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an excerpt from the book "Cradle to Canoe"
more information from the Blazing
Paddles
web site
The
canoe
Canoes
are the workhorse of wilderness travel. No other means of
transportation is as suitable for travel in large areas
of North America's wilderness. No other way of traveling
through the wilderness makes it as easy to take children
along.
The
first step in choosing a canoe is to carefully define
what your requirements for the craft are. Does it have to
be light? How much weight will be carried in the canoe?
Will it be paddled with different people, or will the
partners be the same people all the time? Will it be used
it in rough white water?
The more
carefully you prepare a list of what you want from a
canoe, the more likely you'll choose the right one for
your needs. Keep in mind though that there is no one
perfect canoe that will fill every need. Any canoe design
will involve some compromise. Just be sure that you don't
compromise on the things that are high priority items on
your list of requirements.
Choosing
a canoe that's suitable requires knowing a bit about the
various parts of the canoe and what the functions are.
Many of the canoe parts have names that come from old
English terms used in the wooden boat building industry
and some of the names are quite interesting.
Canoe
parts
At
first glance, canoes appear to be the same at both ends
but they are a little different. One end is the front
(bow) while the other end is the back (stern). The
easiest way to tell them apart is to look at the seats.
The stern is smaller and placed nearer the end of the
canoe while the bow seat is wider and is placed closer to
the middle of the canoe. The graceful curves where the
sides of the canoe come together at the front and back of
the canoe are called the stems. The shape of the stem can
be plumb (straight up and down) recurved (bends back
towards the middle of the canoe) or flared (top is
farther out than the bottom). Canoes with a flared stem
tend to be drier in rough water because wave splashes are
directed away from the canoe. Recurved stems produce
gunwales that are narrower in the bow and stern, which
makes it easier to paddle the canoe.
Entry
Lines
The
front part of the canoe that slices through the water
while its being paddled is called the entry line. A sharp
entry line will tend to be fast to paddle, but won't be
as dry in waves and will usually be a little harder to
turn. A blunt entry line will be a little slower, but
ride over waves rather than slicing through them and tend
to be a little more maneuverable.
Just
behind the stems are little covers called the deck
plates. The deck plates give some rigidity to the stem
section of the canoe and provide a convenient place for
tying ropes or handles to carry the canoe for short
distances. Attached to the deck plates and running down
the top edge of the canoe are long strips of wood,
aluminum or vinyl called gunwales (also called gunnels or
rails). The term was originally used for the place on
wooden ships that carried canons. The one on the inside
is called the inwale and the on the outside is called the
outwale. The line that the gunwales follow is called the
sheer-line. Canoes may have a very flat sheer line with
an abrupt rise at the end to meet the stem, or they may
have a sheer line that rises gradually from the center
thwart to the stem. Flat sheer lines make it a little
easier for paddling because the sides of the canoe aren't
as high but raised sheer lines help to keep the paddler
drier in rough water.
Besides
the seats that are attached to the inwales, short canoes
will have a single long, thin piece of wood called a
thwart spanning across the middle of the canoe. Longer
canoes may also have a second thwart between the stern
seat and the middle thwart. Canoes that are outfitted for
solo paddling will sometimes have a special thwart that
is wider, tilted a bit and lowered so that paddlers can
use it to kneel against. Some canoes may have a specially
sculpted thwart in the middle of the canoe called a yoke.
The yoke is a wide piece of wood that is shaped to fit
your shoulders with a notch in the middle for your neck.
This makes it easier to carry the canoe on portages.
Yokes may all look quite similar, but many of them can be
very uncomfortable so it's important to try a yoke before
getting one for your canoe.
When
purchasing canoes, it's important to understand what some
of the specifications in the catalogs mean. The greatest
distance from the bow stem to the stern stem is the
canoe's overall length. The length of canoe that is
actually in the water when it is floating with a normal
load is more important for canoeists to know and that may
be different than the overall length depending on the
shape of the stem. A plumb stem will have identical
waterline and overall lengths. A flared stem will have a
shorter waterline length than an overall length. A
recurved stem may be shorter or longer depending on where
the recurve is in relation to the waterline. A canoe with
a greater overall length than the waterline length
(flared stem) will tend to be more affected by the wind.
