Accessories

sevylor canoes. (boats for the rest of us)
I have to be honest, I love sevylor canoes. I decided one day I would like a boat, I certainly couldn't afford a traditional boat of any kind, so I looked to 'budget' alternatives. I remembered seeing inflatable canoes from my summer holidays and wondered if such things still existed. Sure enough, 100 bucks later with my new sevylor, cheap paddles and life preserver I was waterbourne! My first canoe was the Sevelor Tahiti and never has it failed me, my colorado is a upgrade because I was deployed with the Army and bought a gift for myself! For under 500 I have a sevylor colorado, an engine, battery and charger! Thats right folks perpetual motion (almost) for a mere 500 bucks!

There are obviously disadvantages of an inflatable canoe as compared to a hard shell canoe. Primarily an inflatable canoe is slower to paddle and will not be as responsive. That being said I would like to talk about the considerable advantages!

In less than 10 minutes I can set up and be under way, thats pretty fast especially when you don't have to tie the thing to the roof of your car.

Inflatable canoes are soft and therefore are comfortable.

They are much more buoyant than hard shell canoes, after all they are filled with air! That means my little boat can carry me and 320 pounds of equipment!

Its light, I can carry my boat to the water regardless of distance, I don't need a fancy little wheeled thingy.

they bounce over rocks.(I know I tried!)In my opinion inflatable canoes will always be more robust than a hard shell, you can't be harder than a rock, so why not be softer? (very zen)

Needless to say I am a huge fan of my Seveylor Colorado, just for the record I have named my boat 'Serenity' although I am having difficulty breaking the champagne bottle...

Doens't track well
I own a Colorado canoe. Its very comfortable but very frustrating to paddle. It doesn't track well at all. It works okay with tandem paddlers but is very difficult with a solo kayak paddle and impossible with a canoe paddle. I can turn a perfect circle but can't go straight. The boat goes 2 feet left or right for every foot forward on the opposite side of your stroke. Those were the best results I acheived. My wife and I together can go relatively straight but its still quite a chore. Perhaps a skeg will help but the boat isn't designed for a skeg (according to Sevylor's Customer Service department) so I'd look at different boats or plan to buy the trolling motor (which is side mounted)