Which Canoe For Summer Solo?

Great input, thank you. My back isn't always happy with me, but my knees surprisingly have held up rather well. I'll probably sit most of the time but kneeling generally isn't an issue. Getting into and out of the kneeling position might isn't fun though. Stiff and old.

I'd label preferences as primary stability, ability to turn in smaller streams, overall weight and length. Based on my excursions around here, portages are anticipated to be fairly short and often but with very dense trees and brush. Maybe I'm wrong but it seems that a shorter boat is going to be easier to portage and probably be more manageable on smaller water. That makes me leery of going longer than 14'. It's also why the interest in the 12' trapper, granted it's close at only a 2 hour drive and a good price.

As I mentioned before, for lakes I fish from one of my kayaks. I've got a couple of small lakes that I'd take my Brittany with me but primary use for the canoe will be smaller rivers.

....took way too long to type this....I keep running errands, bank etc.....

The person with the Nova Trapper called me back, I'm going to go pick it up tomorrow morning. It's a green FG canoe still in the plastic wrapper for $1250. I'm sure I'll end up buying another canoe, but for the price I couldn't pass this one up. Time to research addles and a few other essentials.

Thank you all for the insightful and quality input.

The Trapper is a very stable boat. You will have a lot of fun in it!

No problem loading up my Wildfire for a week. Two 70 L bags.

Steve in Idaho said:

The NC P15 and 16 are really underrated river canoes, IMO. I sure miss mine, but it got too heavy. If I ever get a shot at one in Blue Steel again, I'm all over that.

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I traded my BS p15 last year. Wish I’d known.

Black_Fly said:

I traded my BS p15 last year. Wish I’d known.

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Appreciate that. My preference would be the 16'.
I stupidly passed on the one that was offered to me a few years ago. Not long after that, I decided my royalex P16 had gotten too heavy.

Shoulda been listening to Glenn. I'm smarter now.

And I now own a Nova Craft 12' trapper

gumpus said:

I'd call the Swift P14 and 15 lake boats for sure. In my limited experience the P14 turns nicely with a gentle lean but that's all it's got; it does not want to lean to the rail or spin on a dime or get horsed around...so not a good choice for someone that needs a true Prospector with generous rocker for swift current or dangerous rivers.

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gumpus said:

My take is that Swift is using the Prospector name for marketing.

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The marketing, or something, is working very well for the Swift P14. I distinctly recall a Swift video (in 2023, I think) in which Bill says the P14 outsells all their other solo canoes combined. I assume that's because it is safe and friendly feeling, is satisfactory on lakes and easy whitewater, and can fit both males and females.

Black_Fly said:

I’m not seeing much room for gear and my mut. I could probably fit 2 packs with the dog, but it would be tight.
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My preference for solo tripping with overnight gear is a 15'-15.5' solo canoe. Your picture, Tony, reminds me why.

Most such overnight trips, whether on lakes or easy rivers, are 98% straight ahead paddling, so the enhanced maneuverability of a 14' canoe is irrelevant to me. I'd rather have enhanced forward speed efficiency, gear capacity and freeboard. A 15' solo canoe can maneuver perfectly fine if it has progressive secondary stability to the rail and you are comfortable effectuating turns by heeling the canoe to release the stems.

As the owner of a 14' black-gold Bell Wildfire, which is a fun and maneuverable freestyle and day canoe, I find that it bogs down at around 275 lbs. of total load, resulting in a loss of the rockered maneuverability and too little freeboard for my taste. Hence, I view its suitability as gear tripping canoe to be dependent upon how much the paddler weighs. Fortunately, I've lost a lot of weight from my Covid-couch-potato peak.

recped said:

Only minor issues getting 50 days of supplies into the XL14 (14'3", 32" width at gunnels, 30 at waterline, 3" rocker).

This pic is from about day 12/51, there has been a little "settling" of the dry bags.

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Same boat, different trip, the Put-in at Harris Lake (near Savant Lake), start of a 46 day trip to Fort Albany on James Bay.

I gave up trying to get that barrel lying down! I was only paddling up to the north end of the lake so didn't worry about it. After the portage there I rearranged things so it all fit nicely. Since I took the train the gear was weighed 225lbs plus I carried on about 50lbs, pfd, paddles, ropes, carabiners, water bottles (filled) etc were all attached to the canoe. probably close to 300lbs total plus me at 150lbs


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Recped, a nice packing job but I don't see any place to sit. Just curious, what happened to your right bow gunwale where you have the aluminum brace? It looks kinked.

Glenn MacGrady said:

Recped, a nice packing job but I don't see any place to sit. Just curious, what happened to your right bow gunwale where you have the aluminum brace? It looks kinked.

