Other popular tandem/solo canoes include the OT Penobscot 16(Royalex, not the new poly version), and the Bell NorthStar.
The Penobscot is symmetric, so you have the option of soloing "backwards" in the bow seat. The Bell canoes don't give you that option, but the tumblehome makes for a more comfortable reach over the side.
On Prospector-type hulls: The video here shows what they can do soloed on flat water -- lovely stuff -- but you can imagine the issues trying to do that with wind. http://www.redcanoes.ca/becky/canoe/solopaddling.html
Prospector designer As I understand it, Chestnut’s “Prospector” was not a model name, but a category name. There where multiple models under the “Prospector” classification of varying size and spec that continually evolved over the years. So it did not have one “designer”.
I would speculate that the “original” designers of the “Prospector” canoes were the Native American/First Nation tribes that adapted their dugout and birchbark canoes to the local conditions in Eastern Canada - ie big rivers with rapids. Later, European settlers who used canoes for commercial purposes on those same rivers (like prospectors!), modelled their own versions on those native craft, first in birchbark and then in wood-canvas. I think that Maine’s “Guide” canoes and New York’s Adirondack “Pack” canoes are similar in that those are traditional styles evolved to adapt to local conditions.
Certainly Chestnut popularized the name “Prospector”. Now every Canadian canoe maker has to have a “Prospector” in the lineup just for the brand identity because “Prospector” means “the no frills real deal” to people. I hear Prospectors are very popular with open canoers in Great Britain almost exclusively because they are considered “authentic” Canadian Canoes apart from their actual usefulness on most British waters.
A little paddlin’ expeerience be useful. as a foyst-timer in a “Prospector”, but it be a great classic hull. Ah’ gots a Wenonah 16 footer which be close ta de original “Fort” model an’ me special Muskoka wood/canvas edition Chestnut Prospector
On flat non-moving water, it takes some paddling experience to make a Prospector keep up with your friends in their flatwater boats.
On moving and twisting streams, the Prospector is easier for a beginner to handle than many "beginner" boats.
On either, I put beginners in the Prospector. Lacking any over-size over-wide pig of a canoe, the NC Prospector is the easiest boat I have for a noob to keep upright. Lacking a true whitewater boat, the Prospector turns easier than any other boat I have. Turning is essential on twisty streams, and non-threatening on easy lake trips.
I can't figure why a seller would suggest that the Prospector is a boat for "experienced" paddlers - except maybe compared to a Coleman. Maybe "experienced" means experienced enough to know they don't want to sit in a Coleman anymore.
Double blade argument makes no sense I would never argue against anyone’s subjective preferences and personal likes for a particular canoe, including the Prospector.
However, I think arguments in favor of canoes in advice for newbies threads should be logical.
Assume I have a canoe (X) that is faster on flatwater than a Prospector § and is also less affected by wind than P. Therefore, with single blades, I can paddle X faster and more efficiently in wind than you can paddle P.
You argue that you can paddle P with a double blade in the wind, which will allow you to outpace me with my single blade in X.
So what? You have to carry the argument to its logical next step, which is:
I can also pick up a double blade, and then my X will outpace and be more manageable than your P in the winds we are in.
Conclusion: If paddled with the same paddle – single or double – X will be faster, more efficient and easier to control than P in wind.
So, which canoe would I prefer buying, or advise someone else to buy, if important concerns were flatwater speed and manageability in wind?
I must have read it wrong then … it made sense to me.
I read it as saying … if you’re having trouble in the wind, resorting to a double blade is another option as it will outpace a single blade in those conditions.
I’ve never tried a double in the wind so I don’t have an opinion. But I have heard others tout their utility in wind.
Then it should also make sense to you … that X will still outpace the Prospector when its paddler resorts to a double blade.
It’s a logical fallacy to to conclude that I should buy P instead of X just because you can paddle P with double blade better than you can paddle P with a single blade.
This is about comparison between a Propector and some other boat (X) that is both faster on the flats and more manageable in the wind. Those characteristics are inherent characteristics of the HULL DESIGN, which is what we are advising on.
Speed and windage have nothing to do with who the paddler is or what paddle he is using. Harold Deal might be able handle the Prospector in wind by hand paddling better than any of us can handle X with a double blade. So what? That’s logically irrelevant. Deal would do even better in X. We are advising on hull design.
If X has the superior hull design to P for both flatwater speed and manageability in wind, then the buyer should prefer P over X only if P is so superior with respect to some third factor that that third factor outweighs P’s inferiority to X in both speed and windage.
