Blaino, the size of the paddler or paddlers makes a huge difference. Bell canoes used to have a paddler named Cliff Jakobson test their designs. Cliff is a very knowledgeable paddling outdoorsman and fine person, but he is about half the size as the average hunter. When he says a certain model was his favorite the rest of us would need one that was two foot longer to be the same boat. When a boat states its capacity as say 500 pounds, you do not want to go to that number. With canoes leaving yourself about half of the available freeboard is a good thing. As I stated ealier, the 16' Penobscot makes a good canoe for two small paddlers and gear(camping gear and food pack), but it is a solo for a large paddler with gear. Then if it is used for hunting there is still freeboard for loading a deer and when one needs to use more than 3/5ths of a boats capacity, you can almost be certain that the wind is going to whip up some big waves. Boats like 16' Prospector designs or Mad River Explorers, and and other 16 footers with 35" beams can do double duty.
When I take new people along on wilderness canoe trips, the litmus test is if they are willing to learn before the trip. If they think that there is nothing to learn about paddling and wilderness camping , they stay home. I have been burned often enough by people that think they can BS their way across a large Canadian lake when the wind is blowing.
Topic: what canoe for hunting? (Read 1207 times)
