Buying Your First Canoe

There are lots of different canoes out there at lots of different prices, and your choice will depend on what you'll be using it for.

WHO will you be paddling with?

• Paddling solo? Buy a solo canoe (12-15 ft, 1 seat).
• Paddling tandem (double)? Buy a tandem (15-18 ft, 2 seats).
• Some of both, or paddling with young children? Buy a shorter tandem (15.5 ft) with one or more moveable seats.

WHY will you be paddling?

• Going on mostly day trips? Buy a small, light canoe that you can throw on top of the car and take down and carry easily.
• Going fishing or paddling with kids? Choose a canoe that's wide and stable, instead of narrow and tippy.
• Going on overnight camping trips? You'll need a longer, wider canoe to hold all your gear.
• Paddling for exercise? Buy a narrow, tippy, sporty boat that will go fast and cover the miles, and learn the skills to keep it upright.
  

WHERE will you be paddling?

• Paddling mostly on calm lakes? Choose a canoe with a flat bottom and no rocker. (Rocker means the bottom of the boat curves up at each end--look at the whitewater canoe in the lower right corner of Mad River's website for an example.)
• Paddling on rivers? You need a canoe made from durable plastic, because the river current will scrape you against submerged rocks no matter how careful you are. Paddling a kevlar boat in current means you'll worry all day about scratching and bashing it. Also for river paddling, choose a model with a bit more rocker for easier steering.
• Paddling on rivers or lake systems with a lot of portages? You'll want the lightest boat you can afford--and know that the lighter you go, the more money it will cost you.
• Paddling on whitewater? Buy a whitewater canoe with full flotation and take professional instruction.

Most canoe hulls are either plastic, composite, or aluminum.

• Plastics come in various trademarked products, the most common being Royalex.
• Composite canoes are laid up with cloth and epoxy resin. Fiberglass is the cheap, heavy type of composite and is seldom used anymore with the advent of plastics. Kevlar is the expensive, lightweight composite. Contrary to the misconceptions of some, Kevlar isn't a type of plastic--it's a woven cloth just like fiberglass only more durable and light. With either type of cloth, epoxy resin is brushed onto the layup to make it hard and durable. Composite canoes can be formed into hull shapes designed for performance and ease of paddling.
  
• Aluminum is cheap and durable. It's also noisy and has serious limitations on hull design. These aren't high-performance canoes, but you can store them outside and they'll take a beating.
  

There are other hull materials. Wooden canoes are made from strips and finished with epoxy resin or varnish. Canvas canoes are a more fragile type of composite finished with epoxy resin. The Native Americans made canoes from birchbark, but this is rarely done today because birchbark is fragile.

A canoe needs to have a frame to hold the hull in place. Royalex and composite only needs the gunwales (the rails running along the top edges of the canoe) and one or two thwarts (crossmembers) to form a rigid shape. Aluminum canoes and the cheaper plastic canoes need a metal frame to keep them rigid. The Coleman Ram-X is an example of cheap plastic canoe with a tubular metal frame to keep it from turning into a floppy plastic banana when the plastic heats up in the sun. If you can find one used for $100 or less, and are only going fishing and splashing around with the kids, go ahead and buy a Coleman. For anything over $100, shop around and buy a quality used Royalex canoe to get the best value for your money.

If you really want to make the right choice, you should try before you buy and compare different models, just like you would a car.  Good canoe shops and bigger outdoor companies like REI will usually have "demo days" during the summer at local lakes so you can try different canoes.  Call ahead of time and describe what you want, and they can bring a boat that will meet your needs for you to try.

New canoes aren't cheap, and once you choose the model you want, take a look around online to see if it's available used.  Good places to shop for used canoes include paddling.net, eBay, and Craigslist.  You should expect to pay about 35 to 50% of the new retail price for a used canoe in good condition.  Inspect it carefully for cracks, patches, deep gouges in the hull, and signs of abuse.  Ask and observe where the boat has been stored, and pass on it if it's been stored out in the sun for any length of time, because UV light degrades plastic.

When you've evaluated your needs and tested some canoes on the water, you'll be ready to decide. Here are some price estimates and other numbers to help you make up your mind.

Kevlar canoe: at least $2,000 new, at least $1,400 used, weight 30-60 pounds.

Royalex canoe: $1,000 for a new tandem, $800 for a new solo. Used models may be bought for $400-800. Weight 40-75 pounds.

Aluminum canoe: tandem only, $800 new, $200 used. Weight about 65 pounds.

My favorite canoe is the Mohawk Royalite model. I have a Solo 14 that I bought for $350 used. It weighs in at 40 pounds and is great for both overnight wilderness trips and day paddling. Its hull design is slower than the narrower, faster kevlar canoes, but the price was right, and it's light enough to carry by myself.

After you've picked out your canoe, don't forget that you'll have to buy a paddle and racks to carry it on your car, along with a PFD (life vest) for each paddler. Better start a piggy bank fund now!