Family Canoeing - Canoeing with Children 2

For family canoeing there is a tendency, for me at least, to over study and complicate things. After some years of study I have come to the conclusion that canoes are simple craft. There are some clever designs out there, but the finest canoe designs are likely 100 plus years old. The changes we see in canoes now are the result of new materials and quicker and easier manufacture. Some are lighter weight, but as far as on water function is concerned the basic canoe was perfected thousands of years ago in many regions.

Contemporary canoes hulls are durable. This Mad River 14TT still has a lot of life in it. Notice full contour hull.

The Wenonah Spirit II is an excellent canoe, but it is not cigar shaped.

An individual can go on line and read just about anything they want to. I am aware of this even as I write and hope someone reads this. I'll get to the point. We live in good times. Canoes have not been lighter or easier to obtain. They have never been so durable and easily stored. For family canoeing an exotic canoe is not needed.

With young children the canoe needs to be water tight and stable. A word about canoe stability: it's sort of like riding a bicycle. I see reviews where people express concern over canoe stability. If your expectations of a canoe are based on your experience in power boats where you can walk about from one side to the other, the canoe may surprise you. A canoe needs to be balanced much like a bicycle. I just wanted to get that out of the way. I do not want to mislead anyone.

I am purposefully avoiding technical details and data. I can not think of an currently made two seat canoe made by Old Town or Mad River that is not a good canoe for canoeing with children. These canoes are for canoes, stable, with good safe work capacities. I prefer the longer canoes, but that is my preference. Believe it or not the longer canoes are generally a little faster than the shorter canoes. I'll put it another way. In a longer I can paddle cover more water in the same time compared to a shorter canoe. Or another way to say it is a longer canoe does not wear me out as much as a shorter canoe with other things being sort of equal.

Craig's List can be a good source of used canoes. Some used canoes can be bought for a fraction of the cost of new canoes. My family has bought canoes from TG Canoe in San Marcus.

We picked this Coleman 17 up from a Craig's List posting on the way to Galveston.

These canoes are not single purpose craft, they fill different roles. They are for the kid in all of us!

The friendly Coleman 17 is stable and comfortable for fishing. My Dad with a nice bass.

It's nice to have things handy.

Dottie enjoying the stability of the Mad River 14TT. The front is somewhat secured, stabilized by the weeds and bank.

One more quick word on canoes: most articles focus on how a canoe is when it's on the water. I wish it were not true for me, but my canoes spend about 99% of the time out of the water. This brings me to other points...

Thanks for reading.