C-Forum

The specs I see for the Caption say that it's 30" at the gunnels and 32" max. I picked up a Dagger Caption that was a good bit narrower than that. It was 26 at the gunnels. I made new thwarts and widened it to the 30" and 32" specs. It looks a lot better.

Can anyone confirm the width on an unmodified Caption? It can be a little tricky to measure because the hull is not centered on the gunnels. But the max beam is pretty easy to measure. It's supposed to be 32" according to everything I can find.

If anyone doesn't mind going to the bother of measuring, I'd appreciate it.

Per Dagger the beam at the 4" waterline for the Caption is 30.5" and maximum beam is 32".

Sounds like someone pulled it in quite a bit to paddle it solo.

Thanks P but the reason I posted this is because I heard from a guy who has an unmodified Caption that seems to be narrower than that. He is saying it's 25" inside to inside of his wood gunnels. I've asked him to measure the max beam for me, which is "supposed" to be 32". But based on his gunnel measurment, I don't think it will be.

Specs for the Mad River version--- http://www.madrivercanoe.com/product/in ... aption_rx/

I saw Captions back around '98 when Dagger was still making them, and they were NOT 26" measured between the insides of the gunwales. The Captions at NOC were slightly wider than my Synergy, which has a 30" beam across the outside edge of the gunwales. I don't see how the width of the wooden gunwales could cause the measurement to drop all the way down to 26" inside. That would mean that each wood gunwale strip would be about 1" wide.

But it could be either an assembly error, or the boat in question was not "unmodified."

I have an un-modified Mad River Caption with wood gunnels from the factory. From the inside Gunnel to Gunnel it is 26 inches.

Just walked out to the garage and measured.

JSRICH wrote:I have an un-modified Mad River Caption with wood gunnels from the factory. From the inside Gunnel to Gunnel it is 26 inches.

Just walked out to the garage and measured.

Thanks! That's just what I was looking for. But how to explain the advertised 30" gunnel and 32" max widths. Something is off. Seems as though at least some of them came out of the factory narrower than advertised.

Per Dagger the beam at the 4" waterline for the Caption is 30.5" and maximum beam is 32".

Sounds like someone pulled it in quite a bit to paddle it solo.

Here are the original Dagger specs for the Caption:

Length: 14' (4m 27cm)
Beam: 32" / 30.5" (81 / 78cm)
Weight (vinyl / wood): 53lbs (24kg) / wood not available
Depth (cnt / end): 15.5" / 16" (39 / 41cm)
Rocker (bow / stern): 5" / 5" (13cm / 13cm)6"
Free Board: 850lbs (386kg)

Believe what we have here/hear....



... is a failure to communicate.


Maybe there's a need to indicate inside or outside measurements? ... or maybe consider listing both? ... or perhaps the actual measurement from ABS to ABS?
As this would remove the gunwale type/width issue.

The key thing affecting paddling is the distance between two absolutely vertical paddle shafts held against the side of the canoe at its widest point. If the gunwale of the Caption is inset somewhat, it is possible that the outermost point on the Royalex hull could be 30.5 just below the gunwale, while the inner edge of the gunwale might be 26". This kind of difference also occurs on my MR Synergy and on my Millbrook Edsel.

But the 26" inner measurement is meaningless, unless one has 28" hips. The beam measurement that limits paddle shaft movement is the one that counts.

Someone needs to run out and measure his Caption's paddle-limiting width at or just below the gunwale. I think it will be about 30".

If you have them, two framing squares works great... match them flat across the top, while fitting the 'U' over the canoe.. then measure resulting spread.

My Caption and L'edge are the same width, so I am going to say it is closer to 30".

Kyle