Mad River Slipper vs Liberty?

[Guest]

MR Paddler, now that the Slipper has (quickly!) sold, as a Vermont MRC guy, maybe you, or someone else, can answer a Mad River model question.

I’m curious why Mad River concurrently carried both the Slipper (1985 – 1998) and the Liberty (1992 – 1998), with those canoes having at most an inch (often ½”) difference in dimensions, and couple pounds weight variance.

That 90’s model overlap in such similar designs seems odd coming from the same manufacturer. IIRC (doubtful) the Slipper had some tumblehome and the Liberty was more straight sided, and the Liberty maybe had a touch more rocker, but I never had a chance to paddle them head-to-head.

 

[Matt C]

I suspect, as you say, it’s a matter of rocker and intended purpose, much like Wenonah’s Vagabond and Argosy. The Liberty, being advertised as a downsized Independence (at 2.5 inches rocker) must have been similarly rockered, whereas the Slipper supposedly had none. I have seen several Slippers come up for sale over the past few years, but only one Liberty, north of Utica NY at around $1500 which I thought to be a little prohibitive. I always wondered if the Liberty was less successful since they appear to be so scarce. I always wanted to try one too, since I was so in love with the Independence.

 

[charlie wilson]

Slipper was a Bob Brown design closely related to the CJ Solo and Bell’s Creek Runner. Zero rocker as was often the misguided norm in the old days. It had 1/2” of rocker, ie .25 each side

liberty was a Jim Henry design, effected by taking half a foot out of an Independence. Liberty was the better boat; seemed to have a little more bow rocker? They were both pretty wide at the rail; Indy was 28” at rail, 30” max, Liberty was 28” and 29” max.