All time favorite canoes I do not paddle tandem if I can possibly help it.
All around.
Swift Osprey in Expedition Kevlar. I do not believe Swift currently has a layup that compares. Tough as nails. Good on rivers to Class II+. Eats up the miles. Hauls a load. Plays nicely.
Big lakes
Bell Magic. Loves the wind and the waves!
Casual recreational canoeing (slow rivers, small/medium lakes, day trips) Swift Osprey, Bell Magic, Bell Wildfire, Mad River Independence, Millbrook Souhegan, etc. I love them all.
White water (maybe class 2 or 3? also decent on the flat stretches)
Mad River Outrage. Iām only good to Cl III. The boat will do better with a decent pilot.
I have: An Old town Penobscot 16 roylex, an Old town disco 159 cross linked poly, a Wenonah ultralight Jensen 17,
A Diller 18ā-6" carbon/kevlar susquehanna and several solos. If I had to get rid of all but one, I would keep the Jensen 17.
I love that boat. It has won my wife and I a bunch of trophies and plaques, and except for the class III, I take it in I-II rivers, (yes I have had to patch it a few times). It has been in big water on ten mile long lakes, through the Everglades and many swamps and rivers, and is part of the family.
The Susquehanna is faster. the Penobscot is better in WW, and the OT disco is industructable, but the Jensen is a do all boat in my estimation.
If we are talking ocean, none of the above can equal my QCC-700 Kayak
I've never owned one canoe that was my #1, all time favorite, does it all well canoe.
I don't think such a canoe exists.
That may be one reason I have too many canoes?
The right canoe for the right venue mentality.
Will not go on for paragraphs describing some of my favorites; most people who have owned them know why.
Bell Wildfire
Bell Flashfire
Hemlock SRT
Swift Osprey
Curtis Dragonfly
Mad River Guide
Mohawk Odyssey
Mohawk Probe 12 II
Whitesell Piranha
Mad River Outrage X
Lotus Caper
Blackhawk Zephyr
Blackhawk Ariel
Blackhawk Starship
Chestnut Pal
Addition for WW: the ME For real WW I have many aging canoes, but my favorite of all time is my heyday canoe, the John Berry designed ME. I had a Royalex version from Mad River, which I stupidly sold on the Cheat River 25 years ago, and a Kevlar version made and signed by John Berry at his Millbrook shop in the Adirondacks.
Canoe fleet Unlike some,I buy and sell a lot. I value the boats as a tool,not "stuffā. Itās a refining process toward perfection for a purpose. Favorites?
My Colden Flashfire-a Lotus sportscar-you almost wear it,fere sensual. Also my litest so used for long carrys.
-My Hemlock Kestral-most wind resisant lake boat I have ever paddles,and I can make miles with the least effort. Also pretty.
-Esquif Echo-the best handling royalex boat I have paddled-My winter and big freestyle boat.
-My Novacraft Pal paddled solo-Just a sweet boat with no sharp edges-aptly named.
All time favorite? I donāt have enough time in canoes to qualify that. How about my āright now favoriteā?
That would be my Millbrook Coho.
Two reasons for thatā¦
I like to pole more than paddle.
It weighs under 50lbs outfitted with flotation bags.
Lots of good canoes out there that could qualify as āfavoritesā. Plenty of them mentioned above. Some of them I have. But regardless of the design - if you get a lightweight composite hull, you will use it more.
I wish I had an all-time favorite ā¦ ā¦ for each of those categories. If I had a justifiable favorite for any category it would mean Iāve paddled a whole bunch of different boats. However, since quite a few folks are clearly in the same situation but have described what they like about certain boats they have, Iāll do the same.
