Stabilising my wooden canoe

[Becquers]

I've just acquired a beautiful wooden canoe which is very unstable in the water. Has anyone got any advice on how I can improve the stability? I'm thinking about
lateral fins, lowering seat height, stratgeically located weights...

Thanks!

[essaunders]

The first thing that comes to mind is the stability problem with the canoe .... or with you. In your post you don't indicate your boating/canoeing experience. If your canoeing experience is limited I would suggest you find a local expert to try your boat before you do anything drastic. Good canoes often feel tippy until you get used to them.

[Del Lansing]

If this is truly a beautiful wooden canoe I personally would not start sawing/rearranging the seats. Get a nice comfy knee pad and kneel while you paddle, keeping your knees close to the center line of the canoe. That should improve stability about 500% without hacking on the hull.

[Mr. Know It All]

I weigh 230 pounds. I've noticed an improvement in balance with some weight added forward in the canoe. What kind of canoe ya got there? Got any photo's?

[Dave Hadfield]

If the seat frames are bolted right to the underside of the gunwales, they're too high. Lowering the seats would be a good idea.

For me, the ideal posture for paddling is my bum on the forward third of the seat, one knee on the hull (the side I'm paddling on) and the other leg stretched out. I alternate legs whenever the bent one cramps up. For fast water, both knees are on the hull.

Too many canoeists sit on their seats like on chairs. Bad idea. You can most easily lower the C of G by sitting/kneeling as I've described.

Ballasting the canoe to increase stability is a waste of time. Your own weight is a far greater factor -- with one exception: if you are paddling solo from the stern seat in an unloaded canoe. Then only the back 8ft of the canoe will be in the water and it'll be as tippy as heck. You can sit in the bow seat and paddle the boat the other way (if it's a symmetric canoe), or you can indeed put some weight in the other end, such as a polycube of water or some rocks or whatever (a child is best!). If you use rocks, make sure they're not wedged in, so that if you dump they can fall out and sink.

A fin or keel below a canoe makes no difference to stability -- a commonly held but mistaken idea. Indeed it can have the opposite effect when paddling in cross-current/crosswind situations. The keel "catches" when you should be slithering sideways.

[Ian McColgin]

You on the right side sometimes refer to what we call a kayak as a canoe.

Have you a decked or open canoe?

If you've the sort of decked canoe that over here we'd call an ocean kayak, and if it's a high volume expedition model, then indeed ballast (no keel!) might be called for when you're not out fully equipped for your circumnavigation of Iceland. These boats like to get down in the water. For recreational afternoons, something of smaller volume is better.

If you have an open canoe, the general advise above is correct. The standard seating arrangement works ok for a couple lolling along on calm water. The minute you either have wind and wave action or you want power in the stroke for a sprint or a bit of white water, both should kneel with butt's resting against, not on, the forward edge of the seat.

For paddling solo, reverse your concept of bow and stern. Kneel on the non-seat side of the bow seat facing what otherwise is the stern and paddle away.

Pictures will help us make sure of what you're up to but all the canoes are singularly unhappy with ballasted keels unless you've modified a large dugout for sailing, like Capt Voss and what's her name - Tinglist?

G'luck

[NormMessinger]

Then there is initial stability which neophytes might prefer and final stability which is gained as the canoe tips a bit. Your canoe may be just fine, give it a chance to teach you.

[Ron Williamson]

All that and
Learn a technique called a "low brace" where the paddle blade is used,in the water to stabilise the boat.
Get wet learning the limitations of the beast.
R

[Dan Lindberg]

A lot of good advice has be given but none about the canoe....

What do you have? Is it old or new? A stripper or W/C or All Wood?

Checkout the WCHA site to determine what you have (assuming you don't already know).

If it's worthy, take good care of her.

Dan

[Paul Scheuer]

When our scouts did canoe training for a sheltered residence here, the first thing we did after some limited basic indoctrination, was to dump the canoe. This was done in a pool with plenty of supervision. It's good to know, or at least experience the limits. The lack of initial stability can be misleading.

We did manage to dump at least one while on the actual outing in the lagoon, but it was just like the traning that we had done in the pool. No panic, no wasted motion, etc.

[Fitz]

We were canoe camping in the Allagash region of Maine over the last week. I took advantage of the leech filled warm water ponds to mess around in the canoe, self rescue etc. I heeled the wood canvas over to see what it would take to "tip". The canoe never actually "tipped", but filled with water first. I was paddling it kneeling, heeled over with the gunnel inches from the water.

Someone famous somewhere (Bill Mason or Omer Stringer???) once said that "canoes don't tip, people fall out of them". :eek:

What they said above - paddle and get wet!

[ 08-04-2003, 03:12 PM: Message edited by: Fitz ]

[Tomcat]

There are some extremely unstable canoes, however, like ICA marathon boats, that take about a year of solid practise to get comfy in, or sprint boats. It can be the boats fault so to speak.

If you have a north american style canoe, then much of the advise already given is good.

One minor point is that seat attached to the underside of the gunnels can be just fine, it depends on gunnel height, paddling style, the boat, and so forth.

Just rounding up a month of boating in NB, I've been using a solo, that is very unstable in seated position, and very nice in kneeling. Takes me about a week to get the kinks out of my smashed up knee, and I find putting the lifejacket under my butt until I am confortable fully seated helps ease into kneeling.

[Mr. Know It All]

They also make these things.....

http://www.canoegear.com/stabilizer_floats/stabilizer_floats.html

....a real lifesaver in cold water. :D

[Ian McColgin]

Interesting gizmo, though frankly I don't favor it.

Dogs should be taught to stay calm in a boat. When I was raising goldens, that was a primo part of the field training I offered. Having a bird dog that's stupid in a boat makes no sense.

Same with children and nervous passengers. Train 'em or put 'em in a different type of boat or leave 'em ashore.

Canoes are a form of inland transport developed by the conjoining of need and material. They are not ocean going craft. Off a river and on big water, high winds and waves mean get to shore, build a fire and have a beer.

If the boat is not suitable to the job - if you really have to transport a skittish elephant over cold water, get a more suitable boat.

[ahp]

There quite a bit of difference in canoes and their stability. I have no idea how old you canoe is. Mine was a 16 foot Old Town Otca model from about 1940, and was their most popular model. It was 31 or 32 max beam and had a fairly flat bottom. I could stand with one foot on each rail near the end, in still water of course.

The 17 food Guides Model was even flatter. My Dad and I looked at one canoe that he recommended that I not buy. It was about 29 inches beam and quite round. Dad said it would be very tippy. I think he was right.

As far as standing on the rails, there is a method of partially freeing a swamped canoe of water. After righting you crawl in, stand on the rails near one end, and start springing up and down. The idea is to get the water sloshing back and forth from end to end. Then you jump back and over the end, into the water, pushing the canoe forward and away from you. A lot of water will slosh back and over the rails near the end where you were standing. I was actually taught how to do this at the State of Maine YMCA camp in 1945. You can get about half the water out this way.