A post asking for recommendations on a canoe prompted me to write this. I've been paddling canoes on Ozark streams (and elsewhere) since about 1968. I've paddled a LOT of different canoes, and have owned 6 different tandem canoe models and 5 solo models over the years. I've paddled everything from a 19 ft. square stern Grumman to an 11 ft. Old Town Pack solo. Aluminum, glass, Kevlar, poly, Royalex, even a cedar and canvas canoe one time. I'm a canoe guy. I don't particularly like kayaks, and think a solo canoe is a FAR better craft for pleasure floating and for fishing. I'm also a student of the canoe--I read everything I can on them, read all the reviews on different models...in short, I think I know a thing or two about canoes. And here's what I know: there is no perfect canoe. There is only the canoe that suits what you think is most important in your paddling. Stability? Maneuverability? Speed? Tracking ability? Weight? Beauty? There are canoe models that are great at every one of those things, but none that are good at all of them.
First consider material. Your choices are mostly a few different plastic constructions, fiberglass, Kevlar composites, and aluminum. All have advantages and disadvantages. The first canoe I ever owned was a 15 ft. Grumman aluminum, and it served me very well for more than 15 years--and is still being used by my brother-in-law on his pond today, nearly 50 years later. Yup, aluminum is durable! But it is noisy, and it is cold to the touch in the winter and hot to the touch in the summer. And worst of all for Ozark streams, especially those like the upper Jacks Fork when the water gets a little bony, aluminum sticks to rocks, gravel, and even logs. It doesn't slide over much of anything very easily. And aluminum canoes are pretty vanilla in design, okay for most things, not great at anything. An aluminum canoe is serviceable, durable, and reasonably inexpensive.
Plastics--everything from the Coleman whatever the heck that plastic is to high end Royalex. Most common is the polyethylene sandwich such as Old Town Discovery models. It's fairly heavy, scratches easily but is reasonably durable, and fairly inexpensive. Like aluminum, the poly sandwich canoes are difficult to mold into more sophisticated designs, so like aluminum these canoes are pretty middle of the road, okay at everything, not great at anything. Biggest advantages over aluminum are that they are quiet, slide over obstacles easily (especially if you treat the hull with something like Formula 303 or even Armor-all regularly), and are more comfortable to be in and around in hot or cold weather.
The Coleman type plastic is heavier, less rigid (hence the "plumbing"--internal bracing--in Coleman canoes), doesn't slide quite as easy, is terrible to mold into anything but a barge. Other than that it's pretty cheap and pretty durable.
Royalex used to be the top end plastic canoe material...lighter in weight, fairly durable (though like the Discovery material it scratches easily), and while still having some of the molding problems of the other plastics, there were canoes being made of Royalex that were better designs for various uses than the vanilla plastics and aluminum. Unfortunately, Royalex was patented by Dupont, which was the sole manufacturer of the sheets that canoe makers used. Dupont decided it wasn't profitable enough, stopped making the sheets, and refused to sell the patent. So new Royalex canoes are not being made anymore. I was fortunate enough to buy a new solo and a new tandem canoe in Royalex right before it became unavailable.
With the demise of Royalex, canoe companies were scrambling for a replacement. One company came up with a material called T-Formex, and they are selling it to a few other manufacturers. I haven't paddled a T-Formex canoe yet, but so far the reviews are good...all the advantages of Royalex, apparently. It's also pretty expensive.
Glass and Kevlar composites are not very common on Ozark streams, but are actually pretty decent materials for our rivers. They scratch easily, and they don't take to being pounded on rocks, but not many Ozark streams have a lot of really rocky rapids. They are also somewhat noisy...not as bad as aluminum but not as quiet as plastic. The advantages are mainly that these materials lend themselves to complex, sophisticated canoe designs, and they are light in weight. The fastest, best-tracking canoes are made of these. They can be expensive. My second tandem canoe I owned was a glass composite canoe that was a speed demon, but there was a steep learning curve on how to get the thing to turn. It was a joy to paddle through long pools, and a pain to wend your way through a narrow, fast, twisty riffle! But I now own several glass solo canoes that are maneuverable enough for my tastes, and are still a joy to paddle through the frog water.