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The seat is hidden behind the big green dry bag, you can see the nalgene bottle sitting on the rails. You get a better view of the seat location in the video image below. Note that it's the stern that is up against the shoreline.

I wondered if somebody might notice the kink, the boat got involved in a "hockey fight" with a rock while lining. The insert inside the the vinyl gunnels pretty much broke, I installed that metal "strut" (electrical conduit) to prevent further damage (doubles as a good mounting location for my GoPro) and surprisingly I think the canoe tracks better with that twisted nose!

You can see it all happen here:

recped said:

You get a better view of the seat location in the video image below.

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recped said:

You can see it all happen here:

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Criminy, what a video! Hard not to go off on a lining tangent.

As you were lining that heavily packed canoe, I was actually wondering if you could hold on to all that weight if the canoe capsized . . . . and THEN . . . !

A simple bailer may have made emptying easier at the end. Two questions: Do you think you would have been better off with an under-keel bridle or at least waterline lining holes? Did you lose anything?

First problem was simply being a bit lackadaisical, the nose of the boat caught the rock because I let the bow float out to far and when I went to pull it in there was too much slack at that point it was really too late to do anything, I took a quick look downstream and seeing the huge pool (the Bloodvien is truly pool and drop) just let go.

I lost nothing, the end of the boat has modified flotation cages, they have quick release buckles, any gear in the cages stays put, everything not in the cages is tethered including the throw bag which I grabbed and swam to shore to pull the canoe in rather than try and drag it while swimming. My semi-dry bottoms filled up with water and some water leaked into my soft-side cooler everything else remain dry and secure.

An under-keel bridal would probably help but the real problem was bad rope management. If not for the ledge about halfway down I would have run instead of lining.

gumpus said:

Yes, I apologize if it seems like I'm jumping on you or your comments. I think the Swift P14/15 are fine choices for the way many people actually use their boats...probably better than a highly rocker Prospector, but I've been pinned against trees in current in boats with more rocker than P14 so I'm sensitive to the safety aspect of comparing them to something like Nova Craft P15 that has a bulletproof reputation with Canadians for tripping in rivers that can kill you. I have a Loonworks Aria that has a Prospector shape (very similar to Wildfire but more rounded) and that boat is virtually unaffected by current and while it has relatively low primary stability it feels dead calm sitting on top of standing waves. I use lake boats on rivers frequently and they work great right up until the point where you really need a river boat.

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I was just reading through some old posts - I cannot tell you how prescient this was. I ended up on a log pile this summer on the Big Salmon. There was a sharp meander that had cut through and I didn't notice until too late that the water was flowing straight under the log pile rather than around the meander. It was scary and happened so fast, and to this day I wake up at night thinking of how close I came to drowning beneath those logs. I was paddling a Redfeather Rockstar, and amazingly it didn't wrap when we z-dragged it on top of the pile. I am still so peeved that I put myself in that position, and worse yet put others in danger (in our group was an amazing NY paddler - Michael Barnard - who was a total champ and paddled out to the log pile to rescue me). Hard to say what would have happened had I not been in a river boat - and I also think the metal gunwales and perhaps the somewhat flexible layup (which has generally been a concern) were a good combination in the rescue.

Somehow I lost relatively little - my GoPro, fishing rod, rain jacket, and water bottle. Barnard (we called him by his last name) fished most of my gear out of the water while I pulled the z-drag - if I were alone I certainly would have lost far more gear.

I do find myself wanting to return to that river - it was a childhood dream of mine to paddle it - and sadly my memories of what should have been a crowing triumphant trip will forever drift towards that log pile. It's experience to be sure - seeing and participating in a rescue was not quite the same as practice - everything was irregular and improvised - but I am so dang upset with myself for endangering others. If/when I go again I would most likely paddle either the Rockstar again, a SRT (if I can get one), or a WildFIRE I think (although if I am renting I will probably use a SuperNova). All that being said, I do see the advantage of something like the Nova Craft P15 out in the Yukon - Jim Baird paddles more each year than I have in my life and tends to use one - with good reason of course.

Regardless, I think if I had been in my Merlin the boat would still be at the bottom of the river beneath that log pile. Hard to know for sure of course, but one has to imagine that a sleeker lake boat would have wedged beneath the logs more easily, and perhaps have taken me with it. All of this is a long way of saying your words are exceedingly correct - pure wisdom...

...sadly my memories of what should have been a crowing triumphant trip will forever drift towards that log pile.

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All's well that ends well. We can beat ourselves up over mistakes that we've made but we cannot change the past.

Sounds like a good learning experience and you're better prepared to help others now (practice is good but it's never the same as real-life).

Glad losses were minimal.