Hi, I am new to canoeing, and looking to buy my first canoe. I am hoping to do multi-day trips on the Boundary Waters, and some multi-day river trips on slow class I-II max, like the Buffalo in AR. In addition I will take the boat on day-trips. I don’t have any canoeing experience but I have been a raft guide and I am super excited to learn how to paddle a new boat on new water. I’ve been scrolling Facebook marketplace and craigslist. In my area there is a Blackhawk Shadow 11’ 7" going for $750. I am wondering about others experience with Blackhawk boats and whether this boat would be ok for multi-day trips. I’ve seen a lot of love for these Blackhawk on here and I am hoping if I can get some more information on the strengths and weaknesses of the 11’ 7" in particular. Also contemplating getting a Merrimack Baboosic 14’ for $1200. For reference, I am 5’4" and 140 lbs. Thanks for the help!
I’ve been away from this place for several years, but I think there should still be some people on these boards who know a lot about Blackhawk canoes, and I hope they will chime in (I still miss “the.bob”, and he knew Blackhawk canoes like nobody else). As a long-time and avid solo-canoe paddler, I do have some general thoughts about your question in the meantime, but I will not address any issues regarding price. For what it’s worth, I just ran across a discussion of the Shadow 13’ (very similar boat) on the canoe-tripping forum (not a discussion site I ever got involved with but I recognize a number of the names that appear there), and that discussion matched the thoughts I am about to relate.
Oh, and by the way, I looked at a picture of a Shadow 11’ 7" posted on this site by the late Bob Gitchell (the.bob), and I’m just about positive that it’s the boat I picked up for him back in about 2008 and stored in my garage for a few weeks. I got a pretty good look at the boat, of course, and my thoughts at the time were that the boat was really just too small for someone Bob’s size (he was thin, but tall, and probably pushing 190 pounds). But Bob loved Blackhawks, and just acquiring various examples of that brand was something he enjoyed.
My first thoughts:
Even with you being a relatively small person, I think you will find any canoe that’s a bit under 12’ long to suffer quite a loss regarding ease of paddling and maneuverability if it’s loaded up for multi-day trips. The reason I think this, is that my go-to, general purpose solo canoe is a Mohawk Odyssey 14, which is beamier toward the ends (though probably similar amidships) and markedly deeper than the Blackhawk Shadow 11’ 7". I love the Odeyssey 14 for “ordinary stuff”, and it’s a joy to handle and is quite nimble and whitewater-capable when loaded lightly. Also when loaded lightly it’s lovely to have on twisty little rivers that are full of fallen trees. And it’s decently tolerable for straight-line, long-distance paddling (though far from ideal in that realm). But with an extra 50 pounds of camping gear onboard I’m almost tempted to call it a slug. I think that tendency to revert to slugdom when carrying a load will be a lot worse for any sub-12’ canoe, and with the Shadow 11’ 7" having a markedly lower shear than the Odeyssey 14, paddling on lakes in wavy conditions would likely be out of the question when loaded for camping. And for reference, I’m not much heavier than you, being 155 or a tad less. I really think that my Odyssey 14 would handle much more nicely when loaded if it had more rocker (I think the specified rocker is 1.75 inches), which makes me favor the Baboosic in this case, but for what it’s worth, even if I don’t know the rocker specs for the Shadow 11’ 7", the overall size and shear of the boat make me very sure that the Shadow is the wrong choice for multi-day trips.
I’m thinking that the Baboosic, with it’s extra capacity at 14’ and with its listed 3" of rocker, would be a better choice for your stated purposes. It would be more suitable for carrying loads for multi-day trips and I believe also much more suitable for light whitewater paddling. Further, the Shadow 11’ 7" has rather low stems, and based on experiences I had with a 14’ Wenonah Vagabond years ago which had a similar taper at the ends and similar height in the stems, I expect the Shadow to be a very wet ride in light whitewater, and I expect that there would be a limit to how long of a set of wave trains you could get through before having too much water onboard to continue. The Baboosic’s higher stems would be an advantage here.
Another advantage of the Baboosic in light whitewater, if you choose the right hull material, would be better durability. You won’t find any Blackhawk canoe to have all that much tolerance for bumping into rocks, though the hull is probably tough enough if you can count on avoiding actual collisions. But if you do much whitewater you will eventually crash into a rock, so consider that.
Other Stuff:
Since this is all new to you right now, I will say that you are bound to find 3" of rocker (in that Baboosic) to present quite a challenge while learning to paddle properly. Learning to paddle a solo canoe in decent form with a single-blade paddle is far more difficult than most people know, but once you progress a good amount, it feels like magic, so keep that goal in mind. Once you master your ability to control a solo canoe with significant rocker while carrying a light load, that never-ending process of correcting the boat’s whims will happen subconsciously. I don’t know if the Baboosic is quite that whimsical in its directional stability with a light load, but my Nova Craft Supernova with 2.5" of rocker most definitely is, and that’s what I base those remarks on (the Supernova’s style of rocker is rather unusual for a general-purpose boat, though, making the rocker more effective and emphasizing the boat’s ability to pivot than what the “numeric value” for the rocker would lead you to expect, which translates into a “tendency to wander”).
Once you are paddling properly, you will find that a 14’ boat cruises about 0.5 mph faster than an 11’ 7" boat. That’s a bigger difference than it might seem. However, at leisurely speeds, the shorter boat will require slightly less effort, and for unhurried trips on calm water, that Shadow 11’ 7" would shine for a person your size.