Where most people get their experience, such as it is, in canoes is by renting them. Rental canoes have to be relatively inexpensive and relatively durable, so they end up using "vanilla" canoes, okay at most things, really good at none of them. And canoes have the reputation of being "tippy". Seems like people living around rivers in the Ozarks all watch the drunk, totally inexperienced "tourists" flipping canoes with wild abandon, and are sure that they want no part of a canoe. So a lot of people think their first and most important criterion for choosing a canoe is stability. They want one that won't tip.
Second criterion is usually maneuverability. They see those twisty little riffles on streams like the upper Jacks Fork and think they need a canoe that will turn with the barest stroke of the paddle to get through such places.
A fairly distant third on the list of stuff people want in a canoe is speed and/or tracking ability. They MIGHT want a canoe that can go faster with hard paddling, or stay straighter without having to switch sides so often when paddling.
These characteristics--stability, maneuverability, tracking ability, speed, are all purely functions of one thing...the shape of the hull. Let's take the stability thing first. There are actually two parts to stability. One, how stable or unstable does it FEEL when you are in it? Does it feel wobbly or does it feel solid? This is determined mainly by the width of the canoe and the shape of the bottom in cross section. If your canoe has a wide bottom that is flat across a wide part of the cross section, it's going to feel more stable than a narrower canoe, or one that has a more rounded bottom. Some models, most notably a lot of Mad River canoes, have a shallow V bottom, which is about mideway between a wide flat bottom and a narrow rounded bottom in the feeling of stability.
But in reality, what you're really wanting is FINAL stability. Which means, no matter whether or not the thing FEELS stable, you really don't want it to actually flip over easily. And that is determined to a great extent by the shape of the SIDES of the canoe. Some canoes have what is called tumblehome, which means the sides are rounded and turn inwards at the gunwales. These canoes were designed that way to make it easier to reach out from your seat and paddle without scraping the gunwales with each stroke, and are usually found on wide, flat bottomed canoes. But...those sides are just like a log, and you know how easily a log rolls over. Once you get such a canoe leaning far enough to get up on the side, it just keeps going. What you really want is a canoe with straight vertical sides. Such canoes will resist that last little roll that flips you.
Now for what I'll just call handling--how maneuverable it is or how well it stays straight when you want it to. This is purely a function of the hull shape below the waterline. And unfortunately, hull shapes are ALWAYS a compromise between maneuverability and tracking ability...a canoe that turns easily when you want it to is never easy to keep going straight when you want it to. All other things being equal (which they never are), a longer, narrower canoe will stay straighter--and be harder to turn. A short, wide canoe will turn easier, but be harder to keep going straight. But that isn't the only thing that determines it.
Tracking ability is related to speed--how fast the canoe will go and how far it will glide when you stop paddling, as well as how straight it stays with normal paddle strokes. Canoes have "entry lines", which means the shape of the part of the canoe that first cuts into the water. A canoe with sharp entry lines (the front end is narrow and stays narrow for a good distance toward the center) is a faster, better tracking canoe; a canoe with a wide, blunt front end is slower and harder to keep straight.
There is one other thing that affects maneuverability, and that is rocker. Rocker means that the bottom curves upward on the front and the back portion, long before it emerges from the water. A canoe that is flat from front to back until it gets very close to the ends is said to lack any rocker. The more rocker, the easier a canoe is to turn.
Ah, but what about a keel, you ask. Well, having paddled a lot of canoes both with and without keels, I would tell you that a keel on a canoe is the least important feature for keeping it straight. The dirty little secret among canoe makers is that the keel's purpose is mostly to make the bottom more rigid. It actually has one other purpose on aluminum canoes--it protects the rest of the bottom of the canoe to some extent, because the keel is the first part of the canoe to scrape that rock much of the time. But that is true of keels on plastic and glass canoes, too...and a keel on such canoes gets worn quickly.
