Hello, I am a 20 year whitewater paddler, and have decided to expand my horizions to flat water. I have two daughters and just got a great deal on a solo plus
royalex canoe, but I am looking for a great flatwater solo boat that is light weight, fast, and straight.
The bell Majic is what I currently have my eye on.
I am 5’6" 175lb, and will be using the boat for exersize on Lake Lanier, with an eye towards the Okefenokee swamp. What are your thoughts and recomendations?
Whew! Fer a minute thaar…
ah’ reckon’d yer wuz gonna tell us dat Rob of Vermont Canoe got his’self run over by a steamroller…
Dat wood be no good at all!
FE
some others
– Last Updated: May-20-09 6:01 PM EST –
The Magic is a very nice, fast flatwater canoe.
Some others are the Wenonah Advantage and Wenonah Voyager. The Wenonah Prism is slightly less fast, but still quite efficient.
The Hemlock Peregrine is another great flat water solo and the Placid Boat Works Rapidfire is a very fast and relatively short flat water boat.
If you are thinking workout
you will get great resistance training by picking a shorter slower boat…
I think the Aquaterra Keowee was the perfect workout boat for its day. Paddle ten miles and you sure had a workout.
One of the problems I see about go fast boats is that most of them have little rocker.
If Okeefenokee is on your hit list you will have to learn to heel Magic to the rail to get around in the cypress. The trails are quite twisty and sixteen feet borderline too long…
I paddled a Peregrine in the Glades including the Noble Hammock trail which is full of twists and uey turns but had to rail it to make the turns.
Open boater goes flat!
I am really looking for something I can cover som water in, which is why I like the idea of a longer less rockerd boat. The more I think about it, the more I believe the most efficient boat would give me the most pleasure. I probably would not be paddeling solo in the swamp,now that i think about it , so I would probably take my solo plus.
Cut to the chase…
and get either a Krozier or Wenonah J203, or a Savage C-1. Smoke on the water!
Just saying.
Rob
If I were you
I’d look at the Wenonah Advantage or perhaps the Voyager.
While the Advantage is not a flat-out marathon solo racer like the J203, it is quite fast yet can handle some wind and wave action without demanding every ounce of your attention.
The Wenonah Advantage is shown on the Wenonah Racing Canoe site. I have seen several used ones in lightweight Kevlar advertised for sale in the last few years, and narrowly missed buying one at a very good price.
The Advantage
would be a hoot in the swamp, too.
That’s funny.
Wenonah Prism over Advantage
– Last Updated: May-20-09 5:52 PM EST –
I have owned both the Advantage and Prism, and like the Prism ten times better! The Advantage had a nasty habit of trying to turn into the wind on gusty days, very trying crossing windy bays. Very straight tracking, but hard to turn.
The Prism is still fast, yet more manueverable, and will carry more gear. I have padddled my kevlar Prism 550 miles on the Yukon River, paddled the Upper Missouri, did the Everglades Wilderness Waterway with it twice. I probably would not have done any of the above with the Advantage.
I weigh about 215 pounds, and carry about 150 pounds of gear with me on long trips. More in the Everglades, as you have to carry your own fresh water. When I start out on an Everglades Wilderness Waterway trip, I have a weeks worth of food, tent, sleeping bag etc. and nine gallons of water. Heavily loaded, I still average 3 MPH. Lightly loaded, I have had the Prism up to 5MPH.
BTW, the fastest speed I have ever attained with a canoe ( my Prism) was 12 MPH measured with a GPS. This was on the Yukon River, the current was exceptionallly fast, I was paddling my normal 3MPH pace and was flying! The river was not that fast in all spots, but I paddled 65 miles in eight hours that day....
I sold my Advantage to buy the Prism, and haven't looked back!
Pictures and trip report of the Prism on the Yukon River:
http://tjadventures.com/Yukon_River_Trip.html
Click on each photo to enlarge, trip report is on the bottom of the page after the photos....
I second the Magic. If you get up to PA
there’s a used on for sale $1500. Zip 18431
absolutely
No question the Prism is the better canoe for a 200+ pounder tripping with a big load of gear.
I’ve paddled both enough that I think I know how they behave in wind. If I was looking for a fast, lightweight, hard-tracking exercise boat (which seemed to be what the OP was asking about) I would choose the Advantage over the Prism, but the Prism surely ain’t bad.
I humbly submit the Placid Boat
Works Rapidfire.
O.P. Probably wants to single blade.
How many Rapidfire single blade them? My impression is maybe as much as 10%.
I’m taking the advice of Openboater
I’m definitely more of a river paddler, but was lucky enough to be the first to say yes to TommyC1 when he was looking for a new home for an old J200. I am at least the third P-Netter to paddle this boat. I think Tommy said he got it in a boat trade with Clarion. I needed to glass the seat back in which I did yesterday. Tommy took it out because he prefers to kneel. I made the mistake of doing it without gloves. Boy was that dumb - I’m still trying to scrape the epoxy off my hands. I will definitely get the boat out on the water this weekend. My first experience with a long straight keeled boat – should be fun. Good luck in your search.
single-blading a RapidFire
Me, me, me, me, me! Plus maybe five more, makes ten of us.
Mark
Freedom 16 Splitrock…?
– Last Updated: May-21-09 5:23 PM EST –
ALL of the above are surely worth a demo...if you can. Ditto canoeguy's move to Prism and kayamedic's mention of resistance. Don't know if it was serious...but I totally agree...the trade-off I get from a Prism(or Magic), or other similar canoes, is well worth the slight additional efficiency from other boats. Having said that...would like to just try Bluewater's Splitrock in either their GoldenBrawn(probably somewhat like Wenonah's Ultralight hulls), but think with the price they're not going to be making very many before order is placed.
I don't think Swift has been mentioned. Haven't caught up on info as to what's happenning with their hull/material production.
An Advantage on a beautiful, but breezy Spring day on a lake doesn't bring to mind the word "Pleasure", but is an efficient boat that I paddled...*EDIT:..but that was the ultralight kevlar layup in my Advantage. I think I can easily say I would've enjoyed the slightly heavier "flexcore" layup if they hadn't had the ultralight at such a good price.
$.01
STeveD
Cool, but I never even paddled it
I bought it Kentucky while visiting my wife’s sister, brought it home, hung it up, and then decided I had too many flatwater boats. I had a Shockwave at the time so I didn’t see the J200 getting much use from me.
Hope it works out for you.
That’s funny.
So, Prism better in wind than Advantage?
With the same load?
Even though the Prism is 2" deeper in the bow and 3" deeper in the stern?
I have an Advantage and have avoided the deeper Prism, because I expected it to be harder to handle in the wind. I usually only paddle the Advantage for no more than a couple hours at a time and with a total load of no more then 170 lbs.