Its important to know that manufacturers don't all use
the same method for publishing their sizes. Some publish
water line lengths, some use overall length and some use
a measurement that is a compromises between the two.
The
curvature of the bottom of the canoe from end to end is
called rocker. Canoes with a lot of rocker turn easily
because the ends are higher out of the water so there is
less resistance to turning. Ones with little or no rocker
are easier to paddle in a straight line but do not turn
very well. Canoes with ends that drop below the middle of
the canoe are referred to as hog-backed. Because they are
hard to maneuver, they are considered poor designs. The
easiest way to tell how much rocker a canoe has is to put
it on a level surface and support it so that it stays
upright or have someone hold it. Walk back a bit and bend
down to look under the canoe. It's easy to see where the
rocker starts and ends by where the canoe's bottom looses
contact with the ground.
The
center line along the bottom of the canoe that goes from
bow to stern is called the keel line. Keels are a long
thin piece of wood or metal that runs the length of the
canoe. Some canoes have no keel, others have one attached
and some have a keel that is molded in. Keels are not
really required on most canoes. Their original function
was mainly to provide some protection for the bottom of
canvas canoes. People often assume that keels are used to
keep the canoe going in a straight line. In reality, they
don't have much influence on that at all. The ability of
a canoe to stay on a track has more to do with the shape
of the hull than anything else. Keels will only have an
effect if a canoe is being forced sideways through the
water, like when its being blown by the wind or it passes
over a current in a river. Some canoes were manufactured
with three keels along the bottom. The extra keels will
have no impact on the performance of the canoe they
simply add stiffness to the bottom of the canoe.
If
several different kinds of canoes were cut in half and
the midsections examined, it would become apparent that
there is a lot of variety in their shapes. The widest
area of the canoe is called the beam. Canoes with a wider
beam will be more stable and can carry more gear, but
they tend to be slower. The area where the bottom of the
canoe turns up to become the sides of the canoe is called
the chine or the bilge. If the sides of the canoe rise
straight up they're called plumb, if they get wider they
are called flared and if they curve back in it's called
tumblehome. This inward curving in a canoe means the
canoeist doesn't have to reach out as far to put their
paddle in the water so its easier on the arms. The term
"tumblehome" has its roots in the English ship building
industry. The exact origins are obscure, but "home", in
ship terminology implies being "drawn in" towards the
centerline as in "sails are sheeted home", "the anchor is
brought home". In older English cities many of the houses
were often referred to as "jumbles" or "tumbles" because
they were slowly leaning over and were supporting each
other. It's likely that sailors put the two words
together to describe the leaning of the ship's sides
toward "home." Flare-sided canoes tend to be drier in
rough water and are harder to tip but require a wider
reach for the paddler.
Some
canoes will have quite flat bottoms while others will
have a shallow arch and others will have a bit of a V
shape. Flat bottom canoes are very stable, but tend to be
slower to paddle. They don't perform well in rough water.
Shallow arch designs are the most common bottom shape in
quality canoes. They tend to be fairly quick and gives a
very predictable ride. They may feel a little tippy for
novices when first getting in, but that feeling goes away
quickly. A canoe with a shallow arch is actually less
likely to tip than a flat-bottomed canoe in many
circumstances. Canoes with a V shaped bottoms are a
compromise between a flat-bottomed and a shallow arch.
They tend to ride a little deeper in the water and don't
turn quite as easily, but are generally easier to paddle
in a straight line.
Canoe
designs
Its
important to find a hull shape that gives you the kind of
performance you want for the type of paddling you like to
do. Generally, most canoes hull shapes are optimized for
one of three things:
Speed
- long, narrow canoes with little rocker and sharp
entry lines
Carrying
capacity -
wider canoes with flatter bottoms that are able to
carry a lot of gear
Maneuverability
- shorter canoes with a lot of rocker that feel at
home in moving water
Many
canoes do all of these things reasonably well, but shine
more in one of the three areas. People intent on canoeing
with a family will probably prefer a hull shape designed
for tripping because it is most suitable for their needs.
