New to the group and appreciative of any insights you may offer.

Background: I bought a 17' Grumman at a garage sale a few years back &
the family has had much fun with it on lakes here in the Green
Mountains. We've also had some experience with Grummans on the Pere
Marquette in Michigan.

Now its time [by early April] to buy one of the boys a new(?) modern
canoe & I've been studying the Old Town website on the Penobscot 16 vs.
a 2005 Charles River. Both in Royalex - should be able to heft it onto
the roof rack solo.

I'm wondering if anyone has actually tried BOTH of these models and/or
can help me surmise the +/- of each...beyond the specs. Both are $1k
new. I've heard good reports on both.

I'm guessing my son will use this canoe in a multitude of ways: lake &
stream fishing solo and tandem, tandem lake touring, lite-packing
overnights, and perhaps some local whitewater in the future. Probably
Class I & II (if I understand that.) For more serious whitewater, he
can buy another himself! Of course, the future may also include kids.

BTW - it looks to me like soloing the P16 from the front seat won't
work - right?

Thanks again.
Best...
Rich
Sto Mo Audio @ aol

Rich,

I don't really know anything about the particular canoes you're asking
about, and I mostly take my generic fiberglass canoe out in the coastal
lagoons where I live in Florida. I've found that I can solo my generic
fiberglass 14 footer on fishing trips by putting my 15 pound mushroom
anchor and a cooler filled all the way up with water as far forward as
I can get them, and paddling backwards from the bow seat.

The guy who gave me this idea was a fishing guide and he said he did it
with a 16 footer (though he had a bigger cooler). The main thing to
use this trick he said was to fill the cooler up after the canoe is in
the water, and make sure it's full all the way or else the water makes
a lot of noise slapping on the bottom lid of the cooler.

Hope that helps somebody out. This was my first post here too.

Mike

If there is a chance the canoe will be doing whitewater, the OT Appalachian
would be a better boat. A tad slower than the Penobscot, it is a MUCH
better river runner.
I have had no experience wrt the Charles River, other than to say that it is
a rather dirty bugger ("Love that dirty water...")
Padeen