Osprey and Argosy
Osprey cruises at 4 mph, Argosy will cruise at 5 mph. That’s the results on my GPS, using a double blade, 40 strokes per minute, Greg Barton style forward stroke. This means absolutely nothing earthshattering. They are two different hull designs, I was the only paddler, there was no blind test, and just because it worked for me doesn’t mean it will work for you. The only way to know for sure is test paddle both boats with a stop watch and GPS and limit yourself to the same paddling inputs each time. My other impression is that double blade is easier to get a replicable reading. Single blade requires corrective strokes which may throw off the cadence. With the single blade at 30 strokes per minute and the double blade at 40 strokes per minute the dble is 1/2 to 1 mile per hour faster.
Big Sandy?
Where is the Big Sandy?
Big Sandy
Flows into the east side of the Illinois River south of Hennepin. Heavy rain dependent. Much fun when you catch it right.
Quick update on Wilderness & Argosy
I had a chance to measure the rocker on the Wilderness and it is indeed 1.5 inches at each end, if you measure back 12 inches from the tip of the deck plate. The rocker starts about 3 feet from the center and is a gradual transition.
I also measured the seat position of the Wilderness and the front edge of the seat is at exact center. Same thing on the Argosy.
I’ve read comments by Windwalker and others that the Argosy tends to veer off course unexpectedly when being pushed hard. It is because the paddler is sitting exactly at center. This pushes the bow down and causes a bow wave. Kneeling with your butt against the front of the seat gives you more stabiliyt but it also puts most of your weight forward of center. That really pushes the bow down and creates more resistance. When you paddle hard against that resistance the bow deflects and starts veering into a turn and it takes some muscle to get it back on line. You can correct this bad habit by either moving the seat back 4 to 7 inches, or by adding 25-50 pounds weight to the stern.
Dave Kruger designed both of these canoes. When I’m at Canoecopia next month I’m going to ask him why Wenonah puts their seats at dead center. I’ll let you know what he says.
Class III in an Argosy
The truth is it wouldn’t be the end of the world and if you know your boat and are confident, you could probably run some class IIIs in a Vagabond, or a Wilderness. But if you are planning on running alot of class III+, I would really not recomend using a Argosy. But it sounds like you want to just do some class I, II, and one or two small class IIIs, and the argosy will be fine in that water. I recently rented an argosy to try out on class II, and III and it was fine for the most part although I did dump it on the biggest drop, which was large class III. I simply stayed upstream from the boat, then swam to it, dragged it to shore, dumped out the water, and moved on when i was through the rapid. Just like I would do for any other boat.