The bestest, bestest cannoedle I ever did paddeydunk was a Wolverine Canoe made in Wawa Ontario right by the highway entrance to Wawa on 17. The first time I paddleydunked one (I have been paddleydunkinging canoes for 50 years, longer thanWynona Ryder has been shoplifting.)
I was FLUBORGAMOOSTED! they tracked straight (the Canoe) and turned on a dime! and were as easy to paddle and as fast as greased lightning on a summer day. greased lightning as you know is fast.) How was this possible? Well they had a long keelson, but a slight V bottom so if you wanted to go straight you just paddled. But if you wanted to turn you just leaned it slightly and it turned "on its side". It had very slight rocker bow to stern (curvature of the keel in long section) This is the turning method or the peanut one man or two man racing canoe too. But the peanut is very difficult to turn, on purpose. You have to lean it extreme to effect a turn.
I paddled all canoes made. Prospector, freighter, peanut, C1, C2 C4, Ville Marie Racing, Chestnut., etc. etc.. The "peanut" racing canoe used from 1890 to 1955 in Canada is very seaworthy in all sorts of water, and very low in wind effect or resistance. It is most safe in all conditions. The C1 and C2 CDN racing canoes, designed in Finland are too tippy for normal use. The C4 is a very stable good two man canoe, and although a racer is the best overall camping canoe for two men. It is better is most conditions. Loaded it cannot be driven as it has too fine sections aft. It should have a Sportspal type styrofoam float on the gunnel aft for rough water.
I know Roy Summer, but I think his Sportspal is not ideal at all as a Canoe. It is too fat, and will not track. It is ok with a motor for carrying a moose but that is it as far as I am concerned. you cannot paddle them easily in a line. And they are slow like a hog.
The best canoe isone that I have not made yet. It would be like the wolverine with more V in the bottom (perhaps 2 inches depth of sectional V) and flared wide not straight home sides. This would give it max tip recovery. The peanut would not tip at all easily. You could stand on its side a bit with one leg and it would just rest there. Yet you could tip it to this extreme position unloaded with your finger! The secret is that is gained flotation and tipping-resistance from its V flare as it went over. Loaded it gained stability as the V was less prounounced as it gained depth. It had full rounded sections up higher. The Coleman canoe is not strong enough and sits too much on its side. Also its bow is too high and it has no sectional flare to make it gain stability or buoyancy as it leans.
If you work out the calculus of hydraulic pressure-depth times wetted surface and skin resistance for a given volume section, the V bottom turns out to have the least frictional resistance to travel or the least hydraulic drag, for a given displacement, of any shape. You would think it would be a round bottom as the circle has the least circumference for a given area, but this ignores pressure from depth. The V also acts as a double hydrofoil when it moves in the water allowing lift to the boat from movement and thus reduction of wetted area. The U bottom will not allow this lift to the same degree. This is also true of a ditch, as it is found that V'ed ditch allows the most water to flow for a given cross sectional area. This is why the WWII PT boats had a V bottoms and why the CDN racing shell was designed with a V too. For speed. The german PT boats had U bottoms as this is the dryest and fastest in rough water. The V bottom pounds.
One canoe I want to design takes after Duggan of Lake St. Clair who designed Scows with a deep inverted tunnel for and aft in the keel of the hull. He did this around 1901. This led to later Catamaran designs. The tunnel, if straight sided fore and aft creates a high pressure area as a wing, with the curved portion the outside or normal bottom of the boat. It lifts the hull and increases speed markedly even at low speeds. This would make a canoe very easy to paddle and very straight in tracking, reducing steering strokes to nil. To turn you would have to lean, but stability would be increased. The tunnel need only be about 12 inches in diameter.
The length 17.5 feet, beam would be 42 inches and the draught 3.5 inches loaded. It would carry about 650 pounds. It would travel 9.3 statute MPH with a little effort with two men paddling.
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