Hi! First time actually writing here, but I’ve read and learned a lot from you guys for the past week.
So the situation is simple but I guess the answer is not. I’m canoeing with my wife (180lbs) at the bow and myself (320 lbs) at the stern on a 25 years old Aventure 16’(from complast Inc, Quebec). The thing is that the canoe while being fairly stable (~39" wide in middle) seem to fucking want to split in the bottom. When the both of us sit, the middle is curving up.
If I build a seat a bit more close to the middle will it be more stable and less '‘curvy’?
What you describe, looks like the so -called “oil-canning” to me.
In very mild cases adding a thwart may help a bit.
But I doubt buiding the seat a bit more close to the middle
would solve the problem.
The honest answer is that you probably need a larger and stronger canoe. Your size is flexing the hull. I would consider something like a 17 or 18 foot aluminum canoe.
The boat is getting old and the weight is causing it to oil can. Throw a 5 gal bucket of water in the middle and see if it causes the middle to go back down. If it does then you have your answer. I am 30lbs lighter but have had about the same weight in my OT camper at one time and it did oil can some but not like your picture shows.
Your current boat is flexing a dangerous amount. IN an older canoe that is not good.
I have literally had the experience of an old kevlar canoe come apart and start to fold in half.
Find a stronger boat.
There’s a good reason why Mad River made their own Adventure 16 model a double hulled plastic canoe. Complast was known in the 1980s for porch furniture, not canoes, and a single layer of poly like that one in your photo is not sufficient to provide the rigidity needed for a canoe to be used by anyone but young kids at summer camp.
I agree you should look for a different boat. I used to own a Mad River Adventure 16 and can testify that they are frequently sold used around the country for just a few hundred bucks. I paid $300 for mine and the seller threw in a pair of paddles and a 30 watt trolling motor that clipped on the stern. As I recall, the canoe was rated at 950 pound capacity. The way it is molded, with the integral plastic seats and center thwart, the canoe was not susceptible to flexing or oil canning. They also made the Adventure 14 which could work for you as a solo using the middle seat. Both models have been popular with canoe rental outfitters because they can take a lot of abuse and are low maintenance (no wooden gunwales or gel coat surface to get scratched up).
My ex boyfriend and I (we co-owned it) had a lot of fun with it on a range of flatwater and mild whitewater and even rented one to explore the Thousand Islands Florida sea coast on a trip to Everglades City years ago. The low sides keep it from being much affected by wind and it was fairly stable and tracked well. We usually paddled it using kayak paddles, a 230 cm in the bow seat and a 240 cm in the stern. We also had an Old Town Guide 147, a more conventional canoe, but grew to prefer the plastic Mad River, which we dubbed “the Swamp Cooler”.
Mad River also made this model as the Passage 14 and 16 to be sold at the Dick’s Sporting Goods chaine – same as the Adventure but disguised (presumably so shoppers would have a harder time price checking it.)
Mad River stopped making canoes in recent years but here are the specs from an Asian distributor. Like I said, these are common all over the place. In fact, out of curiosity I just ran a search on Facebook Marketplace setting up the filter to Mad River Discovers for sale within 250 miles of my western PA city – there were 28 of them listed between $250 and $600.
Only drawback is they are heavy (84 pounds) but I got a 2-wheel canoe dolly to haul it around and because it was so long I could lift the bow up to the back of my little station wagon’s rear roof rack, then walk to the stern of the canoe and lift and slide it forward.
First time actually writing here, but I’ve read and learned a lot from you guys for the past week.
