Purchasing for Primary Use vs. A Canoe to Do Everything

  A common question I receive from customers is how can I find a canoe that will accommodate the Boundary Waters trips but will also be something I can use at home? This applies to both solos and tandems, but especially customers looking to purchase a tandem canoe that they can also paddle solo. I certainly understand wanting to make one’s money stretch, and purchasing one canoe to do multiple things certainly fits that bill more than buying two canoes, but it also runs the risk of buying one canoe that compromises on attributes that fit 90% of a customer’s trips in an attempt to also accommodate the rare exception to what a customer will primarily use the canoe for.

  I think much more important than finding a canoe to do everything is to ask oneself how I want to use the canoe, and how often I will use it for the activities I identify. I most often run into two scenarios. First, someone who mostly wants to use the canoe as a day tripper, but maybe, someday in the undiscernible future, might want to camp for 5 nights in the Boundary Waters. The second scenario is I mostly want to come up to the Boundary Waters twice or three times a year for a week, but I’d also like to be able to occasionally solo the canoe when I am back home. These are two perfectly understandable scenarios, but there are major pitfalls when trying to accommodate them.

  My favorite canoe for tripping in the Boundary waters is a Wenonah Champlain. It allows me to pack whatever the heck I want without having to worry about space or freeboard, it is long enough to be paddled efficiently on long travel days, and it provides an ideal fishing platform. My favorite canoe for day tripping is a Northstar Polaris. It allows me to paddle in all sorts of conditions efficiently when unloaded, it is maneuverable for those moments on a daytrip when I want to sneak down a shallow, tight inlet in search of a wild iris, and it can easily be paddled solo if I can’t find a second paddler or if my second paddler is a small child. I know this may seem like a digression, but my point is to compare the two options for different uses. The Wenonah Champlain is 18 feet long and can hold a small whale in its cargo area, but when unloaded this canoe is nothing more than a sail in wind and waves and would make for an arduous task to paddle solo on the calmest, glassiest water. The Polaris, on the other hand, at 16’9 inches and much less beam would not accommodate more than a small daypack with another paddler and me (I’m a large man), rendering all of the features I love on a daytrip worthless on an overnight trip.

  If I were to choose something to do everything, like a Wenonah Boundary Waters, I might be able to do an overnight trip and paddle the canoe on a daytrip, but I would be sacrificing a lot and it would not do either a daytrip or an overnight trip well; I would be slow on long travel days during a BWCA trip where I was forced to leave my camp chair at home to save space, and I would get pushed around in wind and waves if I were to paddle it on a daytrip without any gear, resulting in a great deal of freeboard for the wind to catch.

  My point, if it is not already clear, is that the canoe I would choose for a daytrip is significantly different than the canoe I would choose for overnight trips. I could make the same comparison and case for buying a dedicated solo over a tandem that has the ability to be paddled solo if 90% of the trips one wants to take are going to be solo. Customers will almost always do themselves a disservice by passing up a canoe that perfectly fits their primary uses in favor of something that will also allow the customer to do things they might do 10% of the time. Unfortunately, I have seen customers opt for the latter only to end up consigning the canoe with us in favor of something that better fits their primary needs.

 This is a subject I could certainly elaborate on, and I’m happy to do so. Call us today at 218-365-6745 and ask for Tom or me (Tyler) to discuss more.

  Wenonah’s Minnesota II is the king of the Boundary Waters, if you ask me. For any experienced paddler who wants to pile up miles with maximum efficiency, there is no better choice than the Minnesota II. This canoe’s hull can deliver peak performance, allowing it to keep up with dedicated racing canoes on the Texas Water Safari, while also providing a high degree of secondary stability when loaded down for a full-blown Boundary Waters trip. I would not confuse this canoe with a dedicated fishing platform, but speaking from experience it is stable enough to land a big fish on Lac La Croix without fuss. At 18’9”, the Minnesota II is longer than the average tripping canoe (17’ is average), which allows a paddler to effortlessly track across mighty Saganaga Lake in wind and provides enough capacity for an average paddler to pack for a 10-day trip, or more.

  Recently we traded for a used canoe from a gentleman who was aging and wanted something that delivered more primary stability. To be clear, the Minnesota II is not a hull that relies much on primary stability (primary stability is how stable a canoe feels sitting still without rocking side to side; secondary stability is when a hull provides stability off to the sides, where it pushes a paddler back to center). Canoes with a high degree of primary stability are less efficient but much more comfortable for inexperienced paddlers or paddlers who use a canoe primarily as a fishing platform. For an experienced paddler, the adjustment from relying on primary stability to secondary stability is easy, and after a day in a Minnesota II, it will be obvious that the advantages provided by the sleek hull are well worth the short adjustment period coming from something like a Spirit II or a Northwind 17.

  The canoe we traded for is a Minnesota II Kevlar Flexcore with a forest green gel coat, tractor seats, sliding bow seal, and black aluminum gunwales and parts. Beyond the performance, it is a sharp looking canoe with minimal wear. The previous owner received it as a gift and took two trips with the canoe before deciding it was not what he wanted (he was a fisherman, first and foremost). We were happy to oblige, knowing how much people love the Minnesota II and how much people love a good deal. We have priced this canoe at $2500, available to take home today. Given the condition I would say this qualifies as one heck of a good deal. Call Tom or Tyler at 218-365-6745 to discuss further, and as always check out our used canoe page on the Piragis homepage to check our current inventory of used canoes out of our rental fleet as well as our other used canoes available now.

- Canoe Guy Tyler