How to Buy a Canoe

What kind of canoe you should choose depends on what you're going to be using it for. Once you've determined this, it's only a matter of shopping around for the canoe that best fits your purpose. Here are some guidelines.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Canoe Gear Bags
• Canoe Kneeling Pads
• Canoe Paddles
• Canoe Racks
• Canoe Yokes
• Canoes
• Life Vests

1. Decide how you're going to be using your canoe. Are you taking family trips on a gentle lake, or riding white-water rapids? Are you racing your canoe, or fishing from it?

2. Determine the best canoe type for your purposes. A family or camping canoe needs to be relatively large in order to hold all your gear and passengers, but it doesn't need to be as maneuverable and strong as a white-water canoe. A racing canoe must be light and narrow. A fishing canoe should be stable and big enough to carry all your gear.

3. Consider the various materials and decide on a budget. Royalex is very durable, though it varies in price and quality. Kevlar is a consistently light and very strong material, but it's usually expensive and is difficult to repair. Polyethylene is a strong, versatile material that is fairly inexpensive. Wood canoes can be both light and sturdy (or they can be heavy as sin and sturdy) with a great traditional feel to them, but due to the difficulty of making them, they are very expensive. Avoid buying aluminum canoes, which are heavy and hard to navigate.

4. Consider length. Longer canoes paddle faster and hold more gear and people. Longer canoes are also more difficult to transport and maintain, and also harder to steer. Short canoes are better for white water.

5. Pick a canoe with a rounded or V-shaped hull. Flat-hull canoes are more stable when you are sitting still in them, but rounded and V-shaped hulls out-perform the flat hull in every other category. They turn better, paddle better, and are less likely to overturn.

6. Examine the tumblehome (the inward curve of the upper edges) of your canoe. Tumblehome is added to canoes to strengthen the sometimes flimsy materials used to construct them. More tumblehome makes a canoe stronger and easier to paddle, but also easier to capsize. Avoid excessive tumblehome if you expect rough water.

7. Don't put too much weight on the advertised load capacity of a canoe. Bring a tape measure along and figure it out yourself. Assume that most of your load is going in the center of the canoe. Wider canoes will have more room, but they will also be slower.

8. Consider the number of seats in the canoe. Will you be paddling alone, or bringing your family?

9. Take into account how you will be transporting your canoe when you buy it.

Tips & Warnings

• Avoid canoes with external keels. A keel is a fin running the length of the canoe. They are put there to help steer the canoe, but generally are more trouble than they're worth because they catch on rocks and run aground easily.
• Paint will add weight to your canoe. White is the lightest color, but going with no paint is the lightest way to go.
• How are you going to carry your canoe? Does it have a carrying yoke? Better check.
• Don't forget to buy life vests and paddles.

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on 11/22/2005 On a recent trip to the BWCA, we took two Kevlar and 1 aluminum canoes. I had occasion to switch boats halfway through the trip. The aluminum boat was heavier than the Kevlar when I was wearing it like a hat (3-7 times a day) but in every other situation (on the water, docking, and as a table) I found the aluminum to be preferable. The keel made it more stable on big lakes on windy days. It's possible that the keel could become a liability in shallow rocky spots, but the Kevlar boats weren't up to being banged around. We portaged or walked it through any place that might have presented that situation.

The taller, heavier boat was more comfortable to paddle. I spent way more time sitting in the boat than carrying it. The 69 pound aluminum boat didn't have any trouble keeping up with the 42 pound Kevlar boat on the water. There is no way that I could afford to buy a Kevlar boat. Aluminum is quite a bit lighter than any plastic boat in my price range, and more durable.

on 11/22/2005 Most aluminum canoes weigh less than those made of any other material. The lighter canoes are made of substandard materials that only last a year. Aluminum canoes are made to withstand 30 or more years of vigorous use. They are not hard to navigate. The keel in the bottom helps steer the canoe and protects the seam. Ever get a hole in a plastic canoe from a rock you didn't see? You can't fix that while you are going down the river! The keels protect it, and the aluminum canoe will only dent. Maybe we should have cars made from plastic and Royalex.

Aluminum cars are already in production, and the plastics are not being used for any panels where passengers would be injured. Take a trip down a river in an aluminum canoe. These things last forever. Just throw it out behind the garage. Plastics, Royalex, fiberglass, and yes, even the precious wood canoes must all be stored inside, out of the weather. This is true even in the summer (the sun melts plastic and it deteriorates under the UV rays). As for noise and the shiny appearance, people are making a fortune selling people fishing lures that are shiny, blink, and make noise. Why not use the canoe to your advantage? Smallmouth bass, crappie, largemouth bass, and various panfish have ended up in the skillet for the last 40 years of my life, thanks to an aluminum canoe.