Canoe outriggers - how much and what height?

[Dave Diefenderfer]

We have an aluminum canoe we want to make more stable for hauling 2 or 3 guys, and a load of decoys to a blind site. Shallow water, mucky, mud. No plans to hunt from the canoe, just transportation. Thinking we want to add some outriggers to improve stability (we are getting older, and not any lighter!). Without doing trial and error, anyway to guestimate what we will want in added flotation and how far from the gunnels both in height and projection?

I can calculate a flotation volume depending on what size plastic pipe we use, and know the further from the hull the greather the lever arm... I have a plan in my head that will allow us to adjust the height based on our load, by simple selecting the correct hole with a pin.

Anyone have experience here?

TIA, Dave

 

[Pat M]

Dave- I have been pondering the same idea for a while but I have the same question. Good luck with your project and post up some pictures and details as you go.

 

[Jeff Reardon]

Unless you are paddling a huge canoe, 3 big guys plus decoys is almost certainly overloaded. Do not believe the "maximum load" figures that canoe manufactures stick on their boats--that's typically the load at which the canoe has 6 inches of freeboard. That is not a safe load to paddle with, especially under the conditions we duck hunters typically find--cold, windy, dark.

For example, my Old Town Appalachian has a max load from the factory of 1400 pounds. It's designed as a high capacity/high floatation boat for extended trips on whitewater rivers. I know from experience that with me and my hunting buddy (500 lbs), a lab (70 lbs), 2 dozen dekes (40 lbs), and other gear (50 lbs), we have a safe load, but wouldn't want to carry much more. Once everything gets wet and muddy and we pour some water from the lab into the hull, call that load 800 pounds. If we were paddling something smaller, we'd be overloaded from the landing--and most canoes have a smaller capacity than the Appalachian.

I've been in canoes where sponsons were used effectively to add some stability. The best example was a Florida fishing guide who fished snook and redfish out of a 20 foot Old Town Tripper XL, and rigged a stand-up casting platform for his sports in the bow. The sponsons on an outrigger helped prevent a tip if the sport lost his balance.

But I would be very cautious about using them to try to extend the load capacity of a canoe beyond what it was designed for.

If you really want a canoe to handle 3 hunters plus gear, I would take a hard look at one of these: http://www.oldtowncanoe.com/canoes/expedition/tripper_xl.html

It's a bear to car top or portage, but solid as a rock on the water. I've been in them with two anglers both standing and casting, and felt safe.

 

[Chuck J]

Dave

I'll echo Jeff's concern, that many canoes cannot carry the weight, but will say that many can, and can do it as safe or safer than the old 12 foot Jon boat that are oh so common to duck hunters on smaller waters. You did state that you were using in shallow water, I'll assume reasonably protected as well. I also assumed from your discription you were just looking to add satbility, not increase actual bouyancy. For me, I think the typical sponson would be seriously in the way. I'd go with the foam glue/bolt on style floats like this:

http://store.springcreek.com/Stabilizer-Floats/Stabilizer-Floats/Canoe-Foam-Sponsons-Pair-p1582.html

Chuck

 

[Jeff Reardon]

I've paddled canoes with those bolt on foam sponsons. Those are very useful with canoes that have minimal floatation, and they will help a lot with stability after your canoe has swamped. They make great rub rails, but because they are so high on the gunwale and because they are not outboard of the canoe, they won't do much to help add stability. If you tip the canoe far enough to put those into the water where the floatation will do you some good, chances are pretty good you are going to go over, or at least ship some water, before they do anything to right you.

If you are looking to prevent the tip in the first place, I think you need to go with something on an outrigger. The guide I fished with in Florida used a rig that had foam blocks, connected to outriggers fore and aft that bolted to the the canoe's center thwart and gunwales. They were on some kind of a sliding rig so they could be retracted while traveling through narrow mangrove channels, then extended when fishing. I suspect the rig I saw was homemade, but this link will show a similar commercial version:

http://www.sailboatstogo.com/v_page.php?content=stabilizer_length

I can't vouch for that particular rig--just that it looks like what I saw being used very effectively.

 

[Ben M]

I have a canoe that I got from a friend of mine with a gloriously "redneck engineered" pontoon system. Elegant and aesthetically pleasing it is not, but it IS functional even if they get in the way of a paddle stroke every now and then. The peace of mind they afford in the dark in winter has more value than pretty lines. ;-)

How It's Made:

PVC pipe. Pool "noodles". Camo Burlap. Camo duct tape. Cotter pins.

The larger pipe was fastened to the center support bar/thwart of the canoe via hose clamps. The smaller pipe attached to the pontoons fits inside the large pipe on the canoe. Several holes are drilled into the pontoon-attached pipe to facilitate various outrigger distances. Same goes for the vertical pipe off the pontoons themselves: several holes to allow you to set different pontoon heights depending on load. Does that make sense at all?

I would post pictures, but on a cold frosty morning, a hasty drag up a river bank snapped the PVC on one pontoon and another hasty canoe roll on another river bank snapped the other one. PVC doesn't do so well in 10 degrees . . .

I usually set the pontoons to ride just out of the water and only catch the boat as it rolled when the dog caught a whiff of roosted goose and leaned over. They caused a lot of drag, but, as I said, were well worth it for the peace of mind they provided. Generally, I set them about 18 inches out from the gunwale.

Silly looking buggers, but I did miss them a couple of times this past season!