How well do Souris River Canoes work in

Advice
#1

I’m interested in hearing opinions on how well a Souris River Quetico 17 will handle mild whitewater on rivers(class I/II)? Most paddling would be on lakes in windy conditions but I’d like a canoe that can handle mild whitewater. TIA.

#2

You’ll be fine
Almost any canoe can handle CI-II WW. If it can’t, it won’t handle the large windy lake paddling you described either. The 20" shear of the Quetico 17 should produce a fairly dry ride in mild WW. If you’re planning to run a lot of rocky rapids, you should be selective about the layup you choose.



JK

#3

I agree that the Q 17 will handle class
I and easy II OK. Some of what we call class II in the southeast could be a problem. For example, much of the Nantahala in North Carolina is regarded as class II, and you would have to possess pretty good whitewater skills to herd a Quetico 17 down the Nantahala.

#4

That’s a good point…
…and I too have seen a discrepancy in what different regions call C-II. I’ve run C-II rapids in MI that were pretty tame. A bit technical, but with easy waves and drops. On the other hand, I’ve run straight-ahead C-II’s in Canada with waves nearly big enough to swamp an open canoe. My guess is that the Q17 would do fine in the straightforward rapids because of the shear, but require more skills to paddle through technical runs because of the relatively low rocker, much as g2d has suggested.



JK

#5

Souris River Q 17 designed for Quetico




canoe area of Canada and BWCA of MN in the U.S.



The Souris canoes are a design between Bell and We-NO-nah canoes. It does it’s intended job of both big flat lakes and the milder of the region’s rapids quite well.



Q17 is a wilderness canoe, dependable and quite capable. Will probably do much more water than you are ready for. ;^)



Souris canoes are good canoes. I have owned three and am looking for a few more.



Happy Paddl’n!


:^)



Mick

#6

How well do Souris River Canoes work in
Thanks, Mick. Based on my mix of paddling, ideally, it would be best to have two canoes (though not in the cards for this year), including something with more rocker for whitewater. One possibility is a Swift Dumoine. I’m skeptical as to whether one canoe, such as the Dumoine would hold up well in kevlar in whitewater. Any idea how well the Dumoine tracks (compared to the Quetico) 17 as a multipurpose craft on lakes? The Royalex Dumoine would be fine for whitewater. Anecdotally, Souris River kevlar/epoxy designs are (apparently) stronger than similar kevlar construction Swifts.



Thanks for the advice.



Cheers,

Mike