I need some help.  Trying to decide between kevlar versions of the Wenonah Spirit II and Escape...

I've been to the BWCA/Quetico 12 times (one trip annually) and have always rented various canoes over the years but am now looking to buy.  The purpose of the trips is mainly fishing, though some years have required significant traveling (140+ miles in 2 weeks or so).  The essential difference seems to be that the Escape is a quicker boat, which is nice for the longer trips through BWCA.  But I also hope to use it to fish lakes around my house, 9 hours away from the BWCA.  

I'm leaning towards the Escape, but I'm wondering:  Is the Escape a reasonable boat to fish (heavily) from?  Is its poor(er) turning really a concern?  Is the Spirit II's efficiency good enough for my purposes?

Any advice or stories of past experience would be much appreciated.

questions like yours always make me curious about boats I know nothing about, so I took a quick look at them on the Wen site.

a reasonable measure of performance is the length to width ratio, which should really be waterline length to waterline width - hard to get those exact numbers, but from what Wen had, I came up wtih 6.36 for the Escape and 5.74 for theSpirit II - the higher the ratio, the faster the boat should be.

The difference is really that the Spirit II is a better all around boat compared to the escape being a better tripping boat, more or less. So its comparing a "jack of all trads" against a more specialized model.

You just need to decide which you want - or send me a check for $25 and I'll decide for you ?  Probably the Spirit II would make a better fishing platform, as its wider for its length, but I'd think either boat would be ok.  

If you buy one and it turns out to be not what you really wanted, sell it and buy the other - its not like you can't change your mind later.

Paddle, demo, then flip a coin. Madmat has it right with the ratio gig and selling if ya dont like. Sound advice. I will decide for $20; sorry to under bid yah Mat! ;D

Thanks for the tips!  I think I've decided on the Escape.

Mad Mat and Marlin offer good advice. I'll decide for $15.00.

Tim

P. S. I've used the Spirit II and like it.