Tripping canoes are the pick-up trucks for paddlers. They
have the capacity to carry a lot of gear and are usually
16 to 18 feet long. Two adults, two infants and enough
gear for a couple of weeks can be squeezed into a 16-foot
canoe, but it gets a bit crowded. Adding an extra foot to
the length of the canoe doesn't seem like it would make a
lot of difference, but the longer canoe also becomes
wider so it will accommodate a surprising amount of extra
gear. An 18-foot canoe will handle a lot more gear, but
they tend to be a little too heavy to handle comfortably
on portages and more difficult to maneuver on the water
because of the extra length. A longer canoe makes it
easier to travel as a family, but children are not like
other loads that remain a constant size and weight. Every
year they grow a little and eventually, even an 18-foot
canoe will be too small for a family of four. By the time
our children were five years old, they were contributing
enough with their paddling that we felt comfortable
heading out in two 16-foot canoes. As long as both
parents are comfortable controlling a canoe, each adult
can take a stern seat while a youngster can occupy the
bow.
A fairly
recent concept in canoe designs are hull shapes that are
made asymmetrical (the front of the canoe is a different
shape than the back). Traditional canoes were identical
in both ends and the only way you could tell which was
front and which was back was by looking at the seat
placement. The asymmetrical hull is quite different at
either end. This type of design presents some problems
for families that want to involve young children in
paddling. The asymmetrical shape gives some speed
advantage, but we found it hard to adjust the trim of the
canoe properly. Trim is the distribution of weight in a
canoe. The goal is usually to have the bow of the canoe
just a bit higher out of the water than the stern of the
canoe. When the weight of the stern paddler is so much
greater than the bow paddler, no matter how the packs
were arranged, the bow was always far out of the water
while the stern was buried deep.
We found
it much more practical to use a traditionally shaped
canoe and paddle it backwards. We'd use the narrower
stern section as the bow seat for the child while the
adult would sit in the bow seat, but facing the back of
the canoe. This made it much easier to adjust the canoes
trim. Our kids liked it a lot better because they found
it much easier to paddle. The bow seats on most canoes
are just too far away from the side of the canoe for
really small children to reach the water with their
paddle. They always found it much cozier when they got to
sit in the small (stern) seat when it was at the front of
the canoe.
Picking
the right canoe
Your
own skill level will affect the comfort you will feel
with various canoe designs. Selecting the right canoe can
take away some of the stress if you've got young,
squirming children in the boat. The characteristics of
canoes change as they are loaded with packs and
equipment, it's important to try out canoes when they are
both empty and loaded. Borrow or rent several different
kinds and use them on trips to find out what canoe
designs suit your needs best. If you go out on a trip
with a group, ask to try out some of the other boats and
ask their owners what they like and don't like about
them.
Materials
Another
thing that you need to decide before buying a canoe is to
determine which type of construction materials best
suited your needs and your pocketbook.
There
are six common manufacturing processes that use different
materials which produce canoes in a variety of price
ranges and characteristics from which to choose the type
that is best suited to your needs. These are: traditional
cedar and canvas, cedar stripper, aluminum, fiberglass,
Kevlar/specialty cloth, ABS/plastic. Many canoe models
are available in several different construction
materials. Choosing the type of material that's right for
you is a matter of finding a balance between what appeals
to your eyes, how much use or abuse you put your
equipment through, how much weight you can carry and how
well padded your pocketbook is.
Traditional
Canoes -Cedar and Canvas
The
cedar and canvas canoe evolved as a European adaptation
of the aboriginal birch bark canoe. The exact origins of
the design are lost to history, but it appears that ship
builders and guides in the Bangor area of Maine played a
key role in the development of this construction. Using
techniques similar to those employed in shipbuilding,
planks of cedar were fastened to ribs that were steamed
then bent over a form. The completed hull was then
covered by stretching and fastening a single piece of
canvas over the canoe. The canvas was then made
waterproof by the application of filler to seal the
cloth. Then the canoe was painted.
Cedar
and canvas canoes have been commercially available in
North America for more than a hundred years. In Canada,
two companies emerged as the largest suppliers of this
type of craft, the Chestnut Company in New Brunswick and
the Peterborough Company in Ontario.
