My husband and I have been paddling for many years. After learning to paddle a canoe as a kid, I bought a couple of Stearns self-bailing inflatable kayaks for whitewater, and we paddled a lot of Class 2 in North Carolina with them.
Eventually we moved to a place with more flatwater and less whitewater, and we quickly became tired of sitting in a couple of inches of water. We sold them and bought a Saranac 146 polyethylene canoe. It has been an excellent flatwater boat, but weighs 79 pounds. It's impossible to portage it any distance, and as we get older we are both reluctant to paddle it because of the amount of effort needed to get it on and off the high roof of the SUV. It absolutely requires both of us to cartop it, so it's useless for any type of solo trip. We use it about 4 times a year.
Last year I bought a Klymit LWD packraft, which weighs less than 3 lbs and fits easily in my backpack. I have only used it a couple of times, but it meets my expectations for such a minimalist boat, including being able to paddle it with a full backpack aboard. But it would be useless against any wind, and is so slow it isn't practical to paddle it any distance. I look forward to taking it on backpacking trips that are 90% hiking and 10% paddling, but that's about its limit. And it has no back support at all.
So we are interested in purchasing a couple of lightweight canoes that are easy for aging paddlers to get on and off an SUV, portage a reasonable distance, and carry enough payload for camping.
Priorities would be weight, easy of cartopping, and price. (Since we need two solo boats, price is a huge issue. $3,000 boats need not apply.) It's worthwhile for us to trade off on-water performance, within limits, for a boat that's easier to portage and get on and off the SUV.
While sitting on a high seat is more comfortable, we are fine with sitting low in the boat, as we have used kayaks a great deal. Double-ended paddles are fine.
We would want to be able to paddle moderate lakes like Pharaoh, Lows, or Big Moose, but would avoid large lakes like Raquette, Tupper, or the Saranacs.
Given the above, I am thinking that Hornbecks would be the best compromise. We can easily drive to Olmstedville to check them out, order, and purchase boats. The price is high, but we can probably manage it with careful budgeting.
We would want each boat to be able to carry about 250 lbs, including gear, so something in the 12-mid to 13-low range seems about right.
But we may be overlooking other options. Suggestions would be very welcome.
