Ok, I put her in the water and she floated fine, the problem was with stability and how much of the sides was left above water when I was in it.
Reminder on demensions, total length 11'5" at gunnels, 10'6" at floor, Max width at floor in center of length 26", sides flaired to max at 34" in center, it is symetrically tapered to the ends, and the sides are 11" high in the middle and 12 at ends
It seemed like the sides were about 3-4" submerged with me at about 195 and nothing else in the boat. I'm guessing the angle of the sides from the bottom is about 12-15 degrees.
I quickly discovered the seats will likely have to go, sitting on them made the boat feel like it was gonna go over any second, but I was able to balance. I am about 6'4 so sitting height is about 3 feet if I'm sitting up straight, Is it normal for the canoe to feel that unstable, or am I expecting to much from such a small boat?
Sitting on the floor seemed better, not as tippy feeling, I could probably deal with it, but not sure how wife will feel about it.
It seemed to paddle easily, a couple strokes and she was scooting, and seemed easy to keep going strait the little I actually paddled, I was not sure of the ability of the boat, or mine since I have not canoed much in the past, and the water was too cold to swim so I did not do much.
So now for the questions.
Is this thing too small to be useful for calm water canoeing?
Did I make my sides too short for adequite displacement to carry about 345 lbs total weight
Is the stability directly related to the bottom being too narrow or too short?
I only have about 65 dollars material and 5-10 hours labor in it, should I scrap it and start over with a slightly larger plan? Or take the seats out and see how It works for us in calm water?
lol.
