C-Forum

I was considering the wisdom of setting up an old Mad River ME as a tandem for a pair of light boaters. My wife, who has been paddling OC-2 and K-1 in white water since she was 9 (off and on), wants to get our 12 year old daughter out on the river. They did a trial run on the Fife Brook section of the Deerfield (Western Mass., easy, low-volume class II (they walked The Gap)) in a triple seat outfitted Esquif Vertige X with the young one in the bow and the veteran in the stern. It went well and they were hitting the tops of eddys and doing nice looking ferries by midway through the run. My wife and I were pretty active white water boaters once upon a time but after a ten year hiatus we are trying to ramp it back up. We have missed a great deal that has happened in boat design and we are trying to get a handle on it. The bottom line is that she is competent but out of shape and my daughter is a novice but will certainly excel quickly. It will not be too long before they are both competent and in shape. Would the ME be a good fit as a tandem canoe for them? There is someone selling the ME nearby and I just don't know if it makes sense or not. Any advice? Thanks in advance.

Yes. Especially for a lighter team. Search this site and you should quickly find many posts extolling the virtues (and a few shortcomings) of the venerable ME.

Also watch in case a Mad River Synergy shows up on the used market. I have one, and it resembles a modernised ME. Fast for a ww boat, and for a light team, an excellent WW boat.

We had a ME at our campout last weekend. I have never paddled one as tandem but the owner and friends who have paddled it tandem described it as as a 4 wh drive canoe, go any where although tippy set up. They really liked it but said weight balance between the two paddlers was important. I thought it would be fun to try.

I put my gf in the back of mine all the time, as long as you guys know what you are doing, it will be a good boat for lighter paddlers. The best setup would be right on top of each other...with your power paddler in front, that way you can utulize a cross stroke if you need the power. That's just what I've found works best.

The closer you two get, the better. It becomes a hog the further you space out.

I like my wife in front, so I can yell at her for various reasons.

Put 2 6ft boys in a ME on the Hiwassee yesterday. Total weight was 296lbs. My boy at 190lbs stern and the nephew 106lbs bow. They looked good. The boat was riding high the bow up just a tad. It was stupid stable, but they turned it easy. I like the description of it as a 4X4 canoe. Great for beginners and the thing seemed fast. I think it could handle a bit more weight easily.

We went ahead and bought the ME. It was inexpensive and very patched up but it floats. Now I just have to outfit it for my wife and daughter. I have at least one vote for setting the saddles close together. Any other thoughts out there. The experienced boater will be in the stern (that is how she likes it and it ain't gonna change) so she does need to have some viability. Any advise is appreciated.

I meant to say she needs visibility not viability i.e. she needs to be able to see enough to read water at least a bit.

+1 on close together. I dunno about the experienced person in the stern, I guess that is the way we have always done it - maybe more important is to put the shorter person up front so the stern paddler can see!