A beaver cut down a tree which busted my 20 year old canoe in half so its time for a new one.
I am seriously considering either a Clipper Tripper or a Clipper 17’Ranger. Any suggestions?
I will be doing mainly day trips with my wife and 2 small kids and we do an annual 3 day wilderness trip with no kids but lots of gear. We will mostly be on open lakes, creeks and rivers and on some fast moving water (no crazy rapids). We are novice/intermediate paddlers.
On our last trip the people we went with have a Tripper and we could not keep up with them. So I like the Tripper’s speed and gear capacity. However the 17’ Ranger I am looking at is 6lbs lighter (foam core), it seems wider and more stable and more maneuverable even though it is not as fast as the Tripper.
They are both the same price. Our local Canoe store sells way more Rangers and says they are better than Trippers. I have had my heart set on a Tripper but now I am leaning towards the Ranger.
Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks!!!
I would take the Tripper. It is a long-
proven design and fits your stated criteria.
Whether the Ranger has more “stability” is irrelevant. Our family started in a huge, fast tripping canoe that had low initial stability, and it was never a problem.
ALSO if you read between the lines on
the Western Clipper website, you should be able to sense that they think more highly of the Tripper.
As for maneuverability, the two boats won’t differ. And how much maneuverability do you need? Either has enough for easy whitewater.
Tripper vs Ranger
I envisioned the tripper being super fast but really hard to steer in tight spots. and the Ranger easy to steer but a slow beast.
Overall if the Tripper isnt that hard to steer i might go that way.
We started with a fast, “hard to
maneuver” 18.5’ canoe, and it wasn’t. It sat light on the water and could be turned or sideslipped quite easily.
Might be a tough decision, but…
Without knowing how each boat handles, it may not be possible to be sure of your decision. However, as included within g2d's reply, side-slipping is often a fantastic "weapon" for dealing with the twisty-turnys. The same is true of pivoting (side-slipping opposite ends of the boat in opposite directions). It might be your choice of words that makes me think of this, but remember that "steering" represents only about one-third of the procedures used to negotiate tight spots in a general-purpose canoe, maybe less than one-third if you consider that the different methods can be blended. Those who always think about steering their boat in the same manner as steering a ship (changing the direction the boat points while traveling forward), and that's most people, invariably have much more difficulty in tight spots than what's necessary.