So...what do I want in a canoe for Ozark streams? It may not be what you think you want. I prefer a canoe of reasonable length--16-17 feet in a tandem canoe is a good compromise, because anything shorter is going to have to be very wide and it will paddle like a barge. And I want one where the compromise between maneuverability and tracking ability (remember, a canoe good at one is bad at the other) leans just a bit toward tracking ability. The number of riffles where you really need maneuverability is fairly small, but if you want to get somewhere fast on middle Current River you want a canoe that will stay straight with minimal corrective paddle strokes. And as a fisherman, I also want a canoe that tracks well, because the same characteristics that make it slide through the water with ease while staying straight also make the current slide by it with ease when you really want to slow or stop it to make a cast to that perfect spot. I also want a canoe that will resist that final roll that flips you. So I want one with straight sides.
In my opinion, the Old Town Penobscot in Royalex was one of the best canoes ever made for Ozark streams. It came in 16 and 17 ft. models. The 16 footer was actually 16 feet 2 inches. It was 34 inches wide, 33 inches at the waterline, so it was fairly narrow--lots of canoes that size are 35-36 inches. It was 21 inches tall at the bow, 13.75 inches tall in the middle (and I think it was 19 inches tall in the stern). It had a shallow arch bottom (slightly rounded in cross section) and slight rocker. And it had the sharpest entry lines of any Royalex canoe. It was fast, tracked well, had straight sides so it resisted tipping, but the relative shortness kept it from being too hard to maneuver. It weighed all of 58 pounds. I still own two of them. But if I was looking for a new canoe, I'd look for something with dimensions pretty close to the Penobscot. Old Town currently offers the Penobscot 164 in their three layer polyethylene. It's a little wider but not much at the waterline, and the other specs are pretty close--except it weighs 75 pounds. Other companies also still make very good canoes, though.
So if you're looking for a good tandem canoe, stick with reputable companies, and expect to pay at the very least $1000 for a decent one if buying new. Some good companies are Wenonah, Old Town, Mad River, L. L. Bean, Nova Craft, and Clipper. Choose which material you want first. Then decide where you will most likely be using it...lakes and slow rivers, you want one that tracks well; small, twisty creeks one that maneuvers easily. Other considerations are weight first of all--are you going to be loading and unloading it by yourself, or carrying it to the water at difficult accesses? Length can be important if your storage area for it is limited, even though longer canoes are generally better paddling canoes. And of course, price...I think that ANY canoe is better than no canoe, but you get what you pay for, and if you can afford it you'll probably be happier with some of the more expensive models.
You will see a lot of people who float rivers in the Ozarks saying that kayaks are the way to go. They will say that they've rented canoes and kayaks and far prefer kayaks. But the problem is that it makes no sense to compare a tandem canoe, meant to be paddled by two people, to a solo kayak.
The biggest reason kayaks have gotten so popular is that most of them are solo craft. I've always said the quickest way to divorce is to put a couple in a tandem canoe. The autonomy you have with a solo kayak is a game changer. But what most people don't even think about is solo canoes. I hear people all the time saying how much better and easier to paddle a kayak is than a canoe. When I ask them if they've ever paddled a good solo canoe, they usually give me a blank look. A good solo canoe can do everything a kayak can do and do most of it better. It will almost certainly be lighter in weight. It is easier to carry and handle loading and unloading because the gunwales make excellent carrying handles. It holds a LOT more gear if you're into overnight trips. It can carry a bunch of fishing rods, and have them stowed to where the tips are all inside the gunwales and protected. I find the seating in solo canoes to be far more comfortable because you're sitting like you would in a real chair, and not sitting with your legs way out in front of you. And that also makes it easier to get in and out of in the places where I usually enter and exit a canoe...very shallow water. I've had guys say that it's easier to get out of a sit-on-top kayak by just putting your feet over the side and standing up, but they are usually talking about water that's more than a foot deep. In shallow water, it's pretty much the same as getting up off the floor...except the kayak "floor" is moving.
The only advantages that some kayaks have are that you can stand up on them better, and they are less affected by wind. Oh...and some of them are considerably cheaper!
And depending upon the model and hull shape, solo canoes can be as fast or faster than kayaks. And you can paddle upstream in them just as easily...especially if you keep a double bladed paddle around for just such a use; there is no law that says you can't use a kayak paddle in a canoe if you wish.
