Hello everyone. I’m new to this forum, so hopefully I’m posting this in the right area. I’ve canoed before, but it’s been a few years. I have lately been very interested in getting a solo canoe. There’s a nice Mad River “Slipper” solo canoe available nearby, and I was wondering if anyone had any thoughts on this canoe. Not too much information on the internet about it, but it sounds like it was built in the late 90s using Carbonlite 2000 plastic. If anyone can tell me anything about the canoe, and whether it makes for a good beginning solo canoe, I’d appreciate it! I’ll be paddling slow-moving rivers, swamps, some marshes… hopefully camping and bringing my 4-year-old son out for occasional trips. Thank you!
What is your size?
You might check this thread: http://www.paddling.net/message/showThread.html?fid=advice&tid=1034884
I would suggest sending a PM to Yanoer and asking David about the crack he sustained in his Carbonlite 2000 Slipper and whether he was able to repair it or have it repaired.
The Slipper has generally been considered a good solo boat for the more compact paddler.
I might be concerned about
sturdiness, but not about repair. Though home repairs won’t be pretty.
Do not buy a Carbonlite slipper.
I worked at Mad River when we tried to build canoes with Carbonlite. Great material, wrong application. Trust me. Look for fiberglass or Kevlar versions of the Slipper and other solo canoes.
openboater
Slipper
Was a Bob brown design. While maybe not the most sophisticated solo design of it’s time or ours, it may well be the biggest selling solo of all time.
She’s straight keeled, is no rocker, and straight sided.
That said, Openboater is dead on, the CarbonLite variations wore poorly and couldn’t be useful except as a $150 backup.
My Carbonlite 2000 Slipper was fine
for lake paddling and was abrasion resistant, but cracked the one time I got stuck on a rock in shallow water. I then got a royalex boat for river use.
I repaired it with superglue and that was adequate for flatwater use. I would have added a fiberglass patch on the inside if I was going to use it on rivers again.
I found that it had a pretty good balance of tracking and turning.
The outer edge of the gunwales is 28" at the widest point, which is a bit wide for me.
The bottom was bit flexy.
I sold it a couple years ago.
It won’t handle a lot of abuse, but it will be fine if you treat it well.
A fiberglass or kevlar construction of the same boat would be more robust.
thank you!
Thank you all very much for the replies! I am going to look at one today, it’s in like-new condition, but I will most likely hold off on the purchase. I’ll keep an eye out for any solo canoes in the Florida/Georgia area, and really take a look at my budget for this- it sounds as though $1000 is a good budget to have, even for used solo canoes. There might be better deals every now and again, but I’m not having much luck in the search. I guess that if I’m going to invest in a solo canoe, I should get a good one first and spend the extra few hundred dollars, rather than go the less expensive route and regret it in a year. Thank you all again for the replies, this really helped me out!