For me, a canoe is for hauling bulky gear, kind of like a pickup truck. A kayak is faster and much less likely to be blown around on the water. The double paddle let's me cruise at a faster pace, and not have to switch sides or use a slower stroke to go straight. The kayak is just an adaptation of the canoe if you look back in history, in most cases the design was driven by local conditions. For the average person a kayak is easier to learn to paddle, and feels faster for the same effort because you are closer to the water.
i use a double paddle on my canoe, it is much faster. i would like an ocean kayak at some point and fish stripers!
A work friend had a canoe and was always asking me to go fishing with him, many years ago. I told him canoes scared me to death as I had seen how unstable they could be. So he tells me to come over to his place and we would take the canoe across the road to the lake and swimming area. I think we spent about 6 hours with that canoe tipping it over and getting in after wards always with our PDF's on. Later I went fishing in it with him since I was not comfortable in it. I bought a Colman Ram X 17 for my first canoe, wife and daughter enjoyed float fishing and just wild critter watching down the UP Michigan Sturgeon river East of Rapid river. Daughter even today will come home spring summer and fall and say lets take the canoe to the lake I want to talk with you. Our private place to talk about things bothering her. I take the 17' out fishing on big beaver ponds I can get pretty close to with the truck. But I bought a Colman Ram X 15' which I can drag alone thru thicker stuff to get to smaller beaver ponds to fish. Even deer like my 17' canoe and think it is a ideal place to bed down under some days. Al
The wife and I out in our double paddle canoe (tandem kayak) tonight. Just a quick spin to enjoy some late season unusual weather
Picked up a tandem kayak Friday, it's been getting too hard to borrow my parents canoe since there's 4 other siblings that also seem to want to use it the same day we do. Got this on auction for $200, it was an Amazon return that's never seen water and the only issue is one of the handles is broken. That's an easy fix. Now our fleet is large enough to get my family of 4 out on the water at the same time without having to borrow anything! https://www.amazon.com/Emotion-Spitfire-Tandem-Kayak-Yellow/dp/B016YLHZYW
That's a great deal! I built my tandem, I have a problem with the prices on kayaks in general, so I build mine. I have one plastic kayak I found in a ditch beside the interstate, and the two surf kayaks I traded for the foam kayaks I built for my parents. They can't lift one of them between the two of them anymore.
I still like your foam idea, if I get the time (haha) I'd like to build a short 7-8' kids kayak. I've got the foam leftover from finishing the basement just taking up space in the garage.
Been looking for a canoe; but I don't know what to look for. Would use it duck/goose hunting for hauling gear and such. One and two people most likely.
weight is always a factor to consider. The Coleman canoe I grew up with was a bear to move out of the water because it was heavy plastic. Part of the reason aluminum canoes caught on and are still widley used has to do with how light they are for their size. Of course the lighter they are, the lighter your wallet will be after buying one...
I have an 8 fot design built the same way called the clownfish kayak. if you are on facebok check out the build album for it on my Rowerwet facebook page. https://m.facebook.com/Rowerwet/albums/1225517697464009/?ref=page_internal
I love to paddle! Spent a lot of time paddling the calm waters of many of the Adirondack Lakes in northern NY as well as many of the waterways closer to my childhood home near lake Ontario. I used to do week long canoe trips with camp Aldersgate in the Adirondacks, some of my fondest memories growing up. Usually put in a 7th or 8th lake and end up at Forked or Long lake at the end of week. Done a couple overnight trips in Ohio too but just not the same. Every chance I get to go back usually involves taking the yaks out with the local paddle group. Here is a few pics I could dig up... Can barely fit mom's Labrador in the pic! Last year my mom got a new partial carbon fiber one, can't remember the make. Good ol load hauler Discovery 158. On the mighty St. Lawrence I'm actually planning on building a skin on frame canoe sometime soon, ultimate in light weight plus I love to DIY stuff. Cheap, but a lot of work! Like this:
I love to paddle also! I fish out of a canoe at several small lakes around or enjoy canoeing on the Kansas River whenever time and weather allow. I would like to get a kayak since I seem to enjoy paddling more than my family. There are groups that go on the Kansas regularly, but I have never joined them. Love your pictures
Had to share these pictures, this is Sawfish hull number 79, and it has the most unusual propulsion I've ever seen on a kayak. The paddle wheel is mounted on a single pivot, and steering is accomplish by turning the wheel from side to side with rudder pedals
The 15’ Coleman I’ve rode down many many miles of rivers and floated many body’s of water since buying in the early ‘90’s. The ‘17’ Old Town was a battle barge but had to go. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I kayak! Similar I'd say. Same concept, different tool. I love it! I mostly go on the small rivers that wind around my area in SE WI. Fun to get way back into areas that no one else could get to otherwise.