Early in
their history, the Chestnut Company experienced
communication problems because canoes had to be ordered
by telegraph. To avoid the mistakes that sometimes
happened when people tried to provide the specifications
for their canoes by width and length, they developed a
naming scheme for every canoe model that was made. This
tradition was continued even after the telegraph was
replaced with more effective methods of passing along
orders. Even in the last catalogs the company published
in the 1960s, they still had a name for every model. A
16-foot Prospector model was called a Fort when it was
pointed at both ends, but it was a Fawn when it had a Vee
motor mount at the stern. The 17-foot Prospector pointed
at both ends was a Garry. The 16-foot Pleasure Canoe
would be a Pal if it had canned seats and high gloss
finish, but would be a Deer if it had slat seats and
ordinary enamel paint. Many of the models were named
after Hudson's Bay trading posts in honour of the long
relationship that the two companies had.
The
Chestnut Prospector model was the workhorse of the
backwoods throughout the Canadian North. It gained a new
popularity in recent years when the Canadian filmmaker
Bill Mason noted that it was his favourite canoe in his
Path of the Paddle series.
Over the
years there has been countless discussion around the
campfire about the virtues of the Chestnut versus the
Peterborough canoe. In reality, there really wasn't that
much difference between them. With little public notice,
the Chestnut and Peterborough Canoe companies quietly
merged into one entity, the Canadian Canoe Company.
However, each kept their individual identities intact.
Following this merger, each was filling the other
company's orders depending on their supplies in stock and
the demand. It was not uncommon for Peterborough models
to be shipped from New Brunswick or for Chestnut models
to be shipped from Peterborough.
The era
of mass production of cedar and canvas canoes began to
wane in the 1960s, mostly because of the introduction of
fiberglass as a building material for canoe construction.
By 1980, the large manufacturers of wooden canoes had
closed their doors forever. Today, there are many small
shops with builders who still produce limited numbers of
these beautiful and durable boats. Cedar and canvas
canoes aren't for everyone, but for the connoisseur who
appreciates quality, there is no finer feeling than
paddling a cedar and canvas canoe through the morning
mist on a calm lake.
Good
cedar and canvas canoes evolved rather than being
designed. Refining and improving the finer points of each
successive watercraft, the craftsmen gradually modified
and improved the hull shapes over the years. Today the
successful molds that were an accumulation of these
evolutionary designs are still being produced by small
shops.
Building
cedar and canvas canoes is a highly skilled trade which
requires some specialized tools. Its possible for a keen
hobbyist to build one, but it would be a major
undertaking. Cedar and canvas canoes require a little
more care in handling and more maintenance than other
construction materials, but with proper care and storage,
these canoes will last a lifetime.
Cedar
strip
Canoes
that are made from long, narrow strips of wood that run
the entire length of the hull are known as Cedar Strip
canoes. Originally, they were made with oak ribs and
relied on the tight fit of the wood strips to keep the
water out.
Now they
are more commonly made from long strips glued to each
other on a form, then sanded smooth and covered with a
transparent layer of fiberglass inside and out. This
produces a strong and durable canoe that is sometimes
referred to as a cedar-glass canoe. These beautiful
watercraft are made either in limited production by
builders in small shops or by hobbyists who want to build
their own canoe. This type of construction requires a
minimal amount of tools and expertise. Anyone with good
woodworking skills should be able to build their own
cedar glass canoe.
There
are a several books available to guide one through the
process of strip construction. Plans are readily
available and kits can be purchased that supply most of
the raw materials. With all these resources, building
your own becomes a manageable but time consuming project.
The hull
designs used for many of the strip canoe models are based
on the traditional cedar and canvas canoe models, so they
are similar in shape to many canoes that are already
available. However, even though the designs and the basic
hull shape should be similar, a cedar strip canoe will
feel different on the water. It would be a good idea to
find someone that has already built a "stripper" canoe
with the hull shape you would like and try the canoe
before investing the time required to build one. It
usually takes a month or two before most hobbyists can
complete one of these canoes and that would be a lot of
effort to invest in something you didn't like when its
finished.
Even
though cedar strip canoes appear very fragile, they are
actually much sturdier than they look. The boats are very
serviceable. It's worth keeping in mind that exposure to
the sun breaks down fiberglass, so the canoe should be
stored under a cover when it is not in use. This is good
advice for any canoe, except for those made from aluminum
which don't need protection from the sun.
