Review: We-No-Nah Voyager
by Al Cambronne
In his book Canoecraft, Ted Moores writes about how there’s no perfect canoe that’s just right for everyone, and how the design that’s perfect for one canoeist might not be for another. He quotes Professor Edwin Fowler of New York City’s Knickerbocker Canoe Club. Fowler was writing in 1883, a time that had different standards of "political correctness." He wrote, "There is no more perfection in canoes than in wives. There are only convenient compromises."
Moores disagreed: "With all due respect to Professor Fowler, the perfect canoe (and no doubt the perfect wife) does exist. There are hundreds, even thousands of them-a perfect canoe for each discriminating paddler." While Fowler was right about having to sometimes make compromises, I have to agree with Moores (on both counts, of course). Different people want and need different things in a canoe.
Wenonah must agree, too. They offer over thirty different models, and this spring they’ve added three more to their lineup. Sure, they sell some general-purpose canoes that would satisfy a wide range of paddlers. But they almost seem to specialize in specialized canoes for specialized paddlers, which bring us to the Voyager.
The Voyager is Wenonah’s new solo tripping canoe. It’s 17 1/2 feet long, and 28 3/4 inches wide. At the 4" waterline, it’s only 27.5" wide. It’s designed for people who enjoy a solo canoe with good glide, and want to carry a big load on big trips, maybe some of the time in some big waves. It’s an especially good choice if either paddlers or their loads are a little on the heavy side.
Like many (but not all) models sold by Wenonah, it’s based on the philosophy that with proper technique, any canoe can turn on a dime. But a canoe that turns too easily is tough to paddle straight all daylong. Similarly, you can always paddle a fast canoe slow. But a slow canoe can never go fast. (If you disagree 100% with this philosophy, that’s OK. There’s a canoe just right for you, too.)
Anyway, the other day the two of us tried out a new Voyager at Ketter Canoes. Ketter’s is one of the few canoe dealers where you can try before you buy. Darned good idea. We’re not sure why car dealers caught onto that so much sooner. Maybe because they’re all built next to roads. Ketter Canoes is built next to the Mississippi river.
For comparison, we brought my old Wenonah Advantage. For almost twenty years, this model has been the benchmark for fast solo touring canoes. It’s not a racing canoe; it’s way more seaworthy. Professor Fowler, that old grump, might call it the "least worst compromise." But it’s a great canoe. It has decent glide, and when I add my CCS cover it’s very seaworthy. (Wenonah’s Prism and Encounter are similar designs that you might also want to consider when shopping for a solo canoe.)
We traded back and forth for a couple hours, and made a thorough comparison. Our verdict? When the water is high on that stretch of the Mississippi, neither canoe paddles itself upstream. Both, however, could weave upstream through the trees fairly smoothly. And both floated downstream pretty darned fast.
Going either direction, the Voyager seemed to have a little more top-end speed. For most citizen racers, we’d definitely recommend it over the Advantage. At lower speeds, however, the difference was much less noticeable.
The Voyager is a foot longer, but it has about 3/4" of rocker (the Advantage has none). They both track well, but they both have all the maneuverability that skilled paddlers will need in real-world conditions.
The Voyager also has higher sides. If you’re going to use a cover, they’re higher than necessary, and they provide some extra square footage for the wind to grab. But without a cover, the extra freeboard would be nice to have on a big, windy lake.
Both canoes have fairly narrow gunwales. This is good for paddling clearance, but some people might find that their packs are a tight fit. With a little maneuvering, however, it’s possible to fit a #3 canoe pack behind the seat in either model. If that and one or two smaller packs don’t provide enough capacity, you may be bringing too much stuff.
The biggest difference in the two canoes is in their cross-section. The Advantage doesn’t have a flat bottom like Dad’s Grumman, but it does have a flatter bottom than the Voyager. The Advantage is widest right at the waterline, but the Voyager is widest about three inches above the waterline. Toward the bow and stern, it also has much more flare above the waterline.
This makes the Voyager feel a little wiggly when you’re just sitting in it, but way more stable when you lean it to turn. It also makes the Voyager much more seaworthy in a crosswind. To use canoe jargon, it has less initial stability than Wenonah’s other non-racing solos, but way more final stability. We liked how it felt, but not everyone will. Both felt good, but they felt noticeably different.
The Voyager is a big canoe. True, if you fill it with enough gear for a two-week trip and start off across a big lake when the wind is coming up, it won’t seem so big anymore. But when we were only carrying water bottles and a few energy bars, it seemed like a darned big canoe. For some people, maybe too big.
So, should you go buy one? Up to you. We’re guessing that Wenonah won’t have to throw away their molds for the Advantage, Prism, and Encounter. If you’re in the market for a solo tripping canoe, you might want to try those models, too. But definitely try a Voyager. You might like it.
Voyager First
Impression—Counterpoint
by Chris Steele
When I bought my second canoe 18 years ago, I learned what I prized in a canoe. Speed and fun. My first canoe was an aluminum hulk. Stable, big, durable and slow. Especially slow. I thought my new canoe, a Sawyer Cruiser, was perfect. Compared to an aluminum canoe, it may have been.
Experience, maturity and the passage of time have given me a new perspective. While I am still fond of the Sawyer, I have other canoes that cause the Sawyer to spend more time in the garage than on the water. If the Sawyer is perfect, these other canoes that get more use must be better than perfect.
When I paddled the Voyager, the question I tried to answer was, "Would the Voyager get used more, less or the same amount as other canoes I own or might own."
I concluded it would be used less than average. How is this possible given that it is an exceptional canoe? The Voyager is fast, seaworthy, capable of moving heavy loads across big and turbulent water and comfortable. For how I use a solo boat, the Voyager is too much canoe. If I was headed out for an extended solo adventure, the Voyager might be the right canoe. Since I have no such plans, the Advantage is a better choice. Its size, lower profile and hull efficiency easily meet my needs.
I’m pretty sure the Wenonah Advantage is a perfect canoe; perhaps it too is better than perfect. If I could get Al to lend his Advantage to me for a couple months, I’d know for sure.