Unfortunately, your choices are limited these days in good solo canoes...kayaks have largely taken over a market that wasn't all that big even before they got popular. My first solo canoe was an Old Town Pack, Royalex, 11 feet long, 33 pounds. I used it until it got pretty worn, put skid plates on it, used it a ton more, and finally decided to try something different, which happened to be a Royalex Wenonah Sandpiper, another short canoe that I soon found wasn't any kind of upgrade from the Pack. Then one day I was floating in a group, had a companion in my tandem canoe, and one of the other guys was floating in a Wenonah Vagabond (another Royalex boat, 14.3 feet, 42 pounds). I asked him if I could try it for a bit. I fell completely in love with that boat, and very quickly bought one and gave my Sandpiper to my brother-in-law.
Along about that same time, I bought an Oscoda Coda for my wife, fiberglass, 14 feet, 43 pounds. It was a narrower boat, faster, tracked better, but still had okay stability. I found that I preferred it over the Vagabond in one kind of situation--streams with long, dead pools. I could zip through those pools, which seldom held good fish, so much quicker and easier with the Oscoda. Over the years I've acquired two more Oscodas, and keep a couple of them at our cabin on the Meramec. They weren't particularly expensive boats new, but were well made.
So I have the same criteria for solo canoes as tandems...I want something that leans a bit towards tracking ability over maneuverability. I want something that's around 14 feet long. I'd prefer Royalex if it was still being made, and probably would opt for T-Formex if I ever bought another new one.
There just aren't many out there. Old Town makes the Discovery 119 out of their 3 layer polyethylene. It's short, slow, but perfectly serviceable. If you buy one, I'd get the regular 119 and not the 119 Sport, which is a couple hundred dollars more expensive, and has a lot of crap on it that I wouldn't want. I want a bare-bones canoe that I can modify to suit myself, not one with all kinds of stuff some marketer thinks I would like. If you own a regular 119, I'd suggest moving the seat forward. In the newest pictures on their website, it looks like Old Town may have moved the seat forward, but every one I've ever paddled had the front edge of the bench seat a good 8-10 inches behind the center of the canoe, and in any solo you want the front edge of the seat to be no more than 3-4 inches behind center. It makes the canoe handle a LOT better, and also makes it feel more stable.
There is also the Old Town Next. Nice looking canoe, longer at 13 feet, heavier (unfortunately) at about 58 pounds. I don't like the fancy seat. I do like the hull shape and the speed and tracking ability.
I keep hoping that Wenonah will come out with the Vagabond in T-Formex; they produce the bigger Wilderness in it. The Wilderness is a great solo canoe for bigger people, or if you REALLY want to carry a pile of gear.
L. L. Bean is making a nice looking solo in T-Formex, the Royal River. At 13 feet and 47 pounds, it might be the canoe I'd buy if I needed a new one. The specs look very good. But the thing is expensive at nearly $1500 retail.
I haven't been keeping up with the solo canoes that are available these days, but a quick perusal of solo canoe reviews from Paddling.com shows a bunch of glass and kevlar fast boats, a bunch of whitewater boats, and some really expensive good looking boats (over $3000!). And not much else that I really think will work for Ozark streams. So if you ever come across a used Royalex solo from any of several companies, try to buy it!
Continuing the canoe discussion with solo canoes...
The biggest reason kayaks have gotten so popular is that most of them are solo craft. I've always said the quickest way to divorce is to put a couple in a tandem canoe. The autonomy you have with a solo kayak is a game changer. But what most people don't even think about is solo canoes. I hear people all the time saying how much better and easier to paddle a kayak is than a canoe. When I ask them if they've ever paddled a good solo canoe, they usually give me a blank look. Comparing a solo kayak to a tandem canoe is apples and oranges. A good solo canoe can do everything a kayak can do and do most of it better. It will almost certainly be lighter in weight. It is easier to carry and handle loading and unloading because the gunwales make excellent carrying handles. It holds a LOT more gear if you're into overnight trips. It can carry a bunch of fishing rods, and have them stowed to where the tips are all inside the gunwales and protected. I find the seating in solo canoes to be far more comfortable because you're sitting like you would in a real chair, and not sitting with your legs way out in front of you. And that also makes it easier to get in and out of in the places where I usually enter and exit a canoe...very shallow water. I've had guys say that it's easier to get out of a sit-on-top kayak by just putting your feet over the side and standing up, but they are usually talking about water that's more than a foot deep. In shallow water, it's pretty much the same as getting up off the floor...except the kayak "floor" is moving.
