The canoe is an unusual vehicle. It has no moving parts. None. Other than the paddler(s), of course. It can also bear well over 10 times its own weight. Simple in use, its design and construction have evolved as new materials and a deeper understanding of its functioning have emerged. The canoe's use has also changed from workhorse to recreational vehicle, which has also affected how it is built. Its history in the 20th century is similar to the bicycle, in that the wood/canvas construction developed in the 19th Century was largely unchanged until the 1960s. That's when aluminum, fiberglas and plastics, with their lower production costs and greater durability made wood/canvas obsolete for the most part. There are wood/canvas devotees: I for one. (There is even a guy in New England who makes birch bark canoes. It is all he does. It is, apparently, all he's ever done.) It is aesthetically satisfying to pilot 6 yards of richly varnished dark wood ribs through quiet tree-lined waters. It is deeply distressing to run same into a rock. For that, give me synthetics. I love my wood canoe, but my far less beautiful kevlar canoe (with wood gunwales: I'm not a total Philistine!) is more durable, faster and much lighter. I use it a LOT more often, since I don't die inside when dragging it over logs, shallows and beaches, or simply die portaging the thing.
Michael Shiffer
EuroMeccanica, Inc.
114 Pearl Street
Mount Vernon, NY 10550
(914) 668-1300
euromeccanicany.com