What kind of canoe?

My OTCA 16 was made in 1958 for Camp Hagan @ Shawnee on the Delaware, Dad bought it from the caretaker in 1974. After some minor wood repair & a coat of porch & deck enamel on the outside & some stain varnish on the interior he taught me how to canoe, including some ways thru the low water spots. the 'rentals' both Alum & Plastic used to pass us by on the slackwater only to drop behind when we hit the riffles & faster water.

Then one day I saw one that hadn't been covered w/ dark stain varnish. The white & red cedar was beautiful while mine resembled an antique piano, black and drab.

In 2000 I started stripping it down to bare wood and the canvas filler. Now it resembles the throughbred it was built to be, even re-caned the seats. It gathers coments when ever we take it out.

You can't store them outside but once you have one you won't want any other.

I still recomend Kelvar to OP.

My DH and had a Mad River 17' Revelation Duck Hunter made from their royalex material. Great, and I mean great canoe! It was a tad heavy, weighing a bit under 78 pounds, but it was a dream on the water. Very quiet, could carry a heavy load for a week of camping, shallow waters and rock without a problem and it was even unsinkable, no need for extra float chambers when a whitewater trip is calling.
Geez, just writing aout it makes me want to go out and purchase a new one. :-)

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Joy at Secretplace Farm

Wow! Those cedar canoes are amazing!

This would be used on ponds, lakes and maybe in the coastal waters here mostly. Probably not whitewater. For 2 people in most instances, or maybe 2 adults and a kid, just to tool around for recreation, bit of fishing. Not a Lewis & Clark situation.

Those may have cedar ribs in them, but they are not cedar strip canoes. Those are traditional birch bark canoes. A cedar strip canoe usually has an ash frame that is stripped with cedar, it is just like a wood and canvas canoe, but without the canvas.

I just sold a 16 ft grumman aluminum. It was a great canoe, very light and fast in the water. It was lighter than my mad river 15 ft square stern, but I wanted to keep the square stern so I sold the aluminum.

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Justice is the insurance which we have on our lives and property. Obedience is the premium which we pay for it.

Id say beware of the plastic ones also. I seen a 14 ft plastic canoe for sell at a yard sale a couple of weekends ago. It had been stored on it's side and now one side is bent inwards. Not sure how a person would straighten that out unless they could somehow heat that side up without catching it on fire and then bend it back in place.

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r.h. in oklahoma

Raised a country boy, and will die a country boy.

I just noticed this, WIHH should have known better (she is from Texas after all). Of course, they are birch bark canoes. I believe the particular canoes in the photo is called "Montreal" canoes. These canoes can hold tons of furs and several French-Cnadian voyageurs.

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This is the government the Founding Fathers warned us about.....

I am very partial to my old 14' fiberglass Old Town. It has done everything I have asked of it, and is still in great shape after 15+ years.

Just store it out of the sun, as mentioned above.

we have a number of canoes kicking round here, now i am told we "need" a kevlar canoe! oh and a sea going kayak! (after seeing some of the rivers the kid has been on and going too be on .............!) for just paddling around on flat water a lite weight fiberglass would do well, have a heavy fiberglass that is better on light rapids but after seeing the damage a set of rapids can do too one of the light weight colmans wont be taking that one down the Macadavic! (kids fished a badly damage colman last year outa the rapids! luckily no one was missing! just left their junk in the bush!) while i will go flat water, no way i am going whitewater in anything other than one of those huge rubber boats! (and then only with a whole lot of persuasion!) have a heavy duty aluminum that we keep for a friend that can carry two men and a moose (couple of buddies did just that!) yet is light enough for two guys to portage with (more the turn factor, that thing is 18 feet long! i can hike it around)the Courier du Bois that explored North America in birch bark canoes were sure a brave bunch!

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àigeach carnaid
chaora dhubh
"Don't raise your voice, improve your argument."

cruachan