C-Forum

I need advice. Anyone with input on the Mohawk 17' intrepid, Dagger Revelation 17', or others. Have thought of the legend, prospector series but from who? and others. right now I have a Nova Craft 17' haida and an old explorer. Both are too wet. We want to run rivers with gear and our 3 little (less than 5) kids. We have kayaked in the past but are making the transition to family whitewater tripping. Help please.

some good discussion on prospectors on this site with 17 footers that are very nice from esquif, trailhead, novarro?, novacraft?. Prospector that is made true to original design are great tripping boats and handle whitewater well. Esquif makes a little bigger boat with tad more rocker called Canadienne? or someithing like that. I have a MR freedom, which if a fine boat, but to do over wouldn't hesitate to get a prospector--eyes would be first on esquif as I have heard they have bent over backwards to make this true prospector design.

Wenonah cascase is a big boat with lots of rocker; very heavy I think and I seem to recall some less than stellar reviews on handling. the good prospectors handle really well in whitewater; but still these are not "dry" as highly rockered dedicated whitewter boats. I think the prospectors are as good as you can get for a tripping boat that can handle class 3 whitewater. If you are looking to tackle huge stuff consider a skirt, but you'd probably also leave the kids behind on those ones.

I haven't paddled a lot of tripping boats, but I own a Swift Madawaska that I have been very happy with for 10 years now. It cuts through flat water with a very nice, smooth line and has good speed even fully loaded in flat water. On white water it is quite dry. It spins a little slowly, but it is 17 feet long and I'm comparing it to boats 8 foot long and shorter. This boat very comfortably runs class 3 whitewater loaded or unloaded, tandem or solo. I have run it in class 4 water solo and it is very stable and dry for this use too. My only complaint may be that it is somewhat heavy. With small flotation bags it tips the scales at 90+ pounds. That can get heavy on long portages. On the other hand it is completely bombproof and has stood up well to many abuses over the years.
I have paddled a Mad River ?Explorer and find that a lighter boat that feels much more flimsy compared to the Swift. I have also paddled a Dagger ?Dimension that has a little more rocker and spins somewhat better in white water. It is also considerably slower and log-like on flatwater.
You can buy Swift canoes new or used at Algonquin Outfitters at Algonquin Park in Ontario. You'll see a lot of them on the rivers up there, but generally not heard of much in the states.