Other than having the misfortune of being dumped out of a canoe once I am
not an expert. That being said it would depend largely on the type of boat
and the circumstances. A fairly wide beam flat bottom boat is almost
impossible to tip over. Some of the round bottom row boats that were
popular in the last century might be more likely to tip one or more of the
occupants into the water and then right itself. In my own experience that
is the most likely result. In my own wet experience the canoe I dumped
myself out of dumped me into the water, took on some water, and righted
itself with both of my kids still in the canoe. It is a fairly wide beam
lake canoe. I suppose a narrow beam river canoe would be slightly more
likely to capsize.

As a side note. My uncle Paul and I spent many an hour canoeing on fish and
camp trips with a narrow beam Oldtown river canoe, and other than the rain
we never even got wet. Not in the roughest sections of the rivers we ran.

--
** FREE Fishing Lures
** Weekly drawing
** Public Fishing and Boating Forums
** www.YumaBassMan.com


"K" wrote in message
link.net...
Hi. I'm looking to the experts (the boating experts, not the political
experts) for some technical help with a writing project I'm working on.
Say there's a small, open, no frills, 12 or 13 foot boat with an outboard
motor. In the boat are two adults and their ten year-old son. Assume
that
the boat is sitting stationary in relatively calm waters (bay or harbor),
and that there's no water inside the boat. How likely is it that the
three
of them might capsize it if they were to all simultaneously put a foot up
on
the same side of the hull with most of their weight? Maybe they were
all
reaching out for something. Would they flip the whole thing over and
get
dumped in the water? Is that conceivable? Likely? Doubtful?
Any thoughts welcome.
Thanks...
-Ken