Submitted: 05-07-2009 by glennkresge
I am writing in reference to these great canoes and my experience using them.
I started canoeing with my father when I was four years old. Back in the fifties, we owned wood and aluminum canoes. I always liked the Grumman compared to the wood for all applications that I used the canoe for, this included white water, still water and open water. As I grew older, I did a tour of duty in the Marines and Coast Guard, and I became a Boy Scouts Aquatics Instructor teaching canoeing and we used Grumman’s. Later on I owned composite canoes for all of the above application, but always returning to the mighty Grumman.
I have used these canoes on whitewater rivers up to a class III, and yes they handle just fine compared to any other canoe that I have used, and no they are not noisy as some have stated, but they are rugged. I was taking a composite canoe down the rain flooded Brandywine river just north of the Delaware state line in Pennsylvania when I hit a rock in the rapids, it busted the stem out of the composite canoe causing a flood of water to rush in, I had to abandon my trip that day. However, I have run this river many times in the mighty Grumman without putting a hole in it. More over, I have used these canoes all over our great nation; this includes the Atlantic ocean, Chesapeake bay, MD, Delaware River NY and PA, DE, Christiana River, DE, Chester River, MD; Choptank, MD, Tuckahoe, River, MD. In the state of Missouri, I used a 17 ft. Grumman to run some of the toughest rivers in the show-me state, and the Grumman all ways performed well, and I never had to leave a river because of damage, I cannot say that about the composite canoes.
I now own a 13 ft. Grumman and it handles very well and only weights in at 50 pounds. So Grumman does make a light canoe that is very portable, and will handle two large adults, they also have a 12 footer solo that weights less than forty pounds. |