The most popular mid level priced canoe used for your intended canoeing.
Or what are you spending..on the total rig, what can you afford to replace. If you have the funds to replace a light weight hull then light weight gains points.
Going thru the available internet material is essential to knowing what the adventure is about. Many of us have done this background research.
In the commercial area:
Wenonah sells a broad array of hulls thus offering a broad array of advice:
https://www.wenonah.com/ChoosingCanoe.aspx
Wenonah 'tuffweave' earns review points in the used market
kevlar duraflex while we’re on the topic of materials, Clipper offers “Kevlar” and “Kevlar with Duraflex”. The duraflex doesn’t have the cross ribs that the kevlar does. Think the kev w/ dura is worth it?
Clipper Kevlar Duraflex I have a Clipper Kevlar Duraflex solo whitewater canoe. It is an extremely tough all cloth layup. I have come off of a few 5-6 foot drops down onto rocks with it a couple of times without any damage more substantial than gel coat scratches.
Marlin Bayes, owner of Clipper, will customize the layup for you if you want to achieve a particular weight.
canoes Thanks for all the input. I’m zeroing in, look like either the Nova Craft 17 Prospector either Tuff Stuff or blue steel or Clipper 17 Prospector ultra light of duraflex.
Nova Craft I paddled the nova craft 17 prospector in royalex on a lengthy northern trip once and I love the canoe. I am generally an Old Town Tipper guy but that Nova Craft is a great boat. I wish you could get it in royalex. I will never feel as secure with a composite boat when I am hundreds of miles from the nearest human being. But - I have been paddling wood canvas lately and so you can make the adjustments. You just need to respect the fragility of the craft and be more careful which is not necessarily a bad thing. One thing I believe though is that you cannot abuse a composite or wood canvas boat by dragging them. You need to carry them.
royalex I’ve considered the royalex and trying to find a used one but my concerns are the weight when portaging, I’m new to the sport and have very little experience portaging. The one portage we did was with a Old Town Discovery 16’9" and it was a bear, 91lbs, although the canoe was bomb proof.
Penobscot 17 Old Town listed their Royalex Penobscot 17 at 65 lbs and that was the lightest Royalex 17 footer I know off. OT canoes often came in around 5 lbs over catalog weight as well.
If you can handle a 65-70 lb boat and could find a Penobscot 17 Rx in decent shape, it would certainly be a worthy choice.
I found I could tear anything up if I tried hard enough. ABS, aluminum casualities to Maine, even a glass kayak met with some mishap- if you want to get a bit more creative with your trip planning than go with abs- extend your paddling down the moose and include the rapids below what folks call the demo road now (Scott road) paddle east outlet out of moosehead into Indian, drag down Penobscot Brook and do south branch, North Branch from Snake Pit, West Branch with roll dam section, caucomagic’s horserace, east branch and webster brook/Telos cut, Sebois, Aroostook all better suited to abs- plenty of good ww to boat in tripping mode in Maine-
you line to shorten the portages, as your skill increases you start running more and carrying less and you expect to deal with the occasional crash and learn to eat the soggy food first.
How much risk you take is influenced by how far you are from the nearest human being and whether you have grandchildren to worry about. You won’t die if the food gets trashed as long as you stay near the water and you have a boat that still floats. But, four guys and gear coming out with one canoe is a tough slog. Trust me.
Which Clipper canoe do you have? I’ve realized I have to either get a single or tandem canoe, one does not do both and I knew that going into this thread but I still tried. It’s actually easy to figure out, whichever I’m going to do more of and get that canoe and rent the other times or get two canoes. Thanks, for the trip tip, sounds great, how long is that meandering trip you mentioned? Thanks!
out from? Just curious? Some of my boat bending occurred on Wassatoquoik Stream and Roll Dam (Slade's Rip Section). It wasn't unusual to unpin a boat below Haskell's Rock Pitch on the East Branch as well. I was always able to retrieve the boats and paddle out. No z drags involved- we would usually strong arm or pull with the flow.
but the fear is there and it makes me careful. I like life. I want to come home to my family. If I am in a truly remote place I am cautious. I have wrecked boats in less remote locations. But I have always managed to get the boat off the pin and back in service. There was one time on the Horton River when one of three boats dumped and the thought of getting 6 guys with food and gear for three weeks down an arctic river with two canoes was causing me a bit of stress. Not my idea of a fun trip. When I am in that sort of place I walk around or line a lot of things that I would float in Maine. Maybe I'm a wimp? But, I do get home and I live to travel another river. Royalex in my opinion is the most rugged and functional for trips like that but the real point is you just have to adjust your decision making to the type of boat you have. If its W/C or Kevlar you need to be a bit more careful in my opinion and then you will be fine. You need to be honest with yourself about your abilities and don't take big chances.
Viper 12 I don’t know if you were asking me but I have a Clipper Viper 12 in Kevlar Duraflex. Clipper has molds for 4 full-on solo whitewater hulls previously made by Mohawk Canoe in Royalex but they are not shown on their recently revised website.
The boats are a Probe 11, Probe 12, Viper 11, and Viper 12.
yeah remote is a relative term, crashed a view times in Maine and it was inconvenient but certainly not a life and death situation. It pays to study the maps and know access points. Freeze Out Trail, IAT, Golden Road, and a host of continuously changing logging roads provide access to lots of places in Maine. Buffer zones around the rivers and lakes so you don’t notice the human impact so much.
OT Prospector vs Tripper is now what we’re looking at. so it’s me, my son, (330# between us) our 50lb dog and gear for 10 days. Will the prefered lighter Penobscot handle this?
The NC Prospector 17 has some rocker and they all are in the 70lb range. OT advertises lower than reality and their P17 lacks the rocker. Their(NC) BlueSteel layup should do well. Clipper’s Prospector 17 also looks to have, although not documented with some rocker…I would talk to find out.
Yes, for the tripping you describe my personal preference would be to find a used OT Tripper (royalex) or a NC Prospector (17). These boats are great for trips in moving water. A bit of a weight penalty v. composite for sure. So you could go composite if that is really important to you. If you go composite just be sure to get a heavy lay up if you going to be tripping a lot in moving water.
If money is at all an issue you can’t go wrong with a used OT Tripper. They can be found in good shape in the $400 to $700 range.