Similar situation, here’s some input.
By no means am I an expert with canoes or kayaks. In fact, having just started with paddling canoes this year, I’m very much a novice. But as one novice to another in a similar situation, I’m happy to share my experiences with you.
My wife and I have similar weight distribution concerns. At 6’4” and 300#, I’m over twice the weight of my spouse. As a novice, there are so many different options, between manufacturers, styles, and materials. Add to that the widely differing opinions between sales people, friends, and websites like this. Not to mention all the strange new terminology; J-strokes and draw strokes, tracking and trimming, oil-canning and rocker, freeboard and gunwales, initial vs. secondary stability, and boats that are “tender” but “firm up,” etc. It can be a little overwhelming, but it has also been a fun and educational experience. I’d second the comments of all those who suggested trying some boats out. Nothing replaces some hands on experience to figure out what boat feels best for you. Knowing what you plan to do with the canoe and getting advice from people with the same needs and expectations you have is a big help too.
For us, we got lucky when a local canoe and kayak store had a paddle fest on a local lake at the beginning of spring which gave us the opportunity to spend an afternoon trying several different boats. They are a Wenonah dealer, so at that event we were able to try an 18’ Champlain, an 18’ Minnesota II, a 17’ Spirit II, a 16’ Aurora, and a 16’ Kingfisher. None of the kayaks they carried had a cockpit opening that was large enough for me to get in and out of comfortably. They definitely recommended a canoe in my case. Later on, we also made a visit to another local dealer who has a store on the river where we were able to test paddle a Mad River canoe, Perception kayak, and Native Watercraft hybrid.
Both of these local shops gave us opinions on what they might recommend from what they carry, though one place seemed to focus more on up selling us into their Cadillac rather than on what our intended use is. I also wrote to several canoe manufacturers explaining our size differential, intended use, and requested their recommendations from their product line. In the process I got some great advice and discovered some companies who have really good customer service. Wenonah, Mad River, and Old Town were all very helpful with links, attachments, and follow up. Esquif and Clipper also responded to the basic request for information. But neither Bell nor Northwoods could bother with a reply. It could be they don’t have a product that would meet my needs, which is how I took their lack of response.
Here’s what my summer of canoeing research revealed to me.
First I’ll start by saying that our intended use for the canoe is generally regarded as recreational. Short half-day trips (1-4 hours) on small lakes and flat water rivers and streams. No fishing. No whitewater. No long camping excursions. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. But we aren’t looking to go very far, very fast. We mostly want to get out on the water, look at the wildlife, take some pictures, float around, and generally relax. We also wanted a boat that we could car top easily. Through experience we discovered that anything much over 65# was too much for us. We could manage heavier, but it becomes more of a chore and takes some of the fun out of it. And lastly, I need to be able to store it out of the elements, especially when winter comes, which due to the size of my garage, has become a critical decision point for what we will end up keeping.
Here’s how we felt after our test paddles:
Wenonah 18’ Champlain – The first canoe we tried and kind of set the standard for us by which all other boats got measured. As the salesman said, big people need big boats. It felt very stable. Not “tippy” at all. Paddled nicely. Tracked pretty straight. A little tough to turn, but not too much. For a canoe, this thing is huge. The winebago of canoes. They kept telling us how much stuff we could carry with us. A week’s worth of camping supplies or more. Even though we said we had no interest in camping. This model had the molded tractor seats that adjust forward and back to help distribute the weight. I found the seat to be a little uncomfortable and we have too much of a weight disparity for the sliders to adjust it all out, but it helps. The one we tried was kevlar and was a very manageable 57#. We picked it up on land and it’s hard to believe something so big can be so light. Brand new, it’s expensive too. In the more affordable royalex model, it weighs in at a more hefty 75#. Ultimately, this model would simply be too large for our needs.
Wenonah 18’ Minnesota II – A little longer and a bit narrower than the Champlain, this thing is very “tippy” feeling. Especially after just being in the Champlain, it felt like I was sitting on a tightrope. However, just like they talk about, as it rolls to the side you can feel it reach a point where it stops rolling and resists going any further, though I know that it would go further at some point. Still, not exactly a pleasant feeling. We didn’t tip it over, and out on the lake, wow is this thing fast. Effortless to paddle. A challenge to turn quickly. 54# in kevlar. No royalex version. But too “tippy” for what felt comfortable.
Wenonah 17’ Spirit II – A little shorter and a little narrower than the Champlain. It felt just a little less stable sitting there. A little less tough to turn. A little less straight when paddling. Just basically a little less than the Champlain all around. Including the weight. 54# in the kevlar we tried. Just under 70# in royalex. Possibly the best all around boat we looked at however.
Wenonah 16’ Aurora - A little shorter than the Spirit II. It felt much less stable than the Champlain. We didn’t even bother taking it out very far. By comparison, we’d prefer the Spirit II or Champlain over the Aurora, so we didn’t feel the need to give it much of a test. In hind sight, I kind of wish we had spent a little more time with this boat, if only for future comparison sake.
