… on a canoe.
Why?
I’m not a canoe guru by any stretch but I’m not sure why you NEVER want one.
They seem to be popular in Canada.
If you mostly paddle lakes, like easy tracking, don’t like being blown sideways, aren’t in much of a hurry, and appreciate having a grunch strip to stiffen and partly protect the bottom of the boat, then keels make sense. But for anyone wanting a really fast lake boat, like a Minnesota II, a keel will just make the boat slower and heavier.
I think people shouldn’t think that there are no good reasons to have a keel. But they’re gradually becoming less common, because everything a keel can do, can be done in other ways, partly by modern hull design.
OK
"If you mostly paddle lakes, like easy tracking, don’t like being blown sideways, aren’t in much of a hurry, and appreciate having a grunch strip to stiffen and partly protect the bottom of the boat, then keels make sense."
I think that I will keep mine then!
A million Canadian paddlers can’t be
wrong.