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As touring and recreational canoes, our traditional double-paddle canoes offer some attractive and unique features. They are designed for double-paddles which, as kayakers know, are very efficient and fast with an almost continuous power stroke. Yet double-paddle canoes have a beam and carrying capacity undreamed of in a kayak. This beam, comparible with standard canoes, translates into great stability that when combined with a very low centre of gravity allows you to sail your canoe if you want to. See the Sailing Rigs section for more information. Of course, you can paddle our canoes with regular paddles too.
We chose the lines of our lapstrake canoes for paddling the 30,000 Islands of Georgian Bay, a stretch of water notorious for wrecks and bad weather -- as well as offering some of the finest touring paddling in the world. Designed by Iain Oughtred, the highly-respected British small boat designer, the hull shape offers an excellent compromise between manoueverability and comfortable tracking for longer transits, and handles waves and wakes extremely well. Light and fast, these boats reward the paddler with superior performance and classic elegance. You can even save some expense by finishing a hull yourself.
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The undecked Oughtred 12 is intended as a solo canoe, although two can squeeze in. Our lightest boat, it can be built as light as 30 lbs, depending on how much hardwood is used for trim. It is ideal to cartop and is a personal favourite to paddle, with a response and feel that will get you paddling solo canoes rather than sharing a tandem. The undecked Oughtred 16 is intended as a tandem, yet can also be soloed comfortably. |
Our lapstrake canoes are available
decked or undecked in two sizes, a 12 foot solo and a 16 foot
tandem. All can be fitted with a variety of sailing rigs, detailed
on the Sailing Rigs page. The
decked Georgian Bay 12 and 16 models offer superior weather
protection and have water-tight bulkheads for dry storage and
several hundred pounds of reserve buoyancy. They are intended
for longer trips and tougher conditions, and for those that prefer
the classic form of the decked sailing canoe. The decks and bulkheads
add some weight. The photo at left, a 12 handily paddled by Mathew
at age 8, shows a standard deck and coaming arrangement, but
other styles are also available. The Georgian Bay 16, also called
the Georgian Bay Touring Boat, will take you anywhere your skills
permit. |
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Our lapstrake designs are also available as semi-built hulls. We've found that the lapstrake hulls are too involved for most amateur builders, but you can start with our basic assembled lapstrake hull and complete it yourself -- with considerable savings. E-mail us for more information. |
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We generally build our lapstrake
boats to order, so you can have yours finished and detailed just
the way you like. We can alter deck layouts and coamings, paint
or stain, strip-build or custom-veneer decks, add deck hatches
and fancy seatbacks, and add our famous curved-stem carrying
handles -- whatever you desire!
