Gear Review Pelican Navigator Canoe

[uintahiker]

Wo-hoo! Whenever I eat barbecue it's a good day. Yesterday I had some for lunch. Holy Smoke makes some awesome meat. But that's not what this post is about. This post is about the 13'7" of awesomeness that I picked up last night. Yup- a Pelican Navigator Canoe. I've been looking for a cheap canoe for quite a while, but KSL had been moving them quickly if they approached the $200 barrier, with the vast majority in the $350 range. Right before heading home last night, I hopped on for another one of my daily looks for canoes. Top listing: Canoe for $150, posted 9 minutes ago. Oh please be there, oh please be there, oh pleasebe there. I called the guy up and he said I could have it! I drove down and picked it up and it's in fantastic shape. It's a little faded on the , but still has the original stickers on the inside. SOLD!

I still need to get some paddles before I take it out, but it looks pretty sweet already.

 

[uintahiker]

Now that I've taken the canoe out twice, it's time for a gear review.

The first time I took it out, I thought the canoe felt pretty wobbly. Granted, it had been over a year since I'd been canoeing so my sea legs had worn off.

I took it out again on Saturday and enjoyed it much more. We canoed for about 2 hours and had a great time.

Specs: The canoe is 13'7" long and 37" wide in the middle. It's fairly light for a canoe at 57 lbs. It has 2 seats and 2 fishing pole holders. Cost (new) is $450- $500.

Observations: Canoes seek a balance between maneuverability and tracking ability (how straight it goes). A typical rules of thumb is that longer canoes track better and are are less maneuverable. Another factor is the curve of the bottom of the canoe. Flat bottoms are best for still water, while curved bottoms give you more agility for moving water. Curved bottoms also make it harder to paddle as they generate more drag than to flat bottoms. That said, I didn't really look at the underside of the canoe when I bought it, other then to check for scratches or deep gouges.

Taking it out, this canoe is very maneuverable, but it doesn't track super well. We enjoyed canoeing through an are with a lot of submerged trees and brush, but in the open water we traveled in a series of lazy "s" shapes as we set out for the distant shore but drifted to the left and right due to the force of the paddles.

The shorter length is a little short for multi-day tripping with a family of 4, but fits the same family just great for evening outings or day trips. I enjoy how light it is when loading or unloading it from my car.

Summing it all up: I am very glad I bought this. I couldn't beat the price at $150. We've had a great time with it so far, and plan on having many many more enjoyable trips with it.

 

[Nick]

Sounds awesome, got any pics?

 

[TomBrooklyn]

Did you weigh it? I saw an ad for one and it's listed as 62#s.