When I first joined the school canoe club, we were still running a half a dozen canvas canoes. They saw hard use then, four to five 4 day trips and one 14 day trip a year. They always leaked, and it was always due to the keel. When traveling at speed, for instance, down a set of rapids, and the keel strikes a rock, the drag produced by the collision always caused lateral movement on the keel. I can remember taking them off and seeing the screws had been reset at an angle by various collisions, causing the screw holes to enlarge and let water in.
