like aluminum canoes in front of me when paddling down rocky rivers. That aluminum thunder lets you know where the rocks are
Seriously, I am like most other posters here. I started out with aluminum canoes. The first canoe I bought was aluminum. However, once I started canoeing rivers I quickly changed over to Royalex. Weight about the same, canoe design is more versatile, and they slide over the rocks instead of grabbing them.