Choosing the Best Canoe Open Canoes come in many sizes, shapes, and lengths. Every aspect of a well-designed canoe contributes to its performance. Deciding what kind of performance you want and need is the challenge that you face when choosing the best canoe. The best canoe for you may not be the same canoe that another paddler would choose for himself or herself.
First, you must decide what you are going to do in your canoe. The most fundamental choices are a whitewater or calm water canoe, and whether a tandem or solo canoe would suit you best. Good whitewater canoes are designed to meet very demanding criteria. Since almost whatever you do on a whitewater river you will end up at the end of the rapid (upside down or right side up!), river canoes do not place a premium on efficiency (the feature that lets you paddle the boat the most distance for the least number of strokes). Whitewater canoes are designed to be very maneuverable to allow you to dodge rocks, holes, trees, and other paddlers as you ride the current downstream. They are also designed to be dry - to keep the water on the outside of the boat. Whitewater boats accomplish this by having very full wide bows and sterns, and usually a bit of flare at the gunnel line. Whitewater boats must also be durable to take the inevitable impacts with rocks, the bank, and your fellow boaters.
On the other hand, canoes that perform best for calm water paddling need to be very efficient, and are much less maneuverable (after all, you seldom have to dodge rocks as you paddle across the lake). They accomplish this by having very sharp bows at the water line and longer sleeker tapers to the hull. Flat-water boats can be exceptionally light and can have huge capacity, good stability, and the ability to handle rough water very well. Since you seldom hit things when you are paddling flatwater, these canoes don't need to have the same type of rock crushing durability you find in whitewater boats.
The Technical Stuff:
There are several physical features that are combined together to produce the characteristics desired in a boat. Here's the condensed version.
Rocker: Rocker is the longitudinal curvature of the hull from front to back. Think of a rocking chair rocker and you have a great picture of rocker. Since rocker lifts the bow and stern of the canoe out of the water, you can turn it easily. And keeping the bow up out of waves makes the boat dryer. Knowing your canoe has rocker is not quite enough though, because you have to know how much rocker the boat has to assess its turning characteristics. Boats with 2" or less of rocker are not particularly maneuverable, and may be difficult to handle in even moderate whitewater. 3" to 5" of rocker is now the contemporary standard for boats in whitewater, and boats with more than 5" are considered highly rockered. Highly rockered boats are very easy to turn (and very fun!), but may be difficult to handle if your strokes are not precise.
Length: As more contemporary designs are presented to the marketplace, postulating absolutes about length becomes more difficult. Generally, good whitewater play boats are going to be less than 16'. Solo boats may be as short as 91/2 ‘ and many paddlers are enjoying 14' tandem boats.
Keels: It is now totally accurate to say that no modern designed canoe has a keel. That doesn't mean you can't buy a canoe with a keel, it just means that if you do, you will have a canoe designed in another age. Keels are not necessary to make a canoe go straight, but they certainly inhibit turning. Hull shapes: Brevity precludes a thorough discussion of hull shapes. Both whitewater and calm water boats perform well with modified arch or "v" hulls. Avoid flat bottom canoes altogether (except for certain high performance whitewater boats).
Materials: Canoes are made of six basic materials: Royalex (ABS), polyethylene, fiberglass, Kevlar, aluminum, and wood. Fiberglass and Kevlar composite can be crafted into almost any shape the builder desires and make the most efficient calm water boats. Well-built composite boats are exceptionally durable and have great longevity. An 18foot touring canoe made in Kevlar can weigh as little as 38 lbs! The average weight for a lake canoe is 70 lbs! in fiberglass. There are many exceptional designs available for you to choose from. Royalex is a laminate of ABS, vinyl, and foam. It is very impact resistant, has poor abrasion resistance, and is somewhat sensitive to UV deterioration. Royalex boats make the most durable whitewater boats. 16-foot Royalex boats weigh about 74 lbs! Before you begin outfitting them. You will also find many good designs in Royalex. Polyethylene boats are made both with a foam core and with unsupported sheet poly. These canoes cost less than Royalex or fiberglass and have considerably less sophisticated designs available. The foam laminate canoes are reasonably durable and fairly heavy. The unsupported sheet poly boats should be avoided unless you thoroughly understand the compromises inherent in these craft. Wood canoes are classics, beautiful to look at and lovely to paddle. Appropriate only for flatwater paddles, they are a joy to own. Don't even think about any whitewater at all in your wood classic. Aluminum boats are the ultimate compromise boats. Cold in the cold, hot when it's hot, barely maneuverable in whitewater, and barely efficient in flatwater. Nonetheless, there are few trips that couldn't be done in an aluminum boat. You won't find many folks who are really "into paddling" who still paddle aluminum, but you will find lots of rental services that swear by them because of their durability.
Whitewater or Calm Water?
The demands that different types of water place on your canoe are very dissimilar so you will get a much better boat if you don't try to buy a canoe that will do both. Since whitewater boats must maneuver, and calm water boats must go straight; whitewater boats must withstand impacts and stay dry, while calm water boats need sleek entry lines at the bow to be efficient, most compromise boats end up being mediocre in both types of water. Choosing a boat that will be excellent in the type of water you prefer will ensure that you suffer from poor performance less of the time. If you are not yet sure what type of water you like, take a class or rent a canoe until your goals become clear.
Tandem or Solo?
This is usually an easy choice that folks tend to complicate. If you have a partner now who will paddle with you in a tandem canoe most the time, you are instantly qualified to be a tandem paddler. On the other hand if you just wish you had somebody to paddle with or think you aren't good enough to paddle alone, actively consider a solo boat. Partners are hard to find, but trips that include solo boaters are easy to find virtually every weekend. Building the skill to paddle a canoe by yourself is largely a matter of determination, some good instruction, and surprisingly little time and practice. By the way, the boats that purport to work both as tandem and solo boats usually have pretty significant compromises that may discourage you very quickly. Flatwater compromise boats seem to work better than their whitewater counterparts.
Ok, you now have just enough information to be dangerous!
Ask club members for their recommendations, check out the local boating stores, and make sure you try before you buy. Remember that when you are asking someone about their boat, their ego is on the line. It is often difficult to get someone to say that their choice wasn't the best for what they were doing, so take those recommendations with a grain of salt. And remember that whatever advice you receive should make sense. It does not make sense that a boat can be both maneuverable and have great straight line tracking too. If you are hearing things that seem contradictory seek amplification or other advice. A good canoe will last you a long time, maybe even a lifetime. Spend some time shopping for your canoe and you will be rewarded with the pleasure that comes from a choice well made.