Indian River Canoes

Advice
#1

I am currently in the market for a beginner canoe. There is a local dealer that has “Indian River Canoes”. Does anyone have any experience with this company or used the canoes?



Thanks

#2

Indian River Canoes
First of all let me welcome you to the world of paddling. I’ve never paddled them but my ex-brother-in-law got a trailer load of them for his Boy Scout troop. They’re built here in Central Florida. I’ll ask him and send you the info. Since you’re asking about a beginner canoe it would help to know what type of waters you’ll subject the vessel to. Is it to be paddled on a lake, slow-flowing rivers, open bays, etc… In reality you should be asking about what design hull you should be using. Avoid flat-bottom, keeled canoes as they can present a danger in moving waters and although they have great primary stability they have very poor secondary stability, which means they feel very stable as long as you’re sitting upright and don’t do any leans or you’ll flip as soon as you poke your head over the gunwhale. A better design for you would be a shallow-vee or rounded-vee hull. Plan on doing and tight or quick turns then get a canoe with a slight rocker. Paddling open waters?

Make sure you have plenty freeboard, 13 or 14 inch center depth, to help keep the water out of your boat and also to carry a little more gear safely. I’ll get back with you shortly about the Indian River Canoes. If you wish contact me via email and we can carry on with this discussion at greater length.

Paddle smart, not hard.

Gulfcoaster

#3

Indian River’s are built in Virginia
http://www.indianrivercanoemfg.com/index.htm



They are made from chopper gun glass and are on the heavy side, 16’ and 17’ models weigh 70 and 75 lbs. I would look around and paddle a few different name brands before buying.

#4

Back in the 80’s
I carried Indian River boats in my store. They were ok for then, but they are as heavy as an OT Discovery. If you really want a F/G canoe, order one from Mohawk. Theirs are a lot lighter. Hurry though, not sure how much longer they will be around.

#5

Indian River Canoes
Thanks for the info. I am looking for lake, pond, slow moving river types of canoeing

#6

Indian River
Thanks!

#7

Indian River
Don’t want to sound dumb, but what is an F/G?

#8

Fiberglass

– Last Updated: Jan-13-06 1:05 AM EST –

F/G was his abbreviation for fiberglass. A canoe made from fiberglass fabric will be much lighter than a chopper-gun canoe. "Chopper-gun" fiberglass is "spray-painted" to the surface of a mold, so there is not much labor involved, and the boat is cheap to build. Fabric fiberglass is hand-laid onto the mold and the resin/hardener is worked into the material by hand. Takes a lot more work but the final product is much nicer.

#9

To see how quality canoes are built
go to Hemlock Canoes web site and click on the how canoes are built link and you will see how a hand lay-up is done. http://www.hemlockcanoe.com/


#10

thanks
I figured it was gonna be obvious…thanks

#11

Get thyself to Mohawk quickly and leave


the Indians alone!!! Do not walk, R-U-N !!!



Chopper gun layups:



Cons: weak, heavy, damage easily, have a shorter live span, normally inferior designs …



Pros: they are cheap, they are cheap, and then of course there is that they are cheap … to make, but not necessarily to the customer. Many times the savings is not passed on to the customer, so you stand a good chance of not getting what you paid for.


:^)



Mick