Help me pick a tandem

[Punkinhead]

I paddle a solo canoe (Northstar Phoenix) and my wife paddles a kayak. She started kayaking late in life and never became comfortable in moving water. Even class 1 intimidates her and she's had a few dumps that scared her. Because of this her preference is lakes. My strong preference is rivers so I'm thinking a solution might be a tandem canoe. She can use her kayak when we're paddling in lakes or the Gulf and we can paddle a tandem canoe on rivers. I haven't owned a tandem canoe since the 1990's and that was a whitewater boat.

Here's my wish list: This canoe will be for tandem paddling (or me and my 60 lb dog) in class 1 and sometimes 2. We tend to paddle fairly shallow, rocky rivers so scraping is going to happen. I'm not afraid of doing repairs so composite construction is fine. I want it to be relatively short and under 45 lbs since I'll have to portage & rooftop it by myself. Decent primary stability for her comfort. Easy to turn in rapids and narrow rivers. We only do day trips and neither of us are particularly heavy so it doesn't need to be capable of large loads.

We visit our kids in Madison, WI fairly often so brands/models carried by Rutabaga or Carl's are preferred since we don't have a decent outfitter near us. I'd also buy used if something pops up near central Indiana/Illinois.

Suggestions?

 

[ABT]

I’d look really hard at the Northstar Opal. Symmetric rocker, plenty of maneuverability, available in IXP or blacklite HD for the scraping, wide enough the primary should be great, small enough to meet your requirements, seems like it fits most of what you’d want. Likely not the fastest by any stretch on flatwater but HappyPaddlin’s videos on YouTube make it seem like it’s not as slow as you’d think. It’s also got pretty nice lines aesthetically in my opinion.

The Polaris is another option but at almost 17’ long I wouldn’t call it “small”. I also think in IXP it’s over your weight limit, but it may be fine in blacklite. It’s got great primary in my opinion, and really good secondary, but I’ve only had another adult in it with me once. It’s pretty narrow for a tandem so you’d certainly want to test one out to be sure the primary is acceptable with two adults. Usually it’s me solo or with a kid and I think it’s great. It has decent enough maneuverability on Ozark streams even with the length (although noticeably less than a symmetrical boat), and has good tracking for the flats.

Shame that T-formex is going to be out of your weight limit, I’m probably going to be selling my Wenonah Prospector 15 soon. I believe it’s 60 lbs or so unfortunately, but otherwise is similar to the Opal.

 

[Steve in Idaho]

I want it to be relatively short and under 45 lbs

How short? There are a lot of ~15' tandems that would fit this requirement. The Wenonah Heron in the lighter layups, for instance. I wouldn't go shorter than that unless both of you are in the 150 lb and under range and not carrying much gear.

Going with a ~16' canoe opens up a wide range of possibilities. I'd start by looking at the Northstar B16.

 

[dutchlennart]

Go to both places and get paddling. Stability is such a hard thing to advise and compare.
Something short and composite.
Not sure if your wife is a sitter or a kneeler. For a sitter a good footrest helps a lot instability.
Enjoy the search and even more the paddling.

 

[gumpus]

Starfire with 3 seats. Swift can build one for you. Great light tandem, great solo, great dog boat, great on rivers and lakes. Popular for freestyle so maybe that's something you two could enjoy too (just playing around with a few new strokes/moves).