C-Forum

Long story short, i've got a friend of mine thinking about buying his first WW canoe. He's done some canoeing in the past, but never WW. My question is, I've never seen weight limits on canoes like you do when looking at kayaks. What kind of weight limits do WW canoes have? What length canoe should he be looking for, or does length matter? He's about 6'3 and a little over 300 lbs.

Big guy.... I'm 6'2" and about 230lbs, and didn't find a boat yet that can't coat me.... the latest and my favorite yet, is a Spark, 11 feet something and quite narrow, and it seems to float me all right... I the Ocoee seems a good choice to and my first boat was a madriver outrage X.

I think that the boats in the smaller end of the chart, might be a little wetter, but I'm not even sure about that. It also depend on what type of ww he wants to do....longer bigger boat don't allways fit in smaller creek...
just my 2 cents

There is no "rule" that relates boat length to paddler weight. For example, the Esquif L'Edge seems to suit a lot of big guys quite well but is only a tad over 9 feet long. It would probably feel a whole lot more stable to someone of that size than the Spark would, and the Spark is 2 1/2 feet longer.

Some manufacturers did give a recommended paddler weight for their boats or a 6" freeboard load capacity for comparison purposes. Best would be to ask whether or not a specific boat model would suit a 300 pound paddler or not.

A few discontinued boats which seemed to be favored by larger paddlers were the Dagger Encore, Dagger Caper, or Dagger Caption (set up as a solo) or possibly a Dagger Genesis (though a lot of folks don't care for that boat), and Bell Prodigy X.

Some still in production include the Esquif Vertige X, Mad River Caption or Outrage X, and Mohawk Probe 13 or XL 13.

At 300 lbs your friend is going to be looking for a solo WW canoe that is more commonly used as a tandem. I think that both the Spark and the Ocoee are going to be very hard to paddle for someone that size, especially as a beginner. A Esquif L'Edge may be able to handle the weight but it's not gonna like it and will be squirrely.

In new designs the Blackfly OCtain91 would be a wonderful boat. Of the boats that pblanc mentioned I think that the Probe 13 and OutrageX may both be a little challenged by a 300lb paddler, again, especially as a beginner to WW. A Mohawk Probe 14 would be better than the Probe 13.

I agree with the above posts, 70 lbs more than me is indeed a lot more... I was just thinking as I wrote my first comment, about all the people that turned med size solo into tandem, like the Detonetor, Ocoee... would be even harder to paddle with 2 paddler, and that the weight would have to be similar unless the combined weight of the 2 paddler is under 300lbs, just my 2cents...

hope more people chime in, so you get a good idea of the boat to get... get him to try a bunch of boat if it is at all possible.
Good luck!

I'm 5'11 and 260. I just started this year, and still very new to solo boating. I picked up a genesis used very cheap and paddled it a few times. After paddling the saluda in columbia which has long stretches of flat water. The boat was hard to stay straight and would rock side to side a lot, but was difficult to tip over.

I saw a deal on a outrage x at GAF, and picked it up and it is way different, it handles really well, and would strongly recommend the boat from a beginners perspective. I could actually catch eddies and felt way more comfortable punching through waves. It was a lot narrower than the genesis, but it is way more predictable.

After some on the river lessons from a fellow cboater, I was understanding how to work the boater a lot more and found it fairly easy, with the genesis, i never felt like i had any control of it. I think a lot depends on how much money he wants to spend to learn. paddling.net usually has pretty good reviews of most boats.

While hard chined boats get more sluggish and harder to paddle the deeper they ride in the water, a Nitro usually works well as a big boy boat.

When I started paddling I was 290 my first solo was xl13 very stable next year I got a Outrage x I lost weight I am now down to 270 I now have a MR caption set up solo I can use that on class 3 and 4 and feel comfortable I have not used the xl since my first year I use the outrage on class 2 it feels tippy. I also have a very long torso I am 6 feet with 30 inch legs. The caption is hard to get moving. He would probably feel better in a large boat for now. The xl13 is very stable also

Can he borrow different boats for a while? This will give him some idea of what's out there and how he handles in them and will help him decide on a first boat.

My guess is that the type of canoe that he likes will change over the first year, and the type that he thinks he wants will change even more. I weight 280, and I got back into canoeing this last summer (I first learned back in the '70s in OCAs.) A friend's XL-13 that felt stable in May is now a little too big for my tastes. Of course, other folks love them. I've paddled an Ocoee a few times over the past months, and while I can appreciate it more now I don't think that I will want a boat that narrow in the near future. I'm planning to buy an Octane next, but that's because I think that a wide, flat and edgy hull will fit the low water conditions we live with around here.

A vote for a Caption, soloed.
I paddle hulls 11' and less but in Sept rigged my Caption as solo and spent 7 consecutive days in it tripping the MF Salmon. Each day had a mix of flats, low water boulder gardens, and gr 3+ rapids. I weigh 200 and trip gear was 40 lbs.

Loved the Caption as a solo. It was slow to accelerate but glided well.
Bone dry, all the time; just cruised thru pourovers and haystacks. Lots of fun, giving the choice of upping your game.

Super stable, more the weight the better it became. As a solo if you really leaned on it it carved well, not great but well.

For a big guy the boat has beam and cockpit room to stretch out in long-day cramps.
And a larger more powerful paddler can deal with the acceleration issue.

For your friend a solo Caption might be good transition boat with a good resale value.

You can solo a Dimension, if you've got enough bulk.

Or you can go back to tandem.



(available with web seats tandem, foam saddle for solo. )

Rich

Mr. Deadlegs has paddled an Ion

The longer canoes are also wider. This gives them more stability but makes it harder to do cross strokes. Longer boats will track better and bridge or punch holes better. However they don't turn as fast. As a rank beginner he would probably have an easier time learning in one of the classic 13 or 14 foot boats. If he is athletic, aggressive, motivated and has the money the L'edge or Octane might be good choices.