From the Wenonah Canoe website;
First, try to narrow your search down to one or two categories of boats. To do this, consider your priorities. How and where do you plan on using this canoe? What type of water are you going to paddle? How much gear are you likely to take along? How skilled are the paddlers?
General Touring – Designed to do many things well, they are very versatile. They’re stable, maneuverable, efficient and will haul a fair amount of gear. Great family canoes.
Performance Touring – Light and fast. They track and glide well, and respond best in the hands of experienced paddlers. These designs are true performance boats.
Sports & Leisure – Popular with beginners, kids, and people who fish, hunt, or take photos. S & L canoes are extremely stable and easy to handle.
Down River – Perfect for paddling in streams, rivers, and smaller rapids. These fun paddling canoes turn on a dime and slide through eddies.
Whitewater – Built for paddling the fast water and raging currents of whitewater rivers. Their hulls are contoured for maneuverability and stability in steep leans.
Expedition – For distance paddling, adventure trips, and big water, they’re designed to perform most efficiently when fully loaded with a lot of gear.
Once you’ve decided on a category that fits your needs (or more importantly, eliminated the categories that don’t) then you select the performance aspects most important to you.
Efficiency – How far the canoe goes with each stroke. A long glide following the stroke means the canoe is very efficient.
Maneuverability – How easily the boat will turn. A lot of boats are specifically designed to “Track Straight”. We always say it’s much easier to turn a boat than keep one going straight.
Capacity – How much gear and weight the canoe can hold.
Initial Stability – How “tippy” a boat feels when you’re getting in and out of it or when it’s resting on calm water.
Final Stability – How resistant a canoe is to tipping even when leaned or in high winds and waves.
Seaworthiness – How dry, capable, and predictable the canoe is in large waves or rough waters.
Read and understand the basics of Canoe Design. Learn why the different dimensions and hull shapes, both above and below the water line, determine to what degree a canoe will excel at which aspects of performance.
A canoe’s performance is built into its design. The dimensions and shape of the hull above and below the water line, and other variables, determine how efficient, stable, roomy, maneuverable, and seaworthy that canoe is. Of the close to 30 models of canoes in this catalog, no two perform the same. A sports canoe that’s stable and easy to paddle will have a different length, width, rocker and streamlining than a performance canoe designed to go fast and glide far. Even within the same category of canoes, subtle differences in design will change their performance.
Cross-section shape determines initial and final stability. Initial stability is how stable a canoe feels when upright in calm water. Final stability is how resistant a canoe is to capsizing even when on edge.
Because every canoe we make is handcrafted, weights may vary slightly from the stated figure with standard equipment. Most options add weight including wood trim, sliding seats and foot braces, and optional gel-coat finish. Actual boat weights may vary +/- 5% off the stated figure.
Many canoe makers publish specific weight capacities for their hulls.
These are highly misleading for many reasons:
We don’t print specific figures. Rather we say our hulls have reserve capacity for their intended use.
A Heron or Fisherman is for shorter day-trips. A Rogue, Adirondack, Aurora, Kingfisher, or Escapade will take two typical adults with moderate gear. A Spirit, Escape, Boundary Waters or Cascade is ment for two adults with lots of gear. The Minnesota II, and Champlain have a bit more capacity, while the Minnesota 3, and Itasca will carry three to four adults and lots of gear in most situations.
If you’re worried about the capacity of any model (made by us or by anyone), a published figure is not a reliable guide. Load the hull with the intended weight and test it. If the canoe is overloaded, a test will reveal it better than any published figure could.
There’s flotation in each of our pleasure hulls to keep it afloat if filled with water. Royalex® canoes have foam cores giving flotation. Most composite hulls have sealed-air tanks. Tuf-weave® tandems with a Flex-core have polyurethane-filled end tanks.
However, even though our hulls float filled with water, we strongly advise supplemental air flotation bags for Class II rapids or above. If swamped in rapids, a hull must not just float, but float high to avoid hidden rocks.