The
hardest part of owning a stripper canoe is the dread of
getting the first scratch. Once that's out of the way,
paddlers seem to be much more comfortable about using
their boat for everyday use. Scratches on the hull are
usually fairly easy to fix, so there really isn't any
need to be worried.
Aluminum
Aluminum
canoes are a post-war product that evolved from the
aircraft industry. These boats were once the most common
livery or rental canoe and can still be found by the
score on the racks of most rental facilities, though they
are becoming less popular in recent years. While they
require almost no maintenance, they are noisy to paddle
and get very hot in the sun or very cold when the water
is cold.
In their
heyday, they were often used for white water paddling
because they would bend instead of break when they hit
rocks. Some of the new plastic materials are much more
suitable for this type of paddling. Aluminum tends to
stick to rocks instead of sliding over them. This results
in a sudden, abrupt halt of forward movement. From
personal experience, this can be quite painful because
when the canoe stops, there's a tendency for the person
who's paddling it to continue in the direction of travel.
Unfortunately, many of the aluminum canoes had cross ribs
along the bottom of the canoe for strength and it
wouldn't be uncommon for a paddlers knees to go skidding
across a few of these before their hips came to a
resounding thump against a thwart.
The
tools used to make aluminum canoes create some
restrictions that make it hard to manufacture a good hull
shape. There is not a lot of variety to choose from and
the number of models being produced has declined over the
years.
Fiberglass
The
introduction of fiberglass in canoe construction had a
major impact on the popularization of the sport because
it brought the price of canoes down to the point where
they were affordable by almost anyone. Currently there
are probably more fiberglass canoes in production than
all the other types of construction combined. For this
reason, new paddlers often chose fiberglass as the
material for their first canoe. They are often not sure
whether they're going to enjoy the activity or not and
the fiberglass ones are among the least expensive to own
so it doesn't require a large investment to get started.
Though there's no reason why a good fiberglass canoe
can't provide the family good service for many years,
most people who continue with paddling will usually
exchange their fiberglass canoes for ones made from one
of the other materials as their needs evolve.
There
are a lot of good canoes designs made in fiberglass.
Unlike some of the other techniques and materials, it's
just as easy to make a bad design as a good one. Before
buying a fiberglass canoe it is especially important to
paddle ones of several different shapes and styles to be
certain that the one you select suits your needs.
Fiberglass canoes are among the easiest to repair and
require very little maintenance.
Kevlar/specialty
cloth
If
weight is a consideration, Kevlar or some of the new
specialty-cloth constructions are very attractive to
consider. The techniques used to build canoes with these
materials are similar to the process used for making good
quality fiberglass construction, but the materials are a
lot more expensive. Generally, because they do cost more
to make and sell, manufacturers tend to research their
hull shapes more carefully. That means that its less
likely that poorly shaped canoes will make their way into
full-scale production.
While
the super lightweight canoes are a joy to carry on a
portage, their lightweight makes them hypersensitive on
the water. When children are in the canoe, this may be a
disadvantage as heavier canoes will certainly be a bit
more stable. A 17 foot Kevlar tripping canoe may weigh as
little as 50 pounds while a similar canoe in ABS may
weigh 80. That means there's an extra 30 pounds of
ballast in the canoe, most of it in the bottom where it
will help to stabilize the craft. As well, manufacturers
will often favour making their lightweight canoes in
"fast" hull shapes. The faster, sleeker designs usually
sacrifice a little stability to achieve the speed, which
can make the hull feel even less stable than one from
just the reduced weight alone.
Kevlar
and the other lightweight materials are becoming very
popular with people who do a lot of wilderness tripping.
They are strong and durable and so light, they can almost
make portages fun.
ABS/plastic
The
introduction of plastics revolutionized the plumbing
industry by providing pipe material that was strong,
flexible and easy to form into unusual shapes. It wasn't
long before people began to recognize that this material
was incredibly strong and it began showing up in all
sorts of places, including canoes. To make a canoe from
ABS, (acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene) a large sheet
composed of a five-layer laminate is heated until its
soft enough to be forced into a mold. Once this cools
down and the seats, thwarts and gunwales are added, it
becomes a very durable craft that is very low in
maintenance and is almost indestructible.
