Wideye Adventures

Taking Home A God One

Back in the old days, you had very little choice. Do you want the dug out or the tree bark models? The things that you consider are the craftsmanship and the type of resins or vines used to tie and reinforce the barks together. Nowadays, you need to look beyond the canoes outward appearance. There are definitely a lot of things to consider.

Take for example the canoe’s bottom. A flatter bottom means the canoe is more stable but it is essentially slower than the one’s that have more rounded bottoms. The canoes that have flat-bottomed hulls are commonly used in sport and cottage-type canoe hulls and are ideal for beginners. Meanwhile, the rounded-bottomed hulls are more maneuverable during high speeds and thus are used for touring and expeditions via canoe.

When you look at a canoe consider where you are going to use them and then look at the bottom of the canoe. It is normal to use canoe that has a keel or v-bottom for lake use. But for river use, a canoe with a keel is used to increase maneuverability.

Also look into the rocker of the canoe. A rocker refers to the amount the hull curves from bow to stern. Because the bow is the one that hits and cuts through the water, its shape determines the use of the canoe. For instance, whitewater canoes need high volume bows and sterns for buoyancy. The situation calls for a canoe that can go over large waves and has enough buoyancy over shorter lengths.

Just remember that generally, a rocker slows down the canoe and decreases the amount of load you can put on the canoe. For lake and touring canoes, it is advisable to use canoes that have very little amounts of rocker in order to increase the canoe’s overall speed. For river canoes, the emphasis is on stability and maneuverability rather that canoe speed. Having a five to six inches of rocker in a 16-foot whitewater canoe would be great for canoeing the river and its white water rapids.

Meanwhile, for touring and expedition canoes, the right amount of rocker is 2″ for a canoe that measures l6-l7 feet in length.

Choosing the right canoe also means considering the brand and the material used to build the boat. There are a lot of product brands out there and you really need to rely on the well known brands since more often than not, these are the ones that are well made from the best materials available. However, you might need to shell out a hefty amount.