Bell Seliga Tripper review?

As mentioned in a recent thread, asking for advice on Bell’s black gold layup, I was taken with a Bell Seliga Tripper having had a short solo test paddle of one recently. Anyone with experience of owning this canoe they can share??

Seliga Tripper

– Last Updated: Oct-29-08 8:15 AM EST –

I have the Kevlight version of the Tripper. I bought it used from Piragis in Ely MN. This boat is beautiful. It has the wood trim option. I like the boat for tripping because it hauls a lot of gear. We crossed Brule lake in the Bwca fully loaded in the wind and it handled wonderfully. Day tripping empty is another story. It acts like a sail. Now I think this is because my husband is much heavier than I am. I have not gone out with a more evenly weighted person but believe it would handle much better with the weight more evenly distributed.
I bought this boat because I fell in love with the Joe Seliga story and saw several wood canvas canoes that he made on a trip in the bwca one summer. I decided I wanted a Seliga canoe. When Bell started making them I had to have one. I have my Seliga and am happy with what the boat does best, haul gear.
I would buy this boat again in a second.

Seliga
Lori nailed it - not a boat that paddles well when empty. since it was a wood canvas design, which is heavier than kevlar, it does require some weight to make it perform as intended. Its a tripping canoe!



CE Wilson might have more insight into this than I do, but I was told that the mold that all the Bell Seliga canoes are made from was built directly from one of the wood canvas boats.

Thanks for sharing your experience of
paddling a Seliga Tripper. I guess it’s probaby more canoe than I need and I’ll probably wish for a lower profile as soon as the wind picks up, mostly I’m not paddling heavily loaded. Maybe I should just buy a RX Northwind, alot easier to buy hereabouts, much less expensive and I won’t be bothered by the bumps and scrapes that are likely to come with family paddling, Daniel now being very nearly five and keen to get on the water with me.

RX Northwind
should be a good family boat – we demoed one and liked it a lot, but ended up with a RX Morningstar because of storage constraints at the time.




UK Bells
I believe Outdoor Active imported some Chestnut Prospectors too. I could be mistaken.