What can you do to make a canoe more stable/useful?

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Plainsman

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Apr 5, 1999
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I took canoeing in college and LOVED it! But I've been thinking, can they be made more stable and more useful than they currently are? Meaning, when out in the woods and on the water, can you attach things like outriggers and a sail to assist you?

I know what of their greatest assets is lightweight portability, but this is for use where one wouldn't need to portage for quite a distance.

What other modifications/add ons can you think of?

Thanks for any input!



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Plainsman :)
primitiveguy@hotmail.com

You use what you have on you, then you improvise! :)
 
Outriggers are relatively easy to lash onto a canoe, and two canoes can be lashed together a few feet apart to make either a double hull, or add a deck for a large raft. These configurations are extremely stable, with good lashes. A single outrigger of a log will supply balance for roll both directions, boyancy if you roll towards it, and heft if you roll away.

Sails can be added, but stay pointed downwind, they do not tack well. Outriggers or a second canoe help tacking tremendously, but a canoe will still tend to slip since it does not have a keel. I'd suggest you only attempt a sail if the wind is blowing in the general direction you want to go.

Canoes can also be made more stable with wise loading. Unless you get sideways to decent waves, or try to jump around in a canoe, they tend to stay pretty much upright, even loaded somewhat. More cargo increases their stability, but decreases ability to withstand waves. Stay on your knees (Screw those seats, they do nothing but destroy your posture and help get you wet) Find a pad, and stay on your knees on the hull of the boat. You will get better pulls and it will be better on your back, and you can get the paddle under the canoe easier for advanced maneuvering.

Anyways, that was a longish answer. I intend on getting a canoe to play on the sloughs this summer, I just need to figger out how I will attach it to the top of my car when I want to go places other than the slough in my yard...


Stryver
 
Good post Stryver. I have been a Red Cross/ACA canoe instructor for 8 years. The mods I have done on canoes would take up too much space. I will reccomend a couple of things. Yes definatly get rid of the seats. Repplace them with leaning butt boards. Also you could look into a canoe saddle. This is a moulded nealing seat that has the advantage of "semi-dri" storage. I am in the beginning of designing a Hawaiian style out rigger to my Dagger Legend for playing on the coast.

I reccommend all of the late Bill Mason's canoe vidios, enjoyable and informative. In your training do not forget that the canoe can be polled upstream easier than paddled. The canoe is the most efficient form of transportation ever invented by man and a great sport. There is also a canoe buyers magazine that is issed every year. This is a good start for most people.

Cheers,

ts

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Guns are for show. Knifes are for Pros.
 
Remember those sticks the American Gladiators used to use for jousting? What about some of those going across?
 
The shape of the hull makes quite a difference also, although it is not adjustable. The standard aluminum canoe is sort of flat on the bottom with squarish sides. It tends to have a lot of initial stability but rolls easily once that initial stability point is overcome. The more classic Old Town wood and canvas canoe on the other hand have more rounded bottoms and lots of belly in the sides. They seem to tip very easily at first but offer progressively more resistance to tipping as the gunwale gets closer to the water. The super light, flat water racing boats I don't know anything about except that they look dangerous to me.

Wind will blow a canoe all over the place. Look especially at the design of the bow and stern. Canoes that are good in heavier water generally have higher points on the ends that will cut through a wave without letting too much water into the boat. These high points catch the wind just like a sail and can make paddling extremely difficult. When you are alone in a canoe you will find that the bow sticks up farther in the air than the stern if you are toward the back of the boat. That means that the wind will blow the bow down wind. That is fine if you want to go down wind, but if you need to go up wind you can move forward to raise the stern so that that end of the boat blows down wind. It ain't much but it helps, and can make the difference between getting where you need to go or not.

for anything but extreme white water canoeing the old wood and canvas canoe is about the best there is. They are a bit more expensive but they will last almost for ever and can be rebuilt to like new when ever there is a need. I have a close friend who rebuilds old wood and canvas boats in his spare time. He has several that were sold as fire wood that he has reworked for himself. the oldest was originally built in 1910 or 1911 and is about the slickest little boat I have seen. My boat is a fairly new sixteen and a half foot Old Town OTCA which is somewhere between 35 and 40 years old. It has had some minor wood work done on it, and been recanvassed once about ten years ago.

The sailing rigs I have seen use a single outrigger and have two dagger boards, one on either side of the hull to provide some ability to sail into the wind. The sail is generally a gaft rig on a short mast that is stepped through a removable thoart (sp) The sail is very like a sunfish/Sailfish rig. Tiller and Rudder appear to clamp to one side of the gunwale near the stern.


Mike
 
All good suggestions, I've never tried a sail on a canoe, but a friend of mine has the cutest 2hp outboard I ever saw that clamps onto the canoe near the stern. I sure wished I had it with me once when I was trying to paddle a 17 ft. Old Town into the wind by myself!

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"Actions speak louder than words"
 
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