I’m pretty excited about the new drone, not just for the media potential but also because it lets me see the boat in new ways which is helpful from a design perspective. There is no perfect drone for this sort of work but after much deliberation we decided on the Skydio2 for it’s simplicity and impressive follow features. Also, it’s blue. I really like blue.
Continuing from yesterday‘s post, it’s always hard for me to judge the speed of a canoe because as a lifelong kayaker every canoe feels sluggish to me. My canoe stroke is also total crap, so I can only rely on feedback from my more experienced soloist students to judge the quickness.
Maneuverability and tracking seem about right. It wags just a little with the stroke (again, I suck at canoeing) and I can spin it with just a little over two sweep strokes, which is about the same tracking maneuverability balance that I look for in a kayak. Canoe trim and rocker is a subject that I’m still trying to get a handle on.
I pushed a bunch of extra volume into my standard rib formula on this boat just to see what would happen and the boat ended up pretty flat in the middle and more stable than I want it to be. It’s good to know that is possible but I’m going to be backing off on that next time.
I really like the 26lb empty weight (30 with seat, flotation and sail). There’s just something about a boat that weighs 30 pounds instead of 40 pounds that makes it a lot more likely you’re going to toss it on the car really quick for an afternoon paddle.
Speaking of the car, this is the very first time I’ve had two non-nesting canoes up top and I hated it. It took twice as long to load and unload and the windage felt like it was going to rip the roof rack off of my car. I was going to build non-nesting boats this year but I’m seriously rethinking that.
Overall I got pretty close to what I was aiming for with this boat. To build it again I would go asymmetrical, 28 inches wide and 10 inches deep, and that would probably shave a pound. Using my shallower pack canoe dimensions with an over/under mountable fixed canoe seat opens new possibilities for saving weight when extra freeboard isn’t needed.
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