Keewaydin 15 Pack boat

[icedragonmx]

Just wanted to post a few pics of my new solo canoe. A huge shout out to Jonas at ClassicOutdoors for this fine item and for the crew at Swift for making it. Just waiting on Swift to deliver the detachable yoke and I am GTG. I was on the hunt for a very light solo canoe to carry around in the Canadian Shield terrain and found this to be my best option. I love the look of the new Textreme Carbon Fiber and it makes for a very light canoe. Had to keep a foot in it so it wouldn't blow away in the wind when I went out to take a few pictures in the frozen park. Hoping for water soon!! Just wanted to share a few pictures as there is very little on the new Keewaydin 15 pack boats at this time.

Edit to add a new picture and trip report links

Now I just need to learn to use it proper!
1st- http://www.canoetripping.net/forums...ones-road-hwy-671-north-of-kenora-april-26-14

2nd- http://www.canoetripping.net/forums...ake-morgan-lake-and-mitchell-lake-overnighter

3rd- http://www.canoetripping.net/forums...bi-falls-to-elbow-lake-nopiming-park-manitoba

4th- http://www.canoetripping.net/forums...th-trip-of-the-year-rabbit-river-to-cole-lake

 

[Hanz]

Congratulations!

Good looking canoe

Best of luck with it! I'm sure it will help generate a lot of great times. Enjoy it.

 

[yellowcanoe]

I've paddled it but as a kneeling craft. It's nice Swift has a variety of seating options from pack boat to traditional solo along the lines of Merlin II. Looking forward to seeing the yoke

 

[Guest]

It looks like a nice boat. Mad River should provide similar seating options for the Serenade.

 

[yellowcanoe]

It looks like a nice boat. Mad River should provide similar seating options for the Serenade.

I'd like to try that one too. So far no opportunity

 

[icedragonmx]

Thanks! I am hoping for some great times with this and will post a pic when I have the new yoke mounted up. Should help keep the weight centered on my bad back on the long hauls.

 

[Guest]

I'd like to try that one too. So far no opportunity

YC, Mad River expoxied rails into the sides of the Serenade so the kayak seat can slide fore and aft. You can remove the seat, but you can't use a bench seat unless you were to make some kind of custom risers. The boat itself is really sweet.

 

[JustPaddle]

That's a nice looking Kee! I have one with the standard bench set up although I'm considering sending it off to Swift to have foot braces installed after the upcoming season. I don't trust myself to DIY. I have the detachable yoke as well. It's very nice, but a bit over priced IMO.

 

[icedragonmx]

That's a nice looking Kee! I have one with the standard bench set up although I'm considering sending it off to Swift to have foot braces installed after the upcoming season. I don't trust myself to DIY. I have the detachable yoke as well. It's very nice, but a bit over priced IMO.

Thanks, Do you have a picture of the detachable yoke mounted on your? I had it on my order but they somehow missed sending it with the canoe. I am not too worried about price as long as it works! Just been sorting/updating gear trying to make for a lighter single trip portage etc. on sub 5 day trips. Looking at some of the new lightweight gear is crazy $$$!

 

[Guest]

SWEET! A little kayak technology with the adjustable foot pegs! How light is it?

 

[yellowcanoe]

SWEET! A little kayak technology with the adjustable foot pegs! How light is it?

They're called pack canoes and have been around since 1880 or so. Very popular in the Adirondacks and weights start around 12 lbs to the mid twenties. Swift makes a true pack canoe, Hornbeck has made them for decades and Placid some 20 years. There is another new maker in the Adirondacks. Prior to that pack canoes were made from cedar strips or lapstrake cedar by craftsmen.

Pack canoes have been around in the US longer than kayaks by far.

 

[icedragonmx]

SWEET! A little kayak technology with the adjustable foot pegs! How light is it?

Swift is starting to get some info on the web page now.... http://swiftcanoe.com/packcanoe/ I don't have a scale for mine yet but it feels lighter than the 28lbs listed. Hope to pick up some gear in a few weeks and a scale will be part of that I just want some water to play in so I can see how it handles a load. I am 230# and will have a fair bit of gear for a single carry setup. A 70Lt MEC deluxe dry bag pack for the gear/tent etc. and a 1500 pelican case for a food bucket.

 

[charlie wilson]

MRC's Serenade is 45 lbs almost half again the weight of the Swift which is two feet longer and easily twice the weigh of similarly sized and equipped by NorthStar, Placid, Swift, WeNoNah and three times the weight of minimalist packs by Hornbeck,GRE, Savage, SlipStream. It's ten lbs heavier than Old Towns RX clunker! That weight, presumably due to FG construction and a heavy seat, takes the little S out of Pack Canoe consideration. It's an open topped kayak for fishers! That is if it exists at all, the web site image is photoshopped, not an image of a real boat.

 

[yellowcanoe]

YC, Mad River expoxied rails into the sides of the Serenade so the kayak seat can slide fore and aft. You can remove the seat, but you can't use a bench seat unless you were to make some kind of custom risers. The boat itself is really sweet.

Yikes.. the 45 lbs makes it as heavy as my Argosy, yes lighter than the house mover Raven, but heavier than all my other 15 foot solos. Its one lb shy of twice as heavy as my 15 foot RapidFire.

 

[yellowcanoe]

http://www.trailspace.com/blog/2011/08/04/mad-river-serenade.html.

No doubt the boat exists and I don't think Gavia is dreaming.

 

[Guest]

http://www.trailspace.com/blog/2011/08/04/mad-river-serenade.html.

No doubt the boat exists and I don't think Gavia is dreaming.

The only dream is that Mad River will wake up to the boat's potential - very nearly a cross between a Wildfire and a Flashfire - and give it a proper canoe seat.

 

[yellowcanoe]

Absoultely nothing in common with Flash or Wild

http://www.madrivercanoe.com/product/index/products/versatile/serenade_mrc/serenade_13_mrc

http://coldencanoe.com/flashfire.html

http://coldencanoe.com/wildfire.html

 

[charlie wilson]

Roger That!

Compare Cross Sections; Shouldered Tumblehome and elliptical bottom verse straight sidewalls with Veed bottom??
Compare Rocker; 2.5 symmetrical verse 1/.5 differential??
Compare Build Quality: Serenade is 2" longer than Flash but 10 lbs heavier because it is Fiberglas from a one piece mold. Flash/Wild are infused in two piece molds using carbon and arimid. The hulls are directed to vastly divergent markets. Flash/Wild are top end, kneeling canoes, Serenade is a mid priced pack canoe.

 

[Guest]

YC and CW, let's not be too fussy. I have a Wildfire and have paddled a Flash, and I know the differences. Perhaps I should have said it's somewhere between a Wildfire and an Argosy but someone probably would have picked that apart, too. The Serenade is a sweet little almost-freestyle boat that handles beautifully, and its only flaw, IMO, is that awful seat.

With that I quit.

 

[yellowcanoe]

The Esquif Echo is a sweet little solo tourer..that is suitable for FreeStyle.. Anything with asymmetric rocker is not great. The Serenade is way too heavy for me but has its place in the entry level market. Not everyone has scads of money and the Mohawk Solo 13 and 14 may no longer be available.

If you want picky we discuss the various iterants of the WildFire at the Adirondack Symposium.. (NOT the Yellowstone) and their subtle handling differences. The Bell is not the Placid and neither are the Colden Fires.

No need to quit Gavia unless you have soft water and better things to do..