The only advantages that some kayaks have is that you can stand up on them better, and they are less affected by wind. Oh...and some of them are considerably cheaper!
And depending upon the model and hull shape, solo canoes can be as fast or faster than kayaks. And you can paddle upstream in them just as easily...especially if you keep a double bladed paddle around for just such a use; there is no law that says you can't use a kayak paddle in a canoe if you wish.
Unfortunately, your choices are limited these days in good solo canoes...kayaks have largely taken over a market that wasn't all that big even before they got popular. My first solo canoe was an Old Town Pack, Royalex, 11 feet long, 33 pounds. I used it until it got pretty worn, put skid plates on it, used it a ton more, and finally decided to try something different, which happened to be a Royalex Wenonah Sandpiper, another short canoe that wasn't any kind of upgrade from the Pack, I soon found. Then one day I was floating in a group, had a companion in my tandem canoe, and one of the other guys was floating in a Wenonah Vagabond (another Royalex boat, 14.3 feet, 42 pounds). I asked him if I could try it for a bit. I fell completely in love with that boat, and very quickly bought one and gave my Sandpiper to my brother-in-law.
Along about that same time, I bought an Oscoda Coda for my wife, fiberglass, 14 feet, 43 pounds. It was a narrower boat, faster, tracked better, but still okay stability. I found that I preferred it over the Vagabond in one kind of situation--streams with long, dead pools. I could zip through those pools, which seldom held good fish, so much quicker and easier with the Oscoda. Over the years I've acquired two more Oscodas, and keep a couple of them at our cabin on the Meramec. They weren't particularly expensive boats new, but were well made.
So I have the same criteria for solo canoes as tandems...I want something that leans a bit towards tracking ability over maneuverability. I want something that's around 14 feet long. I'd prefer Royalex if it was still being made, and probably would opt for T-Formex if I ever bought another new one.
There just aren't many out there. Old Town makes the Discovery 119 out of their 3 layer polyethylene. It's short, slow, but perfectly serviceable. If you buy one, I'd get the regular 119 and not the 119 Sport, which is a couple hundred dollars more expensive, and has a lot of crap on it that I wouldn't want. I want a bare-bones canoe that I can modify to suit myself, not one with all kinds of stuff some marketer thinks I would like. If you own a regular 119, I'd suggest moving the seat forward. In the newest pictures on their website, it looks like Old Town may have moved the seat forward, but every one I've ever paddled had the front edge of the bench seat a good 8-10 inches behind the center of the canoe, and in any solo you want the front edge of the seat to be no more than 3-4 inches behind center. It makes the canoe handle a LOT better, and also makes it feel more stable.
There is also the Old Town Next. Nice looking canoe, longer at 13 feet, heavier (unfortunately) at about 58 pounds. I don't like the fancy seat. I do like the hull shape and the speed and tracking ability.
I keep hoping that Wenonah will come out with the Vagabond in T-Formex; they produce the bigger Wilderness in it. The Wilderness is a great solo canoe for bigger people, or if you REALLY want to carry a pile of gear.
L. L. Bean is making a nice looking solo in T-Formex, the Royal River. At 13 feet and 47 pounds, it might be the canoe I'd buy if I needed a new one. The specs look very good. But the thing is expensive at nearly $1500 retail.
I haven't been keeping up with the solo canoes that are available these days, but a quick perusal of solo canoe reviews from Paddling.com shows a bunch of glass and kevlar fast boats, a bunch of whitewater boats, and some really expensive good looking boats (over $3000!). And not much else that I really think will work for Ozark streams. So if you ever come across a used Royalex solo from any of several companies, try to buy it!
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