I am looking for comments on Wenonah’s Solo Plus. I have an opportunity to buy a kevlar solo plus. I travel up river, then down back to my truck. I am about 6’4, 225, and occasionally will go with my wife who is 6’ about 150 pounds. As I mainly travel or trip alone, does anyone recommend this boat? I look forward to your coments.
Solo Plus
– Last Updated: Sep-16-05 2:49 PM EST –
I have a Rx Solo Plus that I often paddle solo when my young boys aren't paddling it tandem. I really like it for solo river use (6'2" x #225) but do not care for it at all as a tandem. However, Topher has paddled one much longer than me and I haven't heard him complain about it as a tandem.
Without knowing much about you or where you paddle, I'd say if you don't take your wife with you very often and the price is right, you'll probably like it plenty. With foot braces it will take you upstream with decent speed and tracking and lots of stability. Your profile says you like fishing and camping. A Solo Plus would fit both of those bills pretty nicely as well.
I prefer my Solo Plus tandem.
Ours is royalex. I’m 5’6" and 150 lbs and it’s too much boat for me to paddle solo unless I use a double blade paddle - I don’t sink the boat deep enough into the water for it to track very well with a single blade. Of course, my single blade skills are pretty poor. I much prefer soloing my Mad River Slipper or Sawyer Summersong. The Solo Plus is probably much better solo with someone your size or someone with a lot of gear. I don’t do any tripping, just day paddling
My wife is a little lighter than me and the Solo Plus works great for us on flat water. We haven’t tried it tandem on rivers. It’s very stable for us and reasonably comfortable and fast.
I have similar dimensions and tried an
ABS Solo Plus on a lake. It had decent straight line speed, but speaking as a WW canoeist, I found it “stiff,” that is, reluctant to turn unless forced.
When you are paddling upstream, some rocker or dead rise can be an asset to control and progress, especially if you have to climb small chutes or jets. Any necessity for change of direction while climbing a rapid will show the disadvantage of the Solo Plus’s lack of rocker. I can advise you to buy it only if your upstream jaunts are on fairly uncomplicated flatwater.
Finding a canoe which is both a decent solo cruiser and a decent tandem boat is difficult. It is feasible for purely flatwater purposes, and for purely whitewater purposes (e.g. my Mad River Synergy), but for mixed use, you must either give up solo speed and ease, or tandem capacity. There are decent solutions, but not really good solutions. Fortunately, you are tall and heavy, and therefore can solo paddle some boats which are infeasible for others.
abs solo plus
A kevlar boat in any model performs much better than the same boat in royalex. So don’t get too hung up on these reviews with the royalex Solo Plus. I paddled a kevlar model for a couple hours solo (I’m 5’9" & 180lbs.)& liked everything about it. It’s a very nice boat as a solo for a bigger person like yourself. I didn’t paddle it as a tandem, so I can’t comment on that. Good luck.
Solo from center, bow or stern seat?
I solo my Solo Plus from the center seat. Do any of you solo it from the stern sea or bow seat (backwards) like you would any other tandem boat?