kayaking with a family

My wife and I until recently owned touring kayaks. We have two kids not in school yet and want to get out on some flat water soon with them. Not sure if a canoe is our only choice. We got pretty spoiled with the speed of the kayaks but don’t know if this is appropriate for kids. I assume we would need two tandems?. Canoe sounds best huh?



We would like ot use the boat to paddle to new spots and camp or picnic. lakes, inland bays…



thanks!!

Get a Wenonah Spirit II in Tufweave
and carry the whole family until the kids are ready for touring kayaks. I don’t think you would need two canoes unless you got into multi-day trips.

This worked well for me at that stage …
http://www.hobiecat.com/kayaking/models_odyssey.html

Any open tandem will do…
…IHMO. We put our now 7yo in a WS Pamplico 14 when he was 3. It had enough room that he could paddle with both a canoe paddle, which found easier when young and later with a kayak paddle. There was also enough room he could play as well. As a matter of fact, I think there’s a runaway Matchbox car on the bottom of Lynch’s River…Oops. Anyway I think any tandem with an open cockpit will do. I choose one that was stable enough I could lean forward to help him if needed. It was also quick enough that we did several 7-10 mile paddles with groups and had no problems keeping up. I do not think my model was “the one”, just suggesting that with a couple of open tandems you could have a blast with the little ones along.