Now that plastic kayaks are all the rage, it seems to be having some positive impact on the popularity of solo canoes. People try a kayak, and some of them realize that for overnight, bringing a dog and camping in general a canoe is a much better choice.
When I talk with older paddlers, there seems to be a lot of consensus that going solo is a good idea. Maybe with another person in another boat. Tandem paddling and larger groups can create some problems.
Those plastic kayaks are a good way to get into paddling for a reasonable price. But I’ve noticed that the owners see how easy it is for us to lift, carry, and load the lightweight solos and comment how maybe they should go that route themselves. Unfortunately when they ask how much a Kevlar canoe costs these days they’re taken aback and kind of resign themselves to dealing with a 45 to 50 lb boat. The thing is, if you keep your eyes out you can find a used 30 to 35 lb canoe in good condition that doesn’t cost much more than a new plastic kayak. You do need to put some time into learning how to paddle a solo canoe. Lessons are always helpful.
I worked for Mad River Canoe in the late 1980s, bought a slipper at that time and still have it. Love paddling it and we have used it for everything from wilderness river tripping (Class II max) to fishing. Also had a Traveler, another great down river tripping solo canoe. Love solo paddling, it’s much quieter and intimate. Over the decades it’s been sad to see the decrease in interest in canoeing. Hopefully that is turning around.
First time I soloed on a wilderness trip was 30 years ago and I took my Royalex Mad River Explorer (72 lbs.) on a trip that featured two 1000-meter portages, among many others. The innocence of youth. Convinced me to go right out and buy an actual solo boat. Since then I’ve had a Blackhawk Starship, a Bell Merlin II and two Swift Shearwaters, none of which are even made anymore. My Shearwater is a little heavy for a solo at 39 pounds but it’s the greatest boat I’ve ever owned and I can’t bear to part with it. Love solo paddling way more than tandem (don’t tell my wife). Any future boat I buy will be a Swift. Highly recommended manufacturer.
Welcome. Tandems haven’t been know as “Divorce Boats” for nuthin.’ 
Personally, I’ve also found, my chances of a capsize decrease by 50% by not paddling with a partner.
I was on an extended trip down the Delaware some years back with another longtime poster from these boards(TommyT). Tommy was in his Swift Osprey and I was in a 16’ poly kayak. Another fellow along, was also in a solo canoe. I marveled at the speed Tommy could do in his Osprey(easily kept pace with my kayak)and how much stuff each guy could pack into their solo canoe(I had to economize and pack light for the multi-day trip.) Hmmm, I thought at the time, maybe I oughta get me a solo canoe…After we blasted through Skinners Falls(a Cl. III rapid of note on the Del) the other guy with us pulled-up with his canoe filled with water. “That’s it,” He said,“I’m switching to a touring kayak!” Tommy yelled to him, “Never follow a skirted kayaker down the center of a rapid unless you have canoe cover on.” I liked the other guy’s canoe and might have offered to trade boats with him. But I liked Tommy’s Osprey much better and knew he’d never trade it(much more pricey than my kayak, for one thing 
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I’m on my second Shearwater and second Osprey and have never bought any other canoe twice. I like them both much more than any current Swift solo canoe. Just FYI I think you can still order a Shearwater but I read that the Osprey mold is shot.
I’ve always wanted to try a Starship. I have a Kevlar Blackhawk Combi 15.8 that might be available for a trade.
I don’t know about the “Divorce Boat” thing. My second date with my (now) wife was in a tandem canoe, specifically a Wenonah Jensen 18. We bought a Sawyer Cruiser with our wedding money and still have that cruiser 30 years later.
TomL - Yeah, love my Shearwater. And it looks like we have the same good taste in canoe colors. I sold my Starship long ago. Used it for many years on trips, but it was not very versatile, definitely a flatwater tripping boat. It was a rocket on flat water, but pretty difficult to turn. Since it was a fiberglass layup it was pretty heavy too (50 pounds).
Me either
After 57 years we communicate better in the canoe than at home
I didn’t say they were a Divorce Boat for me, just that I prefer paddling solo.
Other than that, been happily married for 35 years–Without a canoe having any bearing on the matter.
The wonderful thing about solo canoes is they can be so versatile, even when there’s a theme to the design. Take a fast touring canoe, like the Wenonah Advantage; you can do some serious cruising in that boat and cover a lot of miles in a hurry. But you can also slow down, grab a straight shaft paddle and just meander up a small inlet stream or marshy creek or weave your way through a flooded bottomland. Would a freestyle boat be a better boat for the meandering part of the day? Certainly, it would be a blast. But it would take longer to get back to the takeout and a cold beer. 
Never want to be delayed from the cold beer at completion–I even drink ones with a canoe on the label, just to ease the transition.
Yes! Solos are versatile and there are so many unique personalities. Freestyle boats make surprisingly good traveling boats (Cliff Jacobsen used a Flashfire at one time). Those Swifts (Shearwater & Osprey) travel better than freestyle boats with their asymmetric hulls and differential rocker but they are also two of my favorites on quiet ponds; the Osprey can be leaned to the gunwale more easily than a Wildfire and if you scoot the sliding seat forward on a Shearwater and shift weight to your knees you can get daylight under at least four feet of the stern and it spins on a dime. I’ve had a 60 pound dog plus a 70 pound kid in my Shearwater and it still cruises efficiently and turns easily. They are also great for napping…just scoot the seat back, lay down and stretch out and relax. So you can rush back to the takeout in your Advantage and I’ll play on the way back.
