I may have my terminology wrong but I was mentioning floatation in terms of water displacement not additional floatation added for sealing the displacement in the event of capsizing. My point was a larger tandem used as a solo has a higher capacity and when loaded lighter as a solo displaces less water and therefore rides higher in the water.
I see rec-kayaks with a rating of 250 lb hauling 250 lb guys that work but ride pretty low in the water. On the other hand put a 250 lb guy in my canoe with a 900 lb rating and he rides high and floats thru 2-3” of water.
All of my solos have traveled multi day trips.
The Everglades is the toughest as its riddled with oyster bars.
Havent holed or bouught a boat in 15 years . They all are fine.
None are skin coated. All are gel coated.
Two are dacron skins and the paint gets abraded. Big deal. a can of paint and a fosm brush is all thats needed
Sorry I can’t find the pictures of the 50 year old plus aluminum boats at the Suwannee Canoe Outpost in the Sprit of the Suwannee music park. OP wanted a boat that didn’t mind shallow water or scrapping. This would be the aluminum canoes used by this outfitter. They are bashed, battered and continued to be used. Some have 1" of the bow bent around to the side. They’ve had holes the size of golf balls patched and they still keep going out.
I suspect they can hold the OP and the dog.
I also suspect they weigh more than the 50#.
Do they mind the scrapping? Don’t know but they just lay there quietly. But could any other boat be abused that much, for that long and keep going?
In 1985 we paddled the Boundary Waters of MN and flew in and hired an outfitter. At that time the rental fleet was all aluminum. Now it is mostly kevlar because of all of the portaging.
Aluminum boats are not fast because it is hard to bend metal into graceful shapes. They are heavy. But they can carry a load, ride over waves with their full ends, and take the rocks like no other boat out there. The new bottom coatings liked Wetlander make them slippery for going over rocks. Look for a shoe keel.
I agree and it depends on a lot of factors and large open water being the worst. It is vitally important if anyone goes for low displacement and uses a tandem as a solo they get the weight distribution as perfect as possible in the canoe. It is often said a tandem can be paddled solo sitting in the bow seat facing backwards and it has been my experience that only works if there is very little wind or if you have enough gear to weight the other end. Otherwise the slightest gust of wind will spin you like a weathervane.
In my conversion I relocated my solo seat to the perfect spot to keep my weight distributed and that left two areas for gear on in front and one behind my seat. So if I want to load the boat down I can still keep it level loaded.
It also might not hurt that I’m a larger guy and with a 14’7” tandem it matches up better with the weight of me and my gear to being like two smaller people. I mostly river paddle and the banks block a lot of side wind and when I’m on larger lakes I’m fishing and not really trying to cover a lot of water. Like all things there are tradeoffs it takes less effort pushing the hull thru air than water, but then again the hull sticking out of the water is a sail and will spin you if you let it. A little keel might also help but most of these molded boats are pretty much a flat bottom.
I am glad to hear your rational perspective on superficial scratches on your canoe. I acquired a FG '82 Curtis Lady Bug 3 years ago that was in very nice condition. But with my use on gravelly launch sites and shallow streams and inlets it is now covered with a pretty obvious web of scratches, none through the color layer. The canoe being the deep green color these are more visible than they would have been on the powder blue or cream colored Bugs that I missed out on buying before this one came along.
The scratches don’t bother me at all and the only maintenance I have performed is making sure the wooden seat and gunwales are treated. Someday I might (“might” being the proper word) redo the gelcoat, but it is not the sort of thing I would consider a routine procedure. I do have to perform some gelcoat repair on a FG sea kayak I got super cheap last year with a couple of small but deep cracks and a gouge that are through to the cloth. But, casual slob that I am, I have been using that boat anyway with FlexSeal tape over the booboos.
But I when I attended my first solo canoe rendezvous last year I noticed that many of the boats that attendees brought looked so pristine I wondered if they even used them. Maybe they polished them up for the event? I was a bit annoyed to get a couple of rather dismayed comments from other attendees about how I “needed” to refinish the gel coat. I admit I started to feel embarrassed and even wondered if Dave Curtis and the previous owner of the canoe (who were both at the event and with whom I talked about my experience with it) were looking askance at me for letting the Bug get so scuffed.
Like you, my attitude towards my boats (and any of my tools and recreation gear) is not to worry how they look as long as nothing is affecting their function or lifespan. So I guess the only “problem” resolution here is for me to not allow myself to be daunted by peer opinions. “Scratches? What scratches: that’s patina…”