The
first ABS canoes were all made at the Uniroyal factory in
Warsaw Indiana. The company had been experimenting with
possible uses for a new product they had been developing
which they called Royalex. They had a canoe shaped mold
and would make small batches of hulls as they got orders.
Original ABS canoes got the nickname Warsaw Rockets
because of their origins. Canoe manufacturers would take
delivery of the empty canoe shells and then outfit the
canoes with gunwales, decks, seats and thwarts. As ABS
began to prove itself as a sturdy, reliable and
maintenance-free material to build canoes from,
manufacturers began to produce their own molds and a
greater variety of shapes began to appear on the market.
Today canoes made from ABS are the ones preferred by
people who are looking for a tough, long lasting canoe to
paddle in white water or take with them on long
wilderness trips.
ABS
isn't the only plastic material that canoes are made
from. There are a few canoes designs made from
Polyethylene, which is the same material that kitchen
freezer to microwave food containers are made from.
Polyethylene canoes tend to be a little heavier and don't
keep their shape as well as the ABS canoes do, but they
are less expensive and more abrasion resistant.
In the
showroom of a manufacturer we once visited, we were
leafing through a binder filled with letters submitted by
satisfied customers. Among the accolades was a letter
from the owner of a hunt camp in northern Quebec. It
seems that while transporting one of their plastic canoes
to a remote lake, the rope holding it onto the planes
pontoons came undone and the canoe fell many thousands of
feet to land somewhere in the rugged wilderness below.
The pilot circled and landed on a nearby lake and made an
effort to recover the pieces. When the canoe was finally
located, much to everyone's surprise, the canoe was
intact and there was very little damage to it. With a
minimal amount of repair work, the airmail canoe was put
back into service.
We've
been on several trips where we have seen ABS canoes
folded entirely in half around a rock in a strong
current. After the canoes had been pulled off the rock,
they would pop back to their original shape with only few
wrinkles in the hull to show where the folds once were.
Usually the greatest damage occurs to the trim on the
boat and after replacing or repairing the gunwales, seats
or thwarts, the canoe is almost as good as new.
Today,
we generally use our ABS canoes more often than any of
the others. They are a bit on the heavy side to carry,
but for our purposes we find them most suitable. We've
found a few hull shapes that we like to paddle and their
rugged durability makes them an excellent choice for the
kinds of canoeing that we like do. Not all ABS canoes are
heavy. Our boys have their own 12-foot ABS canoe that
only weighs 32 pounds.
Folding
canoes
In
the last few years, there has been an interesting
innovation in canoe design showing up in North America.
Folding canoes made from the same type of tough material
used on white water rafts have been used in Europe for
quite some time, but they're starting to be more common
here. The advantage to these canoes is that they take so
little space for storage. When they're folded up, they
are not much larger than big sack full of laundry. A
folded canoe qualifies as one piece of checked luggage on
commercial airlines which means they can solve some of
the more difficult logistical problems in accessing some
of the more remote wilderness routes.
Another
problem when trying to arrange trips into the wild is
getting the canoes to the river on bush planes. Some
pilots don't like to fly with more than one canoe
attached to their floats even on planes that might be
able to carry the load. That may mean several shuttle
trips would be needed to get all the canoes to the start
point of the trip. This would add a lot to the cost of
the trip. Folding canoes can go inside the plane which
can make it possible to get all the people and canoes to
the start point together in one trip.
We used
folding Pakboat canoes on our most recent arctic trip and
were very pleased that we had. The canoes took a bit to
get used to as they handled a little differently than we
were accustomed to, but they were certainly rugged enough
and there were no problems with them being able to handle
the heavy loads. We brought the canoes with us on
commercial flights to Inuvik as baggage and all of our
gear and "canoes" fit inside the bush plane on the trip
to the river.
When we
began canoe tripping, we used our old cedar and canvas
canoe for everything from a quiet day paddle in the
nearby swamp to a wilderness trip that spanned several
weeks and included a lot of white water. Today, we have
two canoes that we use for most trips, but there's a
collection of six other more specialized designs on racks
in the back yard that we use regularly. We could still
use a cedar and canvas canoe for all our paddling
excursions, but the specialty canoes cut down on the
worry we feel on some outings. That allows us to focus
more on the trip.
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