What Is A Canoe
Many people don’t really know what a canoe is and for someone wanting to get into relaxing at the lake, the choice between a canoe and another type of boat can be confusing. That flat-topped construction manned with a double-headed paddle is just a fancy canoe, isn’t it? Think again.
A canoe, as defined by dictionaries, is a light, open, slender boat that has pointed ends and is propelled by paddles. There are many boats that are similar to that in nature, most notably the kayak. The best way to tell the difference between types of boats is that a canoe has an open top. The only other watercraft having an open top is the rowboat, and even that was based on the original design of the canoe. Any other boat that has a more closed top is not a canoe and should not be called such. Canoes are propelled by dipping paddles into the water and pushing backwards, and they usually move very quietly and silently through the water. While some are designed for use in white waters and rapids, most canoes are built with single-line travel in mind.
Native Americans are attributed as being those who invented the canoe. Their needs to cross water and use rivers as highways saw the birth of the simple watercraft. Trees were the perfect material and hollowed-out logs provided the first design of the canoe. Even today, though construction materials have changed, the original design of the canoe remains very true to its ancestor and no technology has managed to improve on the concept of the canoe.
There are, however, a few other materials used in the construction of modern canoes. Some of the more popular ones include fiberglass, aluminum, Kevlar, and Royalex. Fiberglass is a generic term for plastic resins, a material that’s generally inexpensive, but does not last for long against the rigors of canoeing. Aluminum canoes tend to be durable, but are often unattractive in appearance and have a bad habit of sticking to rocks on the bottom of lakes and rivers. Kevlar is a very, very durable, strong material that creates an incredibly long-lasting canoe. It’s lightweight and moves easily, but it can be rather expensive, since Kevlar is a difficult material to work with. Royalex is the brand name of a plastic made by Uniroyal that is tough and durable, but Royalex canoes tend to be a bit on the heavy side and slow in motion.
By Sports Info Editor
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