For general-purpose, jack-of-all-trades type of use, the Mowhawk Odyssey 14 works extremely well for me. Itās maneuverable enough to be a lot of fun in easy whitewater, and it cruises well enough to be āadequateā for that purpose if itās not the main type of water Iām on that day. Where it shines is in places where manueverability is nice to have but not something which is needed in extreme measure. About 90 percent of my canoeing is solo on small twisty rivers. In that environment, this boat maneuvers easily enough to take the āworkā out of getting through the tight spots, but itās not so manueverable that straight-line paddling requires much attention to detail or detracts too much from speed. I really enjoy that boat on tiny rivers, especially in places where getting the boat through a tangle of fallen trees requires all sorts of little zigs and zags while crosswise to the current. On little rivers it never seems like Iām using the wrong tool for the job.
I donāt paddle āwhitewaterā the way some folks here do. Iāve only dabbled in whitewater of a sort that many here would consider very mild. Iām wanting to do more of that though, and so far Iām pretty happy with the Novacraft Supernova. The hull cross section is very round (much less flat than that of any other ānormalā canoe Iāve seen so far), and the rocker is continuous from each end right to the center, so thereās sort of a ābulgeā right around the paddler on which the boat can pivot or feel comfortable with any amount of lean. Itās not so prone to turning as a whitewater boat, but the design is trending in that direction without really departing from the design of a traditional northwoods canoe. Iām really amazed that it isnāt unusually slow on account of that shape too. Anyway, itās a forgiving hull shape in turbulence. On my first Class-II trip, I screwed up an attempt at surfing in a hole and got stuck in there sideways to the current. By rights I should have been thrashed, but the round bottom, non-grabby stems and the lack of a typical (sharper) junction between the bottom and sides of the hull made the boat pretty immune to getting flipped during the minute or so that it took for me to figure out how to escape. All the less-harrowing things Iāve done in swift water so far have been really fun in that boat.
When it comes to trips where efficient cruising is a good thing and not much tight turning is needed, my Bell Merlin II works pretty well. I canāt say I love the boat, but itās nice and I doubt Iāll ever look for a replacement. Iām still a little ticked at Bell for overlooking the twisted keel line thatās molded into the tail end of these boats. Most people donāt notice its effect when paddling, but feeling the effect is how I discovered the defect in the first place. I keep saying Iāll fair it out into a more-symmetrical shape someday. A weight of just 31 pounds is a good reason for liking it too.
For real ease of travel where a lot of turning isnāt needed, especially on big water where wind and big waves come into the picture, I donāt consider a solo canoe to even be in the same league as a good rowing boat. I row hundreds of miles per year, and while canoers usually hate to face strong wind, those are days I try my best to get out rowing. I think bringing up the subject of rowing is more āfairā to this discussion than if someone were to say they prefer a kayak for open-water cruising, because when rowing Iām still in an open boat with all the gear-hauling attributes and the same no-fuss entry/exit manners of a canoe, but none of the self-rescue attributes or extreme immunity to wind that you get with a kayak.
My next one! Sorry i always look to the next boat next river bend bend next eddyā¦ currently my favorite is a Passage(xl) sitting in the boat shop waiting outfitting and seatsā¦
Probably my Curtis Lady Bug. Number 3 is about all I do.
3. Casual recreational canoeing (slow rivers, small/medium lakes, day trips)
Itās just 32 lbs, a good fit for for my 5ā6" 160 lb body, plenty stable, tracks well enough, maneuverable enough for some pretty twisty streams, crosses eddy lines pretty well, paddles well sitting or kneeling and is pretty and pretty efficient at moderate cruising speeds and handles pretty well in the wind and is fun to mess around in.
It paddles beautifullyā¦ but my white one is much, much prettier to look at.
The blue, red & black blotchy one is less likely to get stolen and much more relaxing to grind across rocks & gravel bars, but 17 lbs heavier to carry.
Great thread ! All around: ( the one we travel with ) Blue Water, Freedom, Tripper 17. No shortage of names. Speedy enough to head upstream (no shuttle, good workout) very manouverable, tough kevlar/epoxy layup, will just handle class 2 with a light team (260#), just small enough to solo if the wind is mild, and weighs 50 pounds. Also got a lot of use out of a Kevlar Explorer, it is bigger, more stable, but slower and less manouverable. I spent a lot of time looking for fast AND manouverable. The Canadians build speedy hulls with rocker.