Swift Cruisers Anyone

[PaddlingPika]

I think the Swift Cruisers are meant to 'look' fast without actually being so. At least that's the impression they left me with. Curious as to your extended experience with the Placids. I had both the Spitfire 13 and the Rapidfire, loved the look and build quality, but both exhibited an annoying tendency to skid to the left or right when you took the foot off the gas. Some folks have experienced the same anomaly, others not at all.

I've only briefly test paddled Swift Cruisers, but my impression of the 14.8 was that it was small enough to be easy to accelerate and had great glide, taking less effort to cruise along. Three or four years ago I had gone to a Swift demo day - hadn't given any serious thought to the Cruisers because I prefer to be able to kneel in my canoes. Bill Swift said they could put a traditional hung from the gunnels seat in a 14.8 and that they had done that as a special order for someone. This was before they came out with the sliding seat option for the 14.8. I started seriously thinking about special ordering a 14.8 to replace my Hemlock Kestrel. The pandemic and subsequent dramatic price increases sort of derailed those plans, at least temporarily. I keep wondering though how a kneeling Cruiser 14.8 would compare with a kneeling Rapidfire and how they both would compare with the Kestrel.

 

[WolfmansBrother]

I think the Swift Cruisers are meant to 'look' fast without actually being so. At least that's the impression they left me with. Curious as to your extended experience with the Placids. I had both the Spitfire 13 and the Rapidfire, loved the look and build quality, but both exhibited an annoying tendency to skid to the left or right when you took the foot off the gas. Some folks have experienced the same anomaly, others not at all.

I will keep an eye out for that type of behavior with the PB canoes.

Did you replace your Spitfire 13 and Rapidfire with something else? If so, which canoe(s)?

 

[M Clemens]

I will keep an eye out for that type of behavior with the PB canoes.

Did you replace your Spitfire 13 and Rapidfire with something else? If so, which canoe(s)?

I have settled on the Grass River Boatworks Rambler for the 13 foot range (it's a bargain). Still searching for the perfect 15 footer, but would love to have Wenonah build me a Whisper in carbon, but the mold has been gathering dust for decades.