What are the best river and inland lake canoes of all time?

Just a “for fun” topic, but I am curious as it’s helpful information for those of us new to canoeing who want to do some camping/river trips.

Thanks!

The best dual-purpose tandem canoe = My vote = Old Town Tripper 17-foot Royalex. Not made anymore, but some may be available in good condition.
G.

The Tripper would also be my list, but it's too bad they weren't made in a lighter sleeker composite. I don't think you can go wrong with a Prospector or Northstar Seliga either. I like a symmetrical large volume hull, deep enough and with enough flare to keep you dry. There are faster hulls that are less affected by wind, but IMO they are not as sea worthy when things get sketchy.

Schuyler Thomson, retired canoe restorer, builder, told me he considered the 17’ Chestnut Prospector to be the best all around canoe. He restored over 1500 canoes, built over 100 new, he supplied new and repaired canoes for Keewaydin (Vermont)
Of course his opinion is biased towards wood canvas canoes and a modern “Prospector” canoe has little in common with an original Chestnut Prospector.

That's a tricky question. First, one has to define "best". Best construction, or best finish? Best for lakes or best for mild rivers? Best for big whitewater? Best for durability or best for light weight? Of all of the above, best tandem or best solo?

I know I can't even answer the question, but it can be a long discussion. I'm not sure I've ever been in a "best" canoe of any category, but a few are high on my list. Others that I haven't been in may be better but not better enough to run out and buy one new. And the betterness for my size, my skill, and my use would be only speculation based on my understanding of what makes canoes do what they do.

I suspect that the best flat water solo canoe for me would be a Northstar Magic in Blacklight.
I suspect that the best solo river tripper for me would be the Swift Dragonfly 15 in Expedition Kevlar - but I might have to up my game a little.
I'm pretty sure the best all-around tandem for me would be the Northstar B16 in IXP.

But there are a lot of other canoes I'm sure I can be perfectly happy in. This could be a very long discussion if we don't reject the premise of "best" out of hand.

This seems to be a recurring winter question. The first link below has a similar discussion here from early February of 2024. Dan Miller was the curator at the Antique Boat Museum in Clayton, New York many years ago and assembled an assortment of canoes that had been described as the 'perfect canoe' at different times from well over a hundred years. It is interesting to see how that definition changed over time. The second link below has the example from that exhibit for the 1960s (which would probably not be anyone's choice today).

Benson

There are many good ones. I loved the Sawyer Charger in kevlar.

Think back to when you were broke, and you had a 13 foot aluminium bathtub of a canoe, and you would put two other chums and all your camping gear plus 24 beers and go on a trip. The best canoe is the one that gets you to your happy place, all the rest is semantics.

Yeah, there's also "the best canoe I can afford".

memaquay said:

two other chums and all your camping gear plus 24 beers and go on a trip

Click to expand...

Only 24? That's a quick trip isn't it?

I'll agree with the sentiment, however. I'll never be a connoisseur of canoes and I'm quite happy with whatever I can build, borrow or afford to buy.

The perfect canoe is the one that you'll use, whether that means it's light enough to portage, it's scratched up enough that you don't have to baby it or it's already stashed at the far end of a portage somewhere.

This time of the year, even paddling a cast iron bathtub sounds perfect to me.

Memaquay nailed it. I really enjoyed and used my 17’ Sears aluminum canoe, purchased new in the spring of 1970, on a number of BWCA trips and UP of Michigan trips. Even took my first basic whitewater class using that canoe. I replaced it in 1983 with a new OT Tripper which I really liked for 23 years until those 80#’s became too much.

It was a great canoe on the lakes and down river and it was bullet proof. My diminishing physical abilities dictated Kevlar, which worked well weight-wise for the past 20 years. Now I am eyeing my brother’s light weight kevlar boat (same hull as mine but 12 pounds lighter - very noticeable to me as I rapidly approach 80).

I think the important thing to know is that of the long established canoe makers (excluding those makers of all things plastic) that have managed to stay in business over the ups and downs of the last few decades - are there any canoes that might not be the best for somebody ?
I think the answer is no. I can't think of any model from these companies that won't be the best choice for some class of individuals' intended use. We may not be in the Golden Age of canoeing, but IMO, our available selection of canoes is truly golden.

The best canoe when you're out on the water is the one you're paddling

samb said:

The best canoe when you're out on the water is the one you're paddling

Click to expand...

I strongly agree with the quote above and the only other answer I have is my Swift Temagami.
While there is no one best tool for all situations, I do find this Swift canoe to have many attributes including seaworthiness, maneuverability, light weight, efficiency and stability. It is sad that the Temagami model is out of production, but I would expect the newly designed Lavielle to possess many of the same qualities.

RBourg said:

I strongly agree with the quote above and the only other answer I have is my Swift Temagami.
While there is no one best tool for all situations, I do find this Swift canoe to have many attributes including seaworthiness, maneuverability, light weight, efficiency and stability. It is sad that the Temagami model is out of production, but I would expect the newly designed Lavielle to possess many of the same qualities.

Click to expand...

2 someones took around the uk. The seaworthyness seems to be proven
But the topic was inland paddling. So this remark is pointless. No clue about the right answer i seem to change my opinion about it a lot. I have not menaged to get close to own a canoe a decade..

And another thing....

....of all time...

Click to expand...

The wood/canvas canoes of old are beautiful. A traditional birch bark canoe has soul. An aluminum canoe is all but impervious to the ravages of time. But as much as we decry the decline of quality in most products, canoe construction just gets better with time (so far).

there's no such thing, because what seems best for one person is an abomination for another. In my early days I had a monster "great lakes freighter" that was 45' wide, 17.5' long and 18" deep, with 2 people and gear it drew a whole 2-3" and would spin on a dime with a little bit of a lean. That canoe did the French, spanish, Grand, and dozens of other rivers, as well as cross lake Ontario and get paddled regularly on all the other great lakes, BUT it weighed 110lbs, was as slow as a snail if fully loaded, and had the lines of a squashed tomato. if you weren't in a hurry, or had a huge load (we once carried a ford C-6 transmission in it) it was "the best" at what it did. I'd call it the 5 ton truck of canoes
I've also had several Swift Kippawas which were fast, tracked excellently and were highly maneuverable, but they were a little tender to handle until you got up to speed and had a low optimium payload. In tighter channels it's 16' 9" length made it awkward in the alders, it's a fast, light, pleasure to paddle but the weight restrictions are a little low for people that bring the kitchen sink. I found it to be an excellent teaching canoe because it was nimble and easy to paddle BUT tender enough to teach you to paddle properly- major mistakes could leave you treading water.
it was like a little Porsche 911 compared to most other boats
My pickup truck canoe is a Scott Echo- still good enough for tripping, handles more load than I'll ever need, and is stable as a rock for fishing, BUT don't lean it much because it's wide, flat bottom means you reach the point of no return quickly and that same bottom means it's slow and unwieldy in current or tight channels.
I could go on about a dozen or more boats but the point I'm trying to make is that there's no single boat that's "the best", all have good and bad points- it's a question of what boat has the most good points for you and what bad points can you live with, nobody here can tell you what those points are, that's totally up to you to decide