Wenonah 16’ Kingfisher – One word describes this boat. W i d e . Stable is another word. Sitting in this felt as stable as sitting on land. Slow is another word. Especially when compared to the Minnesota II. If you’re not in a hurry though, this is a nice ride. We could see this as a nice floating around taking pictures craft. It was tough to paddle a straight line for us novice paddlers, but on the flip side, it was much easier to turn. I found the bench seats in this much more comfortable than the tractor seats too. You lose the ability to easily adjust for weight distribution, but it didn’t seem to matter as much in this boat. 51# in kevlar feels ridiculously light on land. The 68# royalex would still be manageable I think. If I had to choose from just the Wenonahs, it’d come down between the Spirit II and the Kingfisher.
Mad River 16’ Explorer – in Royalex. A fine canoe, but didn’t wow us. Seemed stable enough, but slightly more “tippy” feeling just floating at rest than we’d prefer. At 72# was a little heavier than we wanted.
Perception Acadia II tandem kayak – the one kayak model the shop carried that I could get in and out of easily. It has a nice wide open cockpit, plenty of legroom, and a good seat with back support. However, the thing I found from trying this boat was that with my legs straight out in front of me for a long period of time is that even with the really nice seat, it put stress on my lower back and my knees got stiff. As a big man, I’m prone to some low back and knee issues. But if you can sit on the floor with your legs straight out in front of you for a few hours without wanting to shift positions, this might be a good choice. It was pretty stable, being fairly wide, and sitting so low in the boat. Another heavy one at over 80# though. Also, without a car roof rack, I’ve discovered that canoes car top more easily than kayaks with foam blocks and straps. Kayaks seem to present less of a challenge to store.
Native Watercraft Ultimate 16 tandem hybrid – I have to admit, I love this boat. It’s not quite a kayak, not quite a canoe. To me it has the best features of both. You sit fairly low to the water and with the catamaran style hull (what they call a tunnel hull) this was about as stable as I felt in pretty much anything I tried. The seat is very comfortable and provides really good back support, which is important to me. But the way the catamaran style hull is made, your feet go into the channels so your feet sit lower than your hips and your legs aren’t stuck straight out in front of you like they would be in a kayak. Which again, provides some relief to my back. It’s made out of very tough plastic, and while that may be durable, it provided the only drawback to us getting this boat, and that’s weight. At over 80#, it’s simply too heavy for us to manage out of the water. If my wife ever decides she’s had enough with the canoeing, I’m getting a solo one of these in 14’ and the much lighter Tegris material.
So what did we end up with? As it turns out, none of these. We decided that before we invested too much money in a new canoe for a hobby that we weren’t too sure about yet, we should get a starter canoe and see how it goes. So I watched the used canoe ads, looked at several, and picked up a really nice Wenonah Jensen 18’ fiberglass for a great price. I didn’t know it at the time, but of the above, the Jensen is probably most like the Minnesota II. Long, narrow, and fast. In my defense, being ignorant of the model, 33” wide looks pretty darn wide sitting in some dude’s back yard. It’s amazing what a difference 3” can make when it comes to a canoe. Turns out this is designed as a racing canoe. Very “tippy” though fortunately and miraculously we’ve never tipped it over. But not exactly the ideal canoe for a couple of beginners. It wasn’t a relaxing ride at first. It’s actually still not very relaxing when you are just floating along. It almost seems to get more stable when you are in motion. But it has turned out to be a great boat. It maneuvers surprisingly well, especially after we got some experience behind us. It’s amazing what a few hours on the water can do for your confidence. And when you want to go fast, it will do that, just as it was designed to do. It’s more fun than I imagined it would be to go fast in a canoe. It has the sliding tractor seats, to help balance the weight, but like the Champlain, really not enough to be quite right for the two of us. We’ve got about 20 hours in this boat so far, as we’ve had it the longest. I don’t think I’m destined to keep this boat however. I’d like to keep my canoes inside, out of the harmful UV rays of the sun, and the harsh winter elements. I have learned that 18 feet of canoe is quite a lot of boat. Especially when your garage is only 17 feet deep. Unless I’m willing to take up a lot of space I don’t have, that will be a limiting factor in what boat I can ultimately hang onto. Over the summer, I was able to move some things out of the garage (like a car). But as the weather starts to turn from fall to winter, it seems that 16 feet is about all the boat I can keep comfortably along with the rest of the things that eventually need to return to their home in the garage.
