Open canoes have many advantages, but they all share one shortcoming. There’s a gaping hole in the top just waiting to swallow the next big breaker, and a single wave — if it’s big enough — can swamp a canoe in a hurry. One minute you’re paddling. And the next? It’s swim time. That doesn’t mean canoes can’t venture beyond Golden Pond, of course. Canoeists have been keeping their heads above rough waters for as long as there’ve been canoes to paddle. What’s their secret? Skill, for one thing. Caution, for another. And then there’s Plan B: adding extra flotation for the times when skill and caution simply aren’t enough. The recipe is pretty straightforward. If you cram securely tethered float bags into every empty corner of a canoe, you’ll have an (almost) unsinkable craft. A flotation‑filled canoe is nearly impossible to swamp, and with enough practice you can even roll it back up on the rare occasions when it does go over.

But there’s another way to address the problem cause by the canoe’s too‑open embrace of stray waves: just plug the hole. Put a fabric cover on your canoe, in other words, thereby transforming it into a decked boat. As readers of my earlier article on this subject may remember, I’m not exactly a big fan of this approach. Still, I’ve never claimed to have the last word on the matter (or any other, come to that), and sure enough, while some readers cheered me on, others wrote in to set me straight. Now it’s their turn to be heard. But first, let’s take a quick look at the letter that started it all… Read more…

 
Send a Comment