David Kemper wrote:

A Canadian canoe is much slower especially paddled solo.

Yes, but this is only a problem if you're in a degree of hurry
inappropriate to an open boat! OP might be, but might not...

Canadians are ideal for a pair of
paddlers who want to cart a lot of cargo but aren't in any hurry.

It's a lot easier to paddle a Canadian 2 up from a technical skill point
of view, as well as just the extra motive power side. Solo open boat
needs a bit of practice with a good J stroke, and you can't just get in
and go to the same extent you can with 2 paddlers or a kayak. But with
a bit of practice solo open canoe does go places. Personally I find the
requirement of a bit more skill to work it is a nice thing (as long as
I don't get past what my own skills can deal with, of course!), but I
can see how people would just view it as making life difficult.

I find my knees get sore paddling Canadian canoes.

In flat water you can just sit on the seats. Where I come down off the
seats for rough stuff I actually find it's my ankles that suffer rather
than my knees, but the boats I use have been lined with Karrimat by
their owner. Overall, especially on flat water, I find the possibility
of more than one seating position makes the open boat more comfortable
than a kayak over a good stretch of time.

Your experience with glass fibre boats must be radically different from
mine then. You do find ancient wrecked GF boats but ancient plastic
boats are often also rather beaten up

And I've seen GRP hulks that were basically porus /completely/ restored
to seagoing quality with a suitable dose of TLC. TSKC has an anasacuta
which was basically a write-off hulk but was rescued, made waterproof
again, had a skeg added and a rear oval hatch in place of the old round
one. None of that would have been easily possible with an old plastic
wreck.

This bit makes sense assuming a base paddling speed as low as 4KPH.
Faster speeds are normal in GF touring and racing kayaks. I'm considered
slow and manage an average of 4-5 MPH and can paddle quite a bit faster
for short distances such as when overtaking canal boats. Sprinting past
to get through a bridge before the canal boat gets there and blocks the
hole is a fairly frequent occurance as is encountering another canal
boat coming in the opposite direction. I try to avoid becoming the
filling in a boat sandwich. I can't paddle for 6 hours though. I'm sure
I could build up to it but haven't any desire to.

I'm going slower, but /can/ paddle for 6 hours: sea touring this may
well be necessary. But from a touring perspective I'd say the where and
the whereabouts are probably more important to the paddler than the how
far and how fast, which are clearly uppermost in a marathon paddler's
mind for good reason. I'd sooner dander down the river in a canoe, but
clearly tastes vary.

Pete.
--
Peter Clinch Medical Physics IT Officer
Tel 44 1382 660111 ext. 33637 Univ. of Dundee, Ninewells Hospital
Fax 44 1382 640177 Dundee DD1 9SY Scotland UK
net http://www.dundee.ac.uk/~pjclinch/