Knowing the Jensen wasn’t going to be a permanent solution for us, I kept my eyes open for something more stable. I found a good deal on an Old Town Camper 16’ royalex. Since my local dealers don’t carry Old Town, I hadn’t had a chance to try them. But my cousin, who is also fairly large, had done a bunch of research and identified this as a really good choice for him and his family because of it’s stability. Between his recommendation and the knowledge that I could easily resell it, I gave it a try. It’s been a really nice find. It’s most reminiscent of the Kingfisher in comparison to what we’d tried so far. Not quite as wide, but still wide. The flat bottom gives a very stable and relaxing ride. No “tippy” feeling. The bottom does sometimes do what I believe they refer to as “oil-canning.” Which to me looks like it’s bouncy, like a big brick of jello. It doesn’t seem to cause us any problems as far as stability is concerned. It sure does look odd when it happens and I doubt it does much to help with speed. Like the Kingfisher, it’s not fast, it doesn’t go straight easily, and it doesn’t glide for long when you stop paddling. But for maneuvering around and floating amongst ducks and geese and just hanging out on the lake, it’s been a lot of fun. Just don’t be in a hurry, and I wouldn’t suggest going more than a few miles with it. It has been, however, my wife’s favorite canoe so far. At 64# (I know their website says less, but I weighed it), it’s still manageable to get on top of the car with out too much effort. Though the width that makes it so stable in the water, makes it a little ungainly on land. We’ve got about 6 hours in this one so far.
I also happened upon an Old Town Penobscot 16’ royalex that someone was basically giving away. This boat falls somewhere between our Jensen and our Camper. Of the others we have tried, I’m thinking it’s closest to the Spirit II in feel. This is where I wish we’d tried the Aurora longer, but the Penobscot seemed a bit more stable at first than what I remember of the Aurora. Compared to the Camper, the Penobscot does feel more “tippy,” but it doesn’t lean far before it stops feeling so unstable. It paddles much more smoothly and easily than the Camper. It’s not as relaxing to just float in, but still a very pleasurable ride. At 61# (again, I weighed it) and a little narrower, it’s the easiest of the three that we have to get on and off the car and down to the lake. We’ve only been out in the Penobscot one time for about an hour so far, but we see the potential in this middle of the road boat.
Modifications.
In order to really get these boats dialed in for us, there were two things we needed to do with the seats. Move them and lower them.
When I wrote to the various canoe manufacturers, both Old Town and Mad River suggested a couple of their symmetrical canoes, and that we paddle them backwards. In other words, have the heaviest person (me in this case) sit in the bow seat facing the wrong way, and the lightest person sit in the stern seat facing the wrong way. This brings me and all my weight closer to the center of the boat. It does leave the lighter person with very little leg room in most canoes. Their suggestion if leg room was a problem was to move that stern seat in towards the middle of the boat to allow enough leg room. This required the purchase of a new seat, which had to be cut down to fit, as well as drilling a set of holes in the gunwales. By moving the seat back one seat length, I was able to use one existing set of gunwale holes and still create adequate leg room for my wife. Obviously this only works with the bench seats, not the tractor ones. While I was moving the seat, I also purchased 4” hangers to replace my stock ones. This only lowered the Penobscot’s seats less than 1” more than what it had been, but even that little bit makes a noticeable difference. The Camper seats were pretty high, so this lowered them considerably. The lower I can get my center of gravity, the steadier the canoe feels. I’d kneel like the pros do it, but at my size, my knees just can’t take it for long. I’m not especially handy, but this turned out to be a really simple operation.
General thoughts regarding manufacturers and materials.
Of the canoes I’ve tried, I’d have to say the Wenonahs felt like they are made better. I have no evidence to support this. They just seemed like they are of a higher quality. Not that the Old Towns or Mad River were bad. They seem quite good in fact. Just not as solid as the Wenonahs. It could be splitting hairs. Like comparing Toyotas, to Hondas and Nissans, it may very well be a matter of personal preference. The Wenonahs do look to be more difficult to modify for seat positions as they are mounted with rivets. Even the bench seats. So in my case, that sways me toward those easier to modify.
As far as the materials, I’ve only got experience with kevlar, fiberglass, and royalex. The kevlar is very light and felt sturdy enough on the water. I haven’t seen one with any significant use to say how well they hold up, but from what I understand, they hold up well. Our fiberglass boat came to us used and has some scratches in the paint. But structurally it’s very solid. It has a firmer feeling body than the kevlar I’ve seen and the royalex ones I have. More rigid. However, I feel like I can bump around the royalex boats more. Like I don’t need to baby them as much as the fiberglass. Maybe it’s because the fiberglass finish is so shiny compared to the scuffed up royalex. But the royalex feels like it can take a beating more than the fiberglass. Again, I’m sure there’s an element of personal preference. I can’t help but wish for kevlar to be less expensive or royalex to be lighter.
Everything seems to have a tradeoff when it comes to canoes. To gain stability, you trade off speed. To gain straighter tracking, you trade off maneuverability. To gain lighter weight, you trade off money.
I’ve decided that canoes are kind of like cars in that, there are many different makes and models, most of which have a purpose for which they are designed to fill. Knowing how you intend on using your canoe will impact which one best meets your needs.
Good luck and I hope you have as much fun paddling as we have.