Such a third factor could be whitewater performance or load carrying – but there’s no evidence of those being important from the OP – or aesthetics. I can understand someone wanting a Prospector simply because the aesthetics outweigh all other factors.
But pgeorg never advised the OP to buy … a Prospector. He merely said he owns one, likes it, and added the caveat that it is a handful in the wind. Personally, I don’t see anything in pgeorg’s post with which to take issue.
People should post their experience, with caveats. I think that’s the kind of feedback folks seek here.
Pgeorg was clearly endorsing … … the Prospector based on his experience with it.
I am pointing out that ONE aspect of the experience he cites (double blade propulsion) should be logically and empirically irrelevant to a buyer who is making a comparative hull design decision between the Prospector and something else (X).
It may be that pgeorg’s experience with the Prospector is very favorable for all sorts of other objective and subjective factors that haven’t been mentioned. I’m not addressing or arguing against any of those.
Of my many solo canoe voyages along the Assateague Island bayside, save for perhaps one near windless and unseasonably warm late March Thursday, wherewith my friend Brian and I, each in a Wenonah Voyager, mistakenly led some poor Penacook pilgrim paddler in his hogbacked sainted monstrosity five miles further southward (then back, again) of intended camp landing (Damn, what an effortless, smooth-gliding day it was! For two, at least.), I'd have to say that A Mad River Malecite's been my favorite. Plenty of room for firewood and copious supplies (Well, the Weber dome won't quite squeeze down to the bilges tweenst the gunnels, but it does make for an intersting, pseudo U.S.S. Pueblo appearance riding up forward.) Hell! I might even squeeze in the psycho-canine, if the U.S. Park Service would allow! But, then, all that barking at Sika Deer and wind-whipped pine boughs on the attack might get a tad bit annoying. Nevermind!) Low sheer, so the usual 20-25 mph breezes aren't too disjointing to one's tack. Great on those calmer 15-knot and less days to pole her through those chippy, choppy shallows, too, while spotting ponies, scouting mussel shoals, and attempting to discern that one Pine Tree that looks like the other 5,000 pine trees you're benchmarking transit off of. A semi-vee hull helping abate some of that unwanted side-slipping vector, but with loose enough ends to allow for corrections without too much frantic-antic of the paddle. Yep, Malecite's a good solo boat for me in this setting.
Yes, that low sheer does invite a splash more-or-two of brackish backwash when the breezes start to get there kicky 35+ knot dander up. But then, one just finds for their self respite behind a reedy tump to bail the bilges and swill that festering malt beverage you weren't able to reach down for in the last 8,000-stroked nautical mile crossing, as you watch four poor souls in a beamy Clipper Voyageur slave towards you from a quarter mile away.
I did paddle tandem there, on one occasion, in a Wenonah 16-ft. Prospector (Kevflex, I think), and later on same outing in a Novacraft 17-ft. Prospector layed-up in the funky Blue Steel Spectra-blend. Liked 'em both, although the seat hangars in the Nova we're a tad bit thin and loose, perhaps inducing a somewhat more squirrelly feel than the boat should have had in moderately (20-25 mph) breezy conditions. They both moved along quite nicely with two paddlers in the winds, the Wenonah feeling a tad more manageable and reassuring (perhaps due to a foot less length paired with a slightly heavier weight - the inbound trip - and tighter seat drops). Soloing, composite-light though these hulls were, I believe either would have been a lot of work with gear aboard in the variable winds one usually faces there.
Still, and this is all solely from one evening's quick jaunt whilst at Assateague when as Jsaults slept I borrowed his unladen black beauty to noodle about some guts and sloughs with Mike and Joel, I still harbor this mind and muscle memory (also wherein a big smile crept over my thieving mug) that a Black Gold Bell Magic might be the best solo out there, sans-dog and Weber, for splittin' those barrier island channels and zephyrs. (Voyager's too sticky in the big winds). If only I could find and afford one simultaneously.
Two blades to windward The Prospector is affected more by wind than other designs with less windage. This need not cause a buyer to opt for a more wind-friendly boat if he likes the rest of the Prospector design attributes. He can overcome this performance shortcoming with a double blade paddle. And, sure, if you take a Prospector and a faster boat and double blade 'em both the faster boat will still be faster.
The OP says he will use the boat in tidal estuaries. If they are winding and narrow the Prospector is a good choice. If they are broad and windswept, probably not.