Let talk canoes-Top 3 flatwater canoes..

Advice
#1
-- Last Updated: Apr-10-05 8:58 PM EST --

for general day paddles, fishing, lake/slow river tripping and/or general overall SOLO flatwater use...taking into consideration windage, seaworthiness, etc. what are your top three SOLO canoe picks?
to put it more simple what 3 canoes would you pick for SOLO flatwater travel?

#2

Are you talking solo or C-2 ?

– Last Updated: Apr-10-05 7:08 PM EST –

I love my C-2 Wenonah kevlar 17 foot Jensen and wouldn't trade it for anything.
The "bride" and I held it at just about 5 MPH this afternoon on an eight mile training paddle, (stopping every mile to drink from water bottles)
It is a pleasure to portage, and even though I don't fish, it is a good stable boat for that.

Cheers,
JackL

#3

Flat water is like tailwind.
Seldom found on lakes, or rivers.

#4

where did you paddle Jack?

#5

Amen to that.
I’ll vote for the MR Malecite for a Tandem that also does a good job solo.

#6

my picks
My three:


  1. Bell Magic.
  2. Swift Osprey or Shearwater. The Shearwater might be a better choice if you will be doing a lot of fishing.
  3. Wenonah Prism (because of the fishing angle. If you weren’t going to be fishing, I’d go with the Voyager).
#7

My boats
Mad River Slipper. Won’t hold much gear, but tracks well and is pretty quick.

#8

My picks
Penobscot 16 for both tandem and solo.

Spirit 2 for flatwater tandem, Prisim for solo.

#9

After Church on Price Lake
Round and round in that mile and a half circle.



Did you get over to Watauga Lake?



JackL

#10

in order…
1. Wenonah Prism

2. Bell Magic

3. Wenonah Vagabond (shorter than the others, but a good general purpose solo, and if purchased in Royalex, the cheapest of the bunch)

#11

I’m Not Worthy
It would be great to have paddled more of the top boats, and thus feel qualified to make more educated comments. But since it so darn fun to speculate on solo canoes here goes.


  1. Swift Shearwater – It does all the thing you list well. Weakest area maybe windage on day trips. Others seem to make that comment. Handling the wind even with a light load doesn’t seem a big problem to me. Most importantly it is the solo I own. Nuff said:-).


  2. Co-second place finish to the Magic and Prism. I only paddled these boats briefly at a demo day. I liked 'em both very much and am sure I’d be happy with both and would probably have either one in first place if I happened to own them.


  3. I’ve sure got eyes for the Hemlock Perigrine!

    It seems to have what I’d look for in this kind of canoe, a balance of speed, capacity, stability, manueverability and seaworthiness. Someday maybe I’ll get to verify those qualities by paddling one. Its number one in my dreams right now. (Thanks a lot Tom :-))






#12

Here goes

– Last Updated: Apr-11-05 4:39 PM EST –

1) Wenonah Spirit II paddled from the bow
2) Mad River Explorer paddled from the bow
3) Old Town Discovery 174 paddled from the stearn (hard to paddle from the bow because of the molded seats).

#13

Grasse River XL
1) Grass River XL is awfully fast… Whee!



2) Bell Magic - Never paddled one, but I’ve put my money down on one, anyway. I LOVE the Wildfire and Merlin II



3) Bell Merlin II - Whee! Like someone else said, there’s no such thing as “flat” flatwater. This canoe is a GREAT compromise…



Wildwater