The Old Town should be a nice paddler - I'm not personally familiar with the
Discovery, but have paddled in company with various Old Towns whose owners
seemed quite pleased with their boats.
There are actually several Coleman canoes - a 15', and a 17', as well as
several smaller models. I have paddled a 17' Ram-X several times, and didn't
much like it at all. I found it very heavy to carry, and very slow, as the
plastic hull tends to flex and lose water flow over the hull. The high
topsides catch a lot of wind, making it a difficult boat to control in any
sort of crosswind. They are, however, very tough hulls, and have excellent
carrying capacity. A lot of Coleman 17s here are used for rougher jobs -
carrying out quarters of moose after a successful hunt, heavy -duty camping,
wilderness surveying and prospecting, and so forth. The 15' Coleman seems to
be a much nicer hull - again, I can't speak from personal experience, but
have been on paddles where a 15' had no problems keeping up with the pack.
Main thing, for me, is to get a boat and get out on the water - if you
find a few years down the road that you want another sort of canoe, you can
always sell the original and get something more suited to your needs.
rhayes (at) nfld(dot)com to relpy

"Kev Coomber" wrote in message
...
Hi

I'm in the market for a canoe and have my eye on an old town discovery. I
have also seen a number of ads fole Colemans which appear to be a fair bit
cheaper.

How do these compare?

I would be using it for family day trips, camping trips, and a bit of
fishing. All of this on the rivers and lakes of Norfolk.

I'm new to this so any advise gratefully received.


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