I’ve placed an order for a Superior Expedition. Take a look at it if you like. Very similar to the Kruger.
http://www.superiorcanoes.com/solocanoes.html
If you look at the photo galley, mine will be the yellow decked one. Anyhow, it’s a decked solo canoe, but everyone that looks at it says, “Ah, nice kayak.” So the question for you “experts” out there is, what’s the difference—kayak vs. decked solo canoe. Is it just that the latter is bigger, deeper, and has greater carry capacity, different hull shape, intended use, or what?
Well…
– Last Updated: Aug-24-10 10:26 AM EST –
a sea kayak it ain't - no sealed bulkheads, limited at best perimeter lines and a cockpit opening that would be hard-pressed to handle a skirt that'd actually keep water out in a roll. Also probably no thigh braces or passes at. Likely no reinforcement for WW so not that either.
But between this and some of the beamy big cockpit transitional boats, it's a bit harder to make the call.
Then again, if you stuck a deck on many pack canoes it'd be confounding too.
Have Paddled a Kruger…
…and owned it’s predecessor, the Mad River Monarch. IMHO it is a canoe, with an open deck. I paddled it with a single blade. I’m not fond of kayaks and I LIKED this boat, so it HAD to be a canoe (LOL)! WW
OC1
Some make the distinction by how it’s outfitted and paddled. When you see someone on their knees witha single blade, you should generally think canoe or maybe “OC1”.
I’ve seen whitewater boats converted into OC1s by ripping out the seat and adding a saddle and thigh straps. They make it easy in Englang by not distinguishing them at all.
If you start getting technical, most everything we call a kayak is a canoe by the dictionary definition.
If you classify it by how it’s outfitted and paddled, it does make things a lot easier and clear cut.
jim
Since you sit in it. It is a Kayak.
A kayak is type of canoe that is not set up to allow you to kneel. If you paddle and cannot kneel it is a kayak. If you paddle and can switch to kneeling or only can kneel then it is a canoe.
So all kayaks are canoes, but not all canoes are kayaks.
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Seat is Adjustable, You CAN Kneel
– Last Updated: Aug-24-10 12:36 PM EST –
Seat adjusts up, so kneeling possible. SO, it's a CANOE! You say ToMAto, I say TomaHto (LOO)! WW
Verlen called it a canoe.
Move it and see.
If all day you ponder identity,
therein lies the crisis,
for water abates bateau debates
and through both pleasure craft slices.
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Translation…
…in other words - Who cares what you call it, so long as it does what you like?
I call mine canoe, but
when non paddlers call it a kayak that’s fine too. When other paddlers call it kayak it opens a discussion of why I think it’s a canoe, most reasons already mentioned here. Another one to me would be in a kayak you sit on the bottom of the boat and a canoe you don’t. (canoe or kayak I have to sit, knees won’t handle kneeling).
But it’s not important what you call it, just enjoy. By the way, in the Superior’s gallery mine’s the purple one.
Carl
So, my Advantage is a kayak?
I sit in the bottom of the Rapidfire.
A canoe with a kayak hull.
Looks like a
CANYAK to me. 
As long as it takes you where you
want to go, what does it matter?
Congratulations on your choice of such a capable-looking… um… watercraft!
Decked Canoe…
Yes, it certainly blurs the lines, but as an avid kayaker and an owner of basically the same canoe (Sawyer Loon upon which your boat is based) it is a canoe. No question about it.
A kayak is worn, you sit below the waterline, and it has thigh braces and can be rolled.
This is a canoe with a deck. When you sit in it and paddle it you realize that it handles like a canoe too (although in a unique fasion).
Great boat…but it is a canoe. Just because you put a deck on top doesn’t make it a kayak.
Kind of like Pungos and the like aren’t really kayaks either…ooohhhh I may get blasted for that one. But it’s true. They really are decked canoes as well in many regards.
Matt
Tommy’s Rule
– Last Updated: Aug-30-10 8:07 AM EST –
You can use it or toss it as you please.
Tommy's rule states that if you sit less than four inches off the bottom and paddle with a double blade it's a kayak.
If you sit four inches or higher or kneel and paddle with a single blade then it's a canoe.
The deck has no say in the matter.
Further if you paddle a canoe with a double blade or a kayak with a single then you are a kook.
fun looking boat but the rudder and
foot pedal-thing should go…into dumpster!..lol
It looks like a fun boat, a decked touring boat, is fun enough. There are no shots of the underside on their website, which is kinda strange.
$.01
Tommy’s rule
Tommy,
I guess even though you live in NE you never met the late Bart Hauthaway, formally of Weston, MA. Bart was an olympic competitor, olympic coach and builder of open canoes, kayaks and decked canoes for many decades.
Bart’s rule was very simple: If you have to be able to roll it to safely proceed, it’s a kayak. Everything else is a canoe.
Decked canoes (called decked canoes) have a 140+ year documented history. I own a Copy of “A Thousand Miles In The Rob Roy Canoe,” printed in 1871. It tells of some of John Mcgreggor’s epic voyages. Those historic decked canoes were paddled with double bladed paddles. The book cover illustration (1871) shows a decked canoe being paddled with a double blade paddle, by a dapper man sitting on the bottom.
The earliest American recreational paddlers paddled decked canoes, while sitting on the bottom, using double blade paddles for propulsion: they were inspired by Mcgreggor’s books. Look up the beginning of the ACA at the Sugar Island annual gatherings in the 1880 and 1890s-mostly decked canoes, propelled with double blades, while sitting on the bottom. Because these were very wealthy and competitive men, sailing races soon became prominent and Rob Roy style decked canoes quickly gave way to primarily sailing canoes. The duration of the Rob Roy prominence then was about as long as we have had decked canoes foisted on us as “rec” Kayaks in the present time. “Rec” kayak is just a marketing name for decked canoes, developed for the beginner who was convinced he wanted a kayak and then found true kayaks too tippy. So a new category of “kayaks” was developed, filled by decked canoes and called rec kayaks. Now the sale of a “kayak” could be made. Ka-ching, Ka-ching-give the customer what he wants, and invent a new name for it.
Pack canoes (called that) have a 130 year history. They are also paddled by a double blade paddle while sitting on the bottom-always were and still are.
There are historical records of places in the world where people paddled true kayaks (by Bart’s definition) with single blade paddles.
While paddlers lacking knowledge of canoe and kayak history can and do state whatever they presently see, experience or want to believe as the whole truth, there is a long historical record they are ignoring.
Dave
Mcgreggor
Should we give Mcgreggor undisputed credit for getting the nomenclature correct? I’m just asking. He did come from the island where paddle craft were called a canoes.
English nomenclature
My grandparents and great aunt and uncle came over from that Island to become American citizens. Throughout my childhood I was subjected to pronouncements of how things were (more correctly) done there, usually with some arrogance. I do have some sensitivity to this issue.
Juxtapose this with the American arrogance of throwing away 130-150 years of history because their present usage and present naming of paddlecraft doesn’t happen to fit the 130-150 years of historical record.
I guess I belong to a nation of one, But it’s a great nation in my own mind.
Dave