Brings back fond memories of my friend doing FS moves on a camping trip in the Okefenokee in his FlashFire.
In the middle of Billy’s Lake he played among a several dozen eyes watching from close by… Heeled to the rail in a sea of gators
There used to be so many fine solo canoes - and quite a few are still available. I sure wish someone would bring back the Mad River Guide/Freedom solo or something very like it. Even a 7/8 scale Prospector would be interesting. Or the Dagger Prophet, for that matter. The Osprey, Shearwater, and the Swift Raven are great solo boats. The Bell Wildfire and Flashfire, Magic and Merlin, ditto. Sawyer Autumn Mist and Summersong. I’d love to have any of them… but alas, I’m full up. No more storage space. Blackhawk Starship, Ariel and a Mad River Flashback are taking up the rack space and I couldn’t part with any of them.
And there are some I haven’t paddled but look interesting - Mad River Courier, Curtis Dragonfly, some of the Mike Galt designs. There would have to be a heck of a resurgence, and a very well sustained resurgence, before the kind of variety of solo canoe designs that was around in the mid1980s-mid90s comes back. I would welcome it, though.
The popularity of pack canoes is an interesting phenomenon but, it should be noted, this isn’t as new an innovation as some seem to think. A new trend, maybe, and not a bad one - but not new. There’s a fine example in the Canoe Museum in Spooner Wi - the Rushton Sairy Gamp (I think that’s how its spelled…). As some here know, I’m sure, though others might not, it was built for a fellow who went by Nessmuk. (He claimed he was the discoverer of the true source of the Mississippi among other things.) Its a straight-up pack canoe. Sit-on-floor seating, double blade paddle, 9’ long, 26" beam, 6" freeboard, cedar strip, and weighed a mere 10 1/2 lbs. And Nessmuck was doing Field and Stream write-ups on it in 1883. What I don’t know is whether Rushton could be thought of as the inventor of the pack canoe or whether there were other earlier examples - birch bark, low freeboard double-bladers, maybe?
I wonder if there will ever be a revival of the purpose built sailing canoe… thinking of old ideas trending back again and Rushton.
The DragonFly is in production by Colden Canoe as is WildFIre Nomad and FlashFIre, Back in 1998 we were delivering a boat to a fella at a motorcycle shop in North Carolina. Sawyer was out of production… There in the lot of the motorcycle shop was about 25 Autumn Mists all wrapped in yellow shredding wrap. Now I kick myself for not getting one as the trailer had an empty spot!
Regionally pack canoes have been around the Adirondacks forever. But usually home built and lapstrake designs. Not till Hornbeck started building then others followed did this “new:” old boat design take off.
I’m a big fan of Blackhawk canoes and have owned quite a few over the years. A long time ago a Zephyr was my “go to” solo and every other canoe I tried felt seriously sluggish. Zephyr is very low volume. I know a guy with three Zephyrs including one with birdseye maple trim that may never have been paddled…I think he has 40+ canoes (he’s a hoarder), I’d be very interested in picking up a Summersong some time. I think that’s quite a special boat. One popped up not long ago at a great price ($300) and I wanted to buy it but I had just bought a somewhat rare Blackhawk Shadow SS Special and my wife wasn’t happy about me buying another canoe so soon. The Blackhawk (pic) has since been passed along to someone that will use it more than me. You have to love mahogany outwales and fitted thwarts and carry handles on a boat that was part of an economy line of canoes.
This discussion of light weight and compactness is starting to sound a lot like the ultra lightweight backpackers. There is a practical limit to how light you want to go in a canoe. Length equals speed. It is not always easy for solo paddlers to keep up with tandem boats with two paddlers. I would not want to be hampered still by some short stubby pack canoe.
Actually the length being faster is not always true. Theoretical hull speed makes the assumption that a paddler has no lack of horsepower. But in reality too long a boat has too much skin friction for a paddler to overcome with power. That is why there are various sizes of solo canoes for various power levels.
The backpacking part of light is sure: Algonquin is a hiking park with a canoe problem and it is not alone. Do the 5390 meter portage from Bonfield to Dixon and you will see light is right.
Block coefficient in solo canoes aids tracking too and it is not hard to keep up with a non racing tandem team with a 15 foot solo canoe that is 25 inches wide at the waterline. And the Shadow from Placid Boatworks regularly out races kayaks in the ADK 90 miler. It is a pack canoe… The Falcon is another one from Savage River. Hardly short and stubby
Yep there are a lot of factors and that’s part of the fun. When I bought my stubby 13’ Flashfire I was told that won had recently won a local race. My Blackhawk Zephyr could easily outrun a 2 foot longer Swift Shearwater…one could actually punch through the speed/resistance curve “wall”. The Blackhawk Shadow 13 is similar, it’s faster than it should be. I’ve got 15 footers that are more than 25 in wide at waterline and it takes experienced paddlers in a sporty tandem (not just any tandem) to make me not have to slow down to let tandems keep up. Gotta be careful with generalizations.
