No wonder you have been posting so much. Recovery is tedious. Will you be able to paddle this year?
Ultralight Merlin II is the one that sinks. Over two previous practice sessions I had gotten back into a wooden Mad River solo without float bags. Some bruises but it worked, boat was a classic one but now I don’t recall the name. A couple of tripping tandems with float bags installed, something classic and tandem made of Royalex, maybe Penobscot? A wooden frame fiberglass covered no namer tandem that was plug ugly blue but I got in. And others I forget. They just put a mix of boats on the water.
Maybe others on a local pond, I forget now exactly what issue those sessions were about resolving. Whether solo or assisted.
One session had a PBW boat set up to paddle double blade, don’t recall which Fire but it had the belly band. No float bags. Same issue with that boat as my ultralight, easy enough to get in assisted but the paddler never found a way to re-enter solo without sinking the thing. She probably weighed 90 pounds wringing wet.
In my younger days I finally got into the old war canoes so I could take one out solo, at a camp. but the only issue that I had to resolve there was upper body strength and size against the boat’s height. Those old canoes were pretty forgiving.
I agree that volume is the starting point. But when the installed flotation is not enough to counter the weight of someone climbing in, which is the case with the ultralight, volume by itself can’t save the day.
I am sure that were I to equip the Merlin with float bags the problem would be solved. But I don’t do tripping with it and there is something nice about having a 21 pound canoe that I can easily move around. Especially after time spent moving 45 to 55 pound kayaks. The Merlin makes a nice choice for an impulse run to a local pond to see the colors reflecting on the water.
@Celia said:
@CA139 A pack canoe, as a couple of us have said, is not a wanna-be kayak nor does it blur lines. It is a distinct and long-established category of canoes and they have been around a long time. Pack canoes are intended to be paddled with a double blade. If you were in an area like the Adirondacks this would not be new to you.
This was the first time I ever saw a pack caone but the funny part is the same hull/chassis and design is also used on Stellar’s Compass which is basically a recreational kayak with a deck and rear storage compartment. How a deck automatically turns it into a Kayak from a canoe I don’t know. I was under the impression that all Kayaks are a type of Canoe but what makes the subcategory Kayak was being paddled with a 2 blade paddle as opposed to a 1 blade paddle.
That said the Dragonfly’s are so light and maneuverable you cannot paddle on just one side. I actually learned high angle paddling which is not strictly necessary on big, heavy, plastic boats on the ocean but it’s more efficient because you see-saw and slalom less. Even with a high angle paddle the Dragonfly yaws a little bit so using a single blade paddle is a no go on a light little pack “canoe-kayak”. But the truth is that all Kayaks are Canoes according the nomenclature anyway!
As I was corrected by kayamedic, pack canoe is not always synonymous with a double blade. It is more common partly because a pack canoe is also usually paddled sitting like in a kayak rather than kneeling against or sitting on a seat installed above the boat’s hull. The pack canoes usually also have a reinforced area for sitting in the hull or having a low seat. That is generally missing for canoes where seat mounted off the gunnels can take the brunt of the paddler’s weight.
What makes something into a kayak IS the deck. The Brits call everything a Canoe including kayaks. Their point is that a kayak is derived from a decked canoe. It is charming but IMO out of date and needlessly confusing. Kayak hull designs have advanced to produce hulls that would never translate as an undecked craft, they only function properly with a covered deck that can be awash. Canoes are not supposed to be awash. The brave souls who still ply the Maine Island Trail in canoes do assume their decks will take on water - the few I have seen are out there with full deck covers and float bags. But they are also in higher volume unquestionable canoes.
There was a generation of boats some years ago by Kruger and others that were called sea canoes. The Sea Wind was one. Probably are a few still around. They were low decked but with huge cockpits. For bigger water they needed sea socks to replicate the behaviors of bulkheads limiting how much water got into the boat. They were seriously neat boats. But even those I encountered who paddled them successfully said that the hard bulkheads and compartments of modern sea kayaks were easier for solo recovery on the water.
I respect canoes, I respect kayaks. I respect even recreational kayaks for their intended purpose, which some here probably doubt. But it just produces needless confusion when you go beyond the manufacturer’s description. Stellar specifically calls the Dragonfly “a lightweight and stable Packboat.” Further down on their page they call it a canoe (Cockpit description). They call all of their decked boats kayaks. It seems odd that you are arguing a point the maker of the boat does not.