(Very) Big Canoes

[Guest]

I still find it hard to capsize a big canoe. Most are meant to carry quite a load with adequate freeboard and when the number of people is too many the performance suffers before the freeboard does.

Too many people, at least in the really big canoes I have paddled, would have to exceed the available seating.

I paddled a Clipper Mariner, BMO’s infamous “Bloody Mary”, as part of an every-seat-filled eight person crew three years running in the Wye Island race. With a crew of eight in that 22 footer there was enough freeboard to necessitate the six midship paddlers using custom length bent shafts, and bow & stern using guide-length sticks.

BTW, I never want to paddle bow or stern in a Voyageur-type canoe. Wayyyy too much work.

In ’04 the dregs of Hurricane Charley coincided with race day. 8 boats out of a hundred or so that dared to start stayed upright. The Bloody Mary was one of them.

Fortunately that is a tidal water race, starting up the narrow arms around Wye Island. The first few miles saw dozens of folks swimming more tender craft to shore. Or, screw the boat, just swimming to shore.

Still, had we dumped the Mariner it would have taken a barge and crane to empty it.

If added flotation, under the seats or sponsoned below the inwale isn’t in the way, go for it. The side sponson foam might make a comfy knee bumper or brace.

 

[Jim Dodd]

I have plans and rough cut forms for a Voyageur canoe from Al Gustaveson. Al is the original owner of Northwest Canoe in St Paul Mn.

I believe it is meant to be 26' long.

I cut the forms, and backed away. First I would need a lot of funds for such a boat ! A place to store, and equally as important, a number of Paddlers to paddle it. I was short on all three accounts. So there the forms sit.
Anybody interested ?

Jim

 

[JagDaddy]

I would love to crew up such a beast!

 

[Guest]

I would love to crew up such a beast!

Some friends took a Clipper Mariner down the Green from Ruby Ranch to Spanish Bottom. They took out some of the seats, loaded it with gear* and paddled it with a crew of four.

*Friends who are proud to be drinkers with a paddling problem. They took beer. Lots of beer.

Question: How many beers did they have left at the end?
Answer: 157

I was on the Green a week before them. Piss poor timing on my part.

 

[BWCA66]

I have plans and rough cut forms for a Voyageur canoe from Al Gustaveson. Al is the original owner of Northwest Canoe in St Paul Mn.

I believe it is meant to be 26' long.

I cut the forms, and backed away. First I would need a lot of funds for such a boat ! A place to store, and equally as important, a number of Paddlers to paddle it. I was short on all three accounts. So there the forms sit.
Anybody interested ?

Jim

Hey Jim, I just might be interested in those forms. Bought plans a number of years ago for a big canoe and that I and my brother in law are retired we were talking about building one. PM me how much, I don't think we are actually too far from each other.

 

[JagDaddy]

Some friends took a Clipper Mariner down the Green from Ruby Ranch to Spanish Bottom. They took out some of the seats, loaded it with gear* and paddled it with a crew of four.

*Friends who are proud to be drinkers with a paddling problem. They took beer. Lots of beer.

Question: How many beers did they have left at the end?
Answer: 157

I was on the Green a week before them. Piss poor timing on my part.

The Green would be a fun trip in a big canoe, good warm-up for the Grand Canyon :- )

Hydration is always a factor on these SW rivers :- )

I've been on some trips where folks are putting back the beer. I enjoy good beer, but prefer the British Navy recipe for 'Grog'. Two parts dry red wine-one part rum and a quartered lime, mixed in a 32 oz. Nalgene bottle. Has the added benefit of warding off scurvy on the long trips haha

 

[yellowcanoe]

The Green would be a fun trip in a big canoe, good warm-up for the Grand Canyon :- )

Um a very tepid warm up.. I love the Green in a boat and am scared to death of the GC.. Well do it next month..on foot.
I feel safer somehow.

 

[JagDaddy]

Um a very tepid warm up.. I love the Green in a boat and am scared to death of the GC.. Well do it next month..on foot.
I feel safer somehow.

My wife and I were on a GC backpacking bender we're about an hour from Flagstaf. Where are you guys hiking?

We are currently messing around in the Ceder Mesa area in UT.

I really like high desert backpacking :- ) Im planning a long Comb Ridge trip right now for fall and will do a 3 night off river backpacking trip up Chinle Wash on my San Juan canoe trip next month.

Wife has a burn for a Canyonlands trip. We've camped and hiked there but haven't done done any backpacking yet.

 

[yknpdlr]

Back to float bag aka whitewater floatation.. I still find it hard to capsize a big canoe. Most are meant to carry quite a load with adequate freeboard and when the number of people is too many the performance suffers before the freeboard does.

I have many thousands of miles paddling in several big voyageur canoes. If they have fixed seats, especially two-person seats, it would take quite some effort to force a capsize. Canoes I race in are outfitted with single position seats. Except for the bow and stern seats, the other seats are configured to easily slide side-to-side on rollers to put the paddlers on alternate gunwales. On the hut each paddler rolls to the other side in a coordinated move all at the same time. If one paddler for some reason does not slide at the same time as the others, it can lead to a "bobble" tending to make the canoe roll a bit, which can be a little scary, especially if it then throws other paddlers off balance. If two paddlers fail to move on the hut, that could be real trouble. But only a real issue if the seats slide on rollers.

I have never capsized a dry voyageur canoe, but have gone for an unexpected swim or two. The worst case is in rough windy conditions when a big wake powerboat sends its wave broadside to us. The wave will pour water over the gunwale bow to stern. With the instability of a lot of water sloshing around, a gunwale goes under and the canoe fills with water. On the Yukon River we have a fabric skirt fitted with velcro to each paddler in sections, that covers the entire opening. The skirt thus saves us from swamping when waves come over from storms on Lake Laberge, or standing waves in the Five Finger Rapids.