What's changed for better or worse over your canoeing lifetime?

[Dana]

My new old Royalex canoe sure weighs less than the old 1960s fiberglass canoe that trashed my shoulder last fall!

Re throwing canoes from roofs, there was a story some years back about a canoe that came loose from a seaplane and fell a thousand feet or so. When they finally found and retrieved it, it was intact.

 

[Alan Gage]

Cost of equipment - bad

From some quick research, which certainly wasn't exhaustive, it looks like you could expect to pay $1200 or more for a nice Kevlar canoe in 1985. In today's money that would equal $3600, which which appears to be right in line with the cost of a new Kevlar canoe today. And I would guess that today's Kevlar canoe would weigh less with overall better construction.

Alan

 

[Benson Gray]

there was a story some years back about a canoe that came loose from a seaplane

This story was quoted in the 1975 Old Town catalog as shown below.

Benson

 

[gumpus]

From some quick research, which certainly wasn't exhaustive, it looks like you could expect to pay $1200 or more for a nice Kevlar canoe in 1985. In today's money that would equal $3600, which which appears to be right in line with the cost of a new Kevlar canoe today. And I would guess that today's Kevlar canoe would weigh less with overall better construction.

Alan

Let's see. An original kevlar Curtis Dragonfly weighed 39 pounds and my (slightly larger) SRT weighed 42. Original Nomad might weigh slightly more than a comparable new Peregrine. Curtis would sell you a 22 pound Ladybug in the 1970's. Which are the new boats with better overall construction than Curtis boats? Whenever I come across a decades-old Curtis or Blackhawk all the screws are still tight.

There have been some nice developments like integrated carbon gunwales but overall I think the tradeoffs have changed more than the technology.

And as DutchLiennert mentioned, you cannot buy a carbon paddle of the same quality as you could 2-3 decades ago. Many of the passionate creators of paddles and boats that stand up well to anything on today's market have retired or passed away.

 

[lowangle al]

As far as gear goes, the biggest improvement that I've benefited from is in communication devices. First there was the Garmin Inreach and now, satellite capable phones. I can always stay in touch, in addition to the safety aspect.