"Drag-ability" of hull material over rocks in river beds and on portages

[Glenn MacGrady]

Depending on hull shape, an offside lean may work better than onside. I know that in my Rapidfire, if I lean away from the paddling side, then far less correction (almost none) is needed than if the canoe is sit centered or leaned onside. I have found the same true in other canoes as well. Clearly those racers in the video are not heeling offside

Hull width makes a big difference in whether one can comfortably and effectively heel to the on-side or off-side. In a narrow solo canoe, it's fairly easy to heel either way. In a wide tandem canoe, such as those being paddled in the old video that Benson posted, it's much easier, more comfortable and more natural to shift your body weight and hence your heel to the on-side. I also think most of those paddlers were correcting a bit at the end of each stroke, but with a very quick slice out that is sort of a mini-Canadian stroke correction.

 

[yknpdlr]

yeah, I see that, very skilled with no end of stroke hesitation at all. I like to do it that way also, and try to teach it too. Definitely not a "relaxed" stroke.

 

[SouthernKevlar]

Drag-ability. A good term.

I prefer to have a light boat and portage. If I do drag a heavy canoe, where the ground is smooth enough, I prefer to drag it on my two wheeled cart. If the ground is too rough for the cart and the canoe is too heavy to carry, I would debate on how much I wish to reach my objective!

That said, if I know that dragging is inevitable on a trip, I would lean towards Royalex or T-Formex canoe.

 

[Idiot Savant]

Last weekend I paddled my Esquif Echo (T-Formex) on a shallow, gravely river.
The bottom is so slippery I had to be careful about leaving it on the bank as it would self launch.
I haven't had a chance to look over the bottom to see how badly scratched up it is. I suspect it took some damage.
I'm a fan of the Old Town Discovery series. Not only are they super tough, but also relatively inexpensive, so damage isn't so heart breaking.

 

[Chip]

My Kevlar Rendezvous makes horrible noises when grinding over rocks. There have been times when I was out paddling and there really wasn’t enough water in the river, and I spent a lot of time wincing as the boat skidded over rock and gravel beds. I remember thinking I was ruining the boat. But looking at the bottom afterwards, I could hardly see new scratches. My conclusion is that Kevlar boats are tough. I have never dragged the boat when it was loaded with gear, but my weight is a good proxy for a load of gear.

I was with somebody who was solo paddling (actually, polling I think) a composite Millbrook, slammed a rock, and punched a hole in the hull and had to finish the run with a duct tape repair. A lot of kinetic energy there. But that’s not scratches from dragging.

A lot of royalex ww boats develop spots where the vinyl layer wears off—often the stems or the area beneath the paddler. That’s from repeatedly scraping over rocks. So, royalex boats wear, too. Is there an equivalent wear pattern on composite boats?

 

[Alan Gage]

Another point I feel that should be made is that many UL kevlar hulls still use a gel coat, which provides most of the scratch protection. The actual Kevlar (or whatever layup the hull has) doesn't really matter in terms of scratches and gouges until it's so deep that it goes through the gel coat.

In that respect an expedition weight layup or an UL layup should exhibit the same wear when it comes to regular bumps and dragging because the gel coat is what's taking the abuse. Where I expect an expedition layup to show its strength is being high centered on a rock when fully loaded, being pinned in moving water, or possibly when being dropped from overhead onto something pokey. Or when an impact is so hard that it goes through the gel coat, at which point you have more layers of cloth until it breaks through to the inside.

Alan

 

[lowangle al]

Depending on hull shape, an offside lean may work better than onside. I know that in my Rapidfire, if I lean away from the paddling side, then far less correction (almost none) is needed than if the canoe is sit centered or leaned onside. I have found the same true in other canoes as well. Clearly those racers in the video are not heeling offside. As Charlie Wilson often told me, look for the "banana shape" of the in-water hull being presented to the water to help you carve it around. Try it.

It also depends where you are sitting in your boat as to how it will carve. I have noticed I can get a boat to carve to the off paddle side from a more centralized position. That same boat will carve towards the paddle side from the stern seat with a bow light trim. I have found that the deeper the stern is in the water the better it carves. This works so well that when I have ballast in my Seliga and there is no wind I place the ballast directly under the center thwart to keep that bow light trim but get the stern deeper for better carving. Also, from the stern seat it is easy to lean the boat to the off paddle side, but I'll still be turning towards the direction I'm leaning.