You should put that on a bumper sticker Marlin! EXACTLY DEAD ON. The only perfect boat was NOAH'S!

Fishpig has it.....testdrive for a trip.....

Jim J Solo has a great point! Test drive alot of boats, LOADED. Find your own that you like, and buy it. It doesn't have to be an all out racer, come on we're supposed to be relaxing and enjoying the wonder of the Northwoods! I paddle a 20 year old boat by choice, I like it, it suits me. It's not the fastest, but it's a good freighter. Take out a loan and get the boat of your dreams. Treat yourself, don't cheat yourself.

BELL NORTHSTAR-4 a tandem-10/14 day trips no problem. Paddled.SR17, MNII, Seliga-another good boat if ya need a barge in kevlar. Understand the weight thing/momentum paddled an old chestnut in my Menogyn days and it is super nice to have the mass, and one grows into the mass in time on the trails-the old barge weighed only 20 pounds less than me when wet and one ups and downs were comfortably possible.....lightness does not equate to speed, quietness, or durablity.....all boats are a compromise.

I second FishPig....gotta try a Bell Northwoods!  The Bell is not as fast as a Wenonah, but it's stable, comfortable, and sweet! 

prouboy

Just going by "feel" can be deceiving.  We once rented a Wenonah Itasca that felt slow to me.  When I checked it on the GPS, we were actually travelling a full mph faster than we typically did in a SR Q17 the previous year with about the same effort.

Just to add a bit to what M_M said about canoe lenght in solos. At some point more wetted surface has an effect on performance too.

The MII could have had some very soft bottoms?? Oil canning bottoms will feel like dogs.

Overall I'm a bit puzzled about the performance issues. There is too much hype about speed. Nobodies racing out there. Anyway in racing they say "If you're getting beat by minutes, paddle harder. If you're getting beat by seconds, try a new boat" Just another way of saying there's little difference between similar boat designs.

I don't have any experience with wenonah, however, try a BELL Northwoods. In MY, let me say it again, In MY opinion, Its a great all around boat. Perhaps the best all around tandem. If you're interested in a solo combo- It won't measure up to a pure solo boat. The greatest thing in life ok the 2nd best thing in life is paddling a solo canoe on a crisp fall morning with the colors blazing off the first hint of light. And a beer for breakfast.

db wrote on May 15^th, 2009 at 7:27am:
The pads seemed to be identical to the old canoe. Unfortunately, I'm not even sure what brand and model the old canoe was. I purchased it used and it didn't have any recognizable markings on it.

Mad_Mat wrote on May 15^th, 2009 at 1:22pm:
I think this is probably a good part of it. I was expecting there to a substantial difference. Unfortunately, the difference was in the wrong direction.

Mad_Mat wrote on May 15^th, 2009 at 1:22pm:
The speed of the canoe seemed fine to me once it got going. It was the lack of momentum that was the problem. It took noticeably more effort to maintain speed than it did in the old canoe. For instance, in the old canoe in calm water you could paddle at a very leisurely rate and still maintain a decent amount of momentum. On the other hand, as explained above, the MNII would quickly come to a stop when not paddling. Perhaps this is because of weight. One thing I did notice was that the MNII seemed to sit lower in the water than the old canoe. Maybe that contributed to friction on the water.

Mad_Mat wrote on May 15^th, 2009 at 1:22pm:
LaFromboise is my last name and not my location; I live near St. Louis Missouri. I plan on setting up an appointment for next weekend to do a test paddle of a few canoes at KC Paddler. So, hopefully that will give me some answers.

Thanks again to everybody that has provided feedback.

Could be your expectations had a lot to do with it? - you were expecting a rocket and wound up with just a canoe ?  A lot of hype out there about canoes, especially about how fast canoe X is.  Since you said that all 3 of the MN IIs felt the same, that makes me wonder.  Also strange that the balance on all 3 was off, but I suppose that could be - did they all have sliding seats ?  could be the seats needed to be readjusted before a portage to get the balance right (both slid back as far as they could go) ?  I would have just lashed a spare paddle in to the stern to add some counter balance weight.

As to glide, if the bottoms were really scratched up, that could account for some of that.  Momentum may also account for some difference - a
heavier boat may be harder to get moving, but would be harder to stop, and should have a bit better glide.  Turning wise, the MNII would be a dog compared to the average, general use aluminum canoe.

People are always saying (and correctly) that all other things being equal, a longer boat should be faster - right, but how much different faster is one foot of length going to make ? - me, I'd say it is only a marginal difference.  Of course, its hard to find two boats identical except for length, so other issues come into play.  I can tell that my 16.5' KevLight Northstar is faster than the old 15' Grummans, but its not all that much faster -  in reality, I don't set out to paddle fast, I set out to paddle at a fast cruising speed, in any boat, under any condition - a speed that is most efficient use of my energy over the long haul that can be maintained all day.  The actual mph is irrelevent.
That may be a part of the difference you noticed- maybe the MNII needs to be pushed harder to achieve that cruising speed for you than your old aluminum boat - regardless of the actual speeds of the two boats, one felt faster to you, at your pace.

I suspect that what you are looking for in a new boat would be a kevlar version of your old boat?  So look for a more all around boat than the MNII.  My opinion, if your are going to solo that boat a third of the time at least, than go with a shorter tandem, a 15 or 16 footer - forget anybody who can't pare their gear down enough to fit in your boat (we tripped for years with two average adults in those 15' Grumans, for up to two week trips - everything fit - you can try to bring enough gear to need a 24 foot boat, but that's your call.  But the shorter boat will be a lot easier to solo, and you'd only give up a little bit of room and speed.

Test paddle a Souris River Q16 if you can get a chance, and see if you like that boat - but your in Boise? as in Idaho ? not much chance of running out for an afternoon to try a SR boat, but how about Clipper boats - Have to go to Spokane? for that I guess- you might like a 15 or 16' prospector type boat - the Wenonah Ultralight 16 footer weighs only 40 lbs. And the Wen Solo Plus is set up to be a tandem/solo crossover - you could try one of those, which I think are better as a solo than tandem.  There is another thread with a similar theme, take a look at that for ideas.  The Solo Plus, the Mad River Malecite, Old Town Penobscot and the Bell Northstar tend to be the suggested boats for solo/tandem crossovers, but you can't get a new Penobscot in Kevlar, and The Northsat doesn't solo well from the the front seat boat reversed position - these boats tend to be a bit narrower, and intent is to paddle from a more centered position.  But you might like the Bell boats, as they tend to me designed as a bit more all around boat, and you may like the Northstar.  The Eveningstar, a new boat, may be better - only problem is that you'd have to move a thwart to paddle reversed from the bow seat, but that's not too big a deal.  At least Bell and Wenonah dealers ccan be found in your area, and you could test paddle some of the boats.

I'd keep an eye open for used boats too - see something interesting on craig's list and you can always look at paddling.net for reivews to get some info on a boat.