Skin on Frame Solo Canoe Testing. There’s music here and full specs in the previous post.
For a variety of technical reasons it’s actually quite difficult to design a good skin on frame solo canoe, but this latest effort increases my confidence that it might actually be possible to create something that a serious soloist might enjoy.
After some fairly uninspired performance in my last symmetrically-shaped canoe, I went back to a swedeform concept and pushed it even further this time, similar to what I do in my kayaks. Without getting technical there are always trade-offs here, but for me personally the advantages of this shaping concept outweigh the disadvantages. Few things are as hateful to me as weathercocking and hunting, and the aft volume and trim means that a dog, a backpack, or a small child is going to have less of a negative effect on the trim.
I planned the right rocker into this canoe but then screwed it up with an experiment and overshot by a half inch. Even with this extra rocker and my truly hideous J stroke I can still keep it going in a straight and it has a nice balance between tracking and maneuverability.
With a water line width of 26 inches at 160 pounds it should be reasonably quick although as a lifelong kayaker I really can’t tell.
I’ll never get the tumblehome I actually want on these canoes, but the 2 inches I was able to achieve on this boat makes a big difference in my stroke comfort with my medium body size.
With changes to the rib shaping formula I was able to increase secondary stability without increasing the waterline width, resulting in a boat that I can paddle heeled with enough feedback that I don’t feel like I’m at risk of going for a swim.
I’ve incorporated these new shaping instructions into our plans and videos so we can start getting feedback from various student builds and my own next build to keep the evolution moving forward. In the meantime if there are any serious soloists out there who live near me (Portland, OR) please come borrow this canoe and tell me what you think of it!
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See the original post and discussion here.
