Cure for a tippy canoe?

[Howie]

I posted a thread a few weeks ago about my experience with a very tippy 13' Tremblay canoe. Hours after I wrote that post I was offered a 16' Great Canadian to restore. So... Yesterday I was working on this canoe and noted how much wider the canoe was with the thwarts and seats removed, and I started to wonder if maybe tippy canoes might be less tippy if their center thwart length was increased. I note that the 11' and 13' OT 50 Pounders I've owned were never tippy, so tippiness isn't necessarily due to a canoe's length, so I'm certain the roundness of a canoe's bottom is the most important factor. But perhaps this roundness might be changed by allowing the ribs to extend 'out' a bit.

Thoughts? Anybody ever try this? Guess I'll try it on the Tremblay when I have time...

 

[Dave Wermuth]

A canoe's length does affect stability. Shape of the bottom, radius of the bilge. Initial stability and final stability. It's quite a topic for discussion. And not being a marine architect, my perspective is limited. Oh, and then there's the center of gravity thing too. Seat height.

If you change the thwart(s) I would expect the rocker will be changed as well, that's another variable.
My .02

 

[Howie]

Dave: Yup. Not to mention that it'll paddle like a bloated pig.

 

[Dan Miller]

You might want to have a gander at The Shape of the Canoe by John Winters:

The Shape of the Canoe: Designing Canoes and Kayaks 3rd Edition E-Book - Noah's Marine

This a download item only This electronic format (Adobe PDF) edition of The Shape of the Canoe on CD-R contains new material on small boat history, kayaks, paddles, safety, and consumer relations as well as improved graphics. As a further bonus the electronic format version contains my...

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[pklonowski]

And then there's the argument that a canoe, if left in the water with nobody aboard won't tend to tip over. The canoe isn't the tippy one, it's the canoeist!

 

[Gil Cramer]

A barge is not tippy, except in waves. Years ago, at a Michigan chapter WCHA paddle, Russ Hicks and I, in his 13' Old town, were trying to keep up with Mike Dargas' twin boys in their 16 or 17 ft canoe . Mike was sitting on the floor in the middle and not paddling. The boys were probably 11 or 12. Russ and I had to work like crazy to keep up.
The Chestnut 18' cruiser model is probably the fastest W/C canoe. I know people will disagree, but the more streamlined the canoe, the faster it is. Tippy is in the mind of the paddler(Yea, right)

 

[Dan Lindberg]

Agreed, though I'd include a 16' Thompson Indian I had in the mix for fastest,
it had a rounded hull and was very fast and very tippy, such that I could only paddle it kneeling or I'd get wet.

The Chestnut 18' cruiser model is probably the fastest W/C canoe. I know people will disagree, but the more streamlined the canoe, the faster it is.

 

[geolang]

Agreed, though I'd include a 16' Thompson Indian I had in the mix for fastest,
it had a rounded hull and was very fast and very tippy, such that I could only paddle it kneeling or I'd get wet.

In another post, I just compared a Carrying Place Jack's Special more to a Chestnut Cruiser than Chum. Although I have not paddled either 16' Thompson Indian nor 18' Chestnut cruiser model, I can recognize the 15' Jack's Special is quite quick for its size. Some would call it "tippy", but I like it that way as a trade off for clean lines, cruising speeds and outstanding maneuverability.

Therefore, would you really want to change the canoe profile? I would be concerned that you won't be able to predict the outcome of that change...the canoe may no longer feel "right".