For open boats I'd be most comfortable in the Osprey (with a sliding seat) or a Magic, although there are others that could work depending on just how bad the conditions are. The Magic would be the one I'd recommend to most folks. I like to add a cover in bad weather, partly to reduce the wind effect and partly as an added margin of safety.
If you want to include decked canoes, then any of the Kruger designs and the Clipper. You and Topher have had pretty good luck with the Rob Roy, so that's one I'd consider.
I think that it's never solely dependent on boat design. The paddler's skills play an extremely important role when conditions start to deteriorate, and the paddler's common sense is just as important, if not more so.
I would feel morally obliged to… …report him to Children’s Protective Service if he
got close to doing this. No parent has a right to deliberately imperil a kid’s life. The trip is optional and the baby couldn’t conceivably enjoy it, for God’s sake. He’s doing this for his needs, not the baby’s.
keep the peace I would mind my own business considering you say you have never canoed before and this man has. What makes you or any of us an authority on how competent a paddler is? Unless any of us have seen this man in action we really can’t give advice with out calling him a liar. Having paddled thousands of miles myself ANY waterway under the wrong conditions can be dangerous or be calm in different conditions. It always comes down to a judgment call if the water says no it means no. If this man has the savvy to paddle a canoe on lake superior he is probably going to be fine. Sponsons make a world of difference.
Assuming the father is the one with all the paddling experience, if something happens, the father will have to try and rectify the situation as in righting the boat, or navigating in rough stuff, or any number of things quite possibly leaving the principal care of the child to the mother. Not saying mom isn’t perfectly competent but what I am reading is that this guy is the one with the experience. Feel good about it now?
This is just plain stupid. Call the Harbor Master, the Coast Guard, call child protective services, call him especially. Keep the child off the water until at least the child is aware of water, the temperature and conditions are extremely benign, a properly fitted pfd is on the child, and the child is able to clamber back into a boat.
Another point. I wonder if you knowing about a potential life threatening risk to an infant and doing nothing about it puts you in a bad legal situation if something does happen? At the very least, how would you feel if God forbid something happens knowing that you did nothing?
An outfitter might be in a bad position, but a knowledgeable observer at a put-in has no legal obligation whatsoever, not even if the party is putting on above Niagra Falls.
I wish I had a dollar for every time I have tried to dissuade people headed into trouble. Thing is, their actual statistical risk of coming to lasting harm is still low, so I have no excuse for stealing their paddles or other desparate measures to stop them.
It’s Darwinism at work, and the less fit may die, or their progeny may die. Either way, stupid genes do not survive to replicate.
No chain pulling It’s a 6 week old, not a 6 month old, and no, I am definitely not pulling the chain. I can’t believe it myself, but it is without a doubt true. This guy is a bit weird. I never would have posted if it wasn’t bothering me on account of the child’s age.
in that case … … right when he told me of his plans, I would have said, “Dude, you’re planning to take a six week old baby on this excursion? That doesn’t sound too shit-all smart. If anything happens, you’ll probably find yourself bent-over inside a state penitentiary.”
This guy is a selfish SOB and his wife must be too. Or just stupid.
There is NO reason to take a 6 week old canoeing. There is nothing in it for the child. No experience that will be remembered.
The only reason to take a six week old along is that you are selfish and self centered, and want to go canoeing NO MATTER WHAT. So, if the only way you can go canoeing is to take the kid along, then what’s a little excess baggage?
This guy and his wife are nuts, and should be reported for child endangerment if he goes through with this.