May not be Worth Noting

[Charles]

I don't know why it never occurred to me that someone else may be interested in this; or maybe I was right before in not considering it worth noting. But here it is.

From time to time I play around up to and including rolling my boats. "Training" I like to call it. It lets me know just how far I can push the boat. I figure this helps me with how the boats will handle in sloppy weather. Not that I would ever go out if the wind and waves were kicking up a little bit. But what I have found is that with my canoe, an Old Town Guide 147, I can tip it enough to get a gunnel under, ship water, and still recover and remain upright. It takes a little more to completely swamp the boat, but even then I can keep it from rolling over. That may not be true with a bicycle standing in the bow. I haven't tried that.

Not so with my kayak, a Heritage Redfish 12. True that the kayak, having a lower profile, will handle wind that would put the canoe on the beach, but in tipping, I have found, that once it reaches a certain point, it's gone. All the way upside-down. Once it reaches that point I can't recover and remain upright.

This is not to say one make, model, or design is better or worse than the other. They're just different, and both have their strong points.

[Terrier]

Is that canoe made of Royalex? If so, it may be more buoyant than the plastic in the kayak - I think it has a foam core.