I have owned two canoes in my life. Back in the 70's I bought a 17 foot
Lincoln. The 17 ft Lincoln was easy to paddle and it was stable. I paddled
this canoe for many hours and never once felt that I was in danger of
turning over. I sold the Lincoln after a few years. Like many things I have
sold in my life I later regretted selling it.

In 1993 I saw this ad for a 12 foot Old Town canoe. They advertised that
this canoe only weight 37 pounds. Remembering how nice my old Lincoln canoe
was at 70 pounds, I was thinking a 37 pound canoe would be very easy to
handle. So I bought one. I was quickly disappointed when I found out how
hard this 12 ft Old Town canoe was to paddle as compared to my 17 ft Lincoln
canoe. I constantly felt like I was going to turn over in the 12 ft Old
Town. By the way, they lied about the Old Town weighting only 37 pounds. I
weighted it a few days after I bought it on a very accurate balance scale
and it was 48 pounds, 11 pounds more than the advertised weight. Since I
was not happy with this canoe I just put it up and have not used it for
years.

This past week I actually had a need for a paddle boat. We have two lakes
at the place I work. The water level on one of the lakes is controlled by a
48 inch gate valve. The gate valve is about 30 years old and is starting to
leak. We are thinking about replacing the valve with a new one. My boss
ask me if I could get some pictures of the gate valve, viewed from the lake.
I said, "I have a canoe at home and I will bring it to work." So I put the
12 ft Old Town canoe on the lake and made the pictures. After taking the
pictures I decide to play around with the canoe for awhile. It did not take
long to remember why I haven't used this canoe in years. It did not feel
stable. We have Alligators in the lake. The thought of being in the water
with the gators and with an upside down canoe that has no flotation built
into it, was not a happy thought. I realized that the more I use this canoe
the more I hate it.

The most important thing to me in a paddle boat is stability. The second
most important thing is flotation. Will it float when it is full of water
and let me get back into it? When it is full of water my 12 ft Old Town
will go under, if you just put the weight of your hand on it. I know
because it tried it. The third important thing is, how hard is it to
paddle?

My old 17 foot Lincoln would meet two of these, three requirements, stable
and easy to paddle. However, it had no flotation built into it.

Do they make any canoes that will do all three? Stable, easy to paddle and
will not sink on me if I do turn it over.