Anyone here familiar with the Old Town Rockport?
Don’t see it amongst their current
models or their discontinued models. Eyes may be bad, or attention deficient. Something you found used?
Thanks, didn’t think they’d call a canoe
"Rockport." Kind of a coastal name.
Well, it’s short, very wide, and looks like a fishing canoe for someone who does not travel far from the put-in. Their marketing description about being able to go wherever you want with a Rockport and a paddle is kind of grandiose. It’s too short and wide for whitecapped lakes. It won’t handle well enough for class 2 whitewater. It’s true, safe carrying capacity is maybe 450 pounds, or less.
So it’s a nice little fishing canoe. Should be judged against all the nice fishing kayaks now available, nearly all of which are faster and better able to handle serious chop.
Hope I haven’t rained on your parade. Let us know what you want to do and maybe we can pull a rabbit out of a hat.
rockport purpose
–very short carry (actually, drag it about 10’)
–install oar sockets and locks for rowing only. no paddling.
–must be kid-friendly for a four year-old.
–sometimes 2 or 3 foot swells plus chop. (no kids in those conditions.)
Well, I’m prejudiced because my
single scull was 27 feet long, a foot+ wide, and weighed maybe 30 pounds. I still wish you would look at something longer, but what with boats cost nowadays…
row row row your boat
i used to row in fours and eights but that was in another galaxy; long, long ago. i don’t have enough money to even think about getting a real boat so i’m contemplating plastic…
i also used to row an old aluminum barge. so i’ve been at both extremes.
i’d like to have a whitehall but that’s never going to happen
The Rockport will do it
Sitting in the middle and rowing, You won’t have problems with the wave conditions you mention. The Rockport is not especially deep, but sitting in the middle the ends can rise on the waves and that makes it effectively deeper; as is the case with most solo canoes. Its width also makes it a tough canoe to paddle effectively, but the wide gunwale width will help your rowing by putting the oarlocks further apart. It will not be a speedster, but you are fishing not racing. Stability is more important and it has that.
It is much easier to reccomend this canoe for what you are doing, than to someone looking for an inexpensive canoe to take on a canoe trip with portages.
Bill