Summer-
I like the Prospector but I agree it’s not a fast lake boat. It is a very nice boat to paddle in most instances especially in white water or on our very crooked Missouri streams.

I’ve paddled mine around the lake a few times and if I had purchased it as a lake boat I’d want my money back. You’re right when you say it catches the wind and doesn’t track very well. I usually have mine loaded with a cooler and quite a bit more gear than anyone needs for an overnight or day trip. It seems to do much better on flat water when it has a couple hundred pounds of kit and paddlers in it.

In the first photo I have it heeled over canadian style without any gear. As you can see there’s a lot of boat out of the water to catch wind. However, paddling like this allows one to keep the boat moving in the right direction with minimal paddle input…still not fast though.

The second photo illustrates how we usually paddle the boat. My wife weighs 109 lbs so I pack most of the gear up front to help trim the boat out. The area immediately in front of me is usually empty and the dog occupies the area between the yoke and rear thwart. While I have never weighed the gear I can guess it’s around 80 lbs with another 60 for the cooler plus me at 260. Throw in a 20 pound dog and we’re pushing 529 pounds. This settles the Prospector quite well and allows us to cross the flatwater sections pretty quickly.

Here I am soloing the boat for some photos. No real gear except the Yeti cooler which weighs a ton. You can still see that most of the stem of the canoe is out of the water. It is easy to turn on a dime though.

I guess the real answer is that this boat is never going to be as fast as a kevlar Wenonah lake boat.

Dennis – 2 hours ago  » 
It sounds like you have made up your mind based on the type of paddling that you do and that is the way it should be. Canoes come in different sizes and shapes just like shoes. You can’t really expect one boat to excel at all tasks or for all canoeist to agree on which boat is best. Most people are going to talk up what they feel are the strong points of their boats while discounting the perceived flaws in others. Looking at specs doesn’t always help much either. I suspect that a lot of people have actually only paddled (on average) three different models of canoes and for very short periods of time, making any sort of comparison pretty superficial.

I think you’ve hit the nail on the head, Dennis. Not many of us have the chance to try out lots of different canoes, so our judgement is pretty superficial.

I’ve recently bought a Bell Chestnut Prospector. The reasons for choosing this boat were:

- I wanted a lighter boat than my old heavy polyethylene Ranger

- I read lots of reviews and liked the sound of it

- there was a used one for sale in excellent condition at a good price from a forum member

- I liked the colour and the looks of it! (aesthetics do count, lol)

So far I’m very happy with it. Goes best when tandem with lots of gear. Solo and unladen it can catch the wind a bit on lakes. Had it on rivers but only very placid ones so far. I’ve still got to give it a good long run though. I tend to use my Pack when solo, partly because I’m to lazy to hoist the Prospector on top of the car by myself.

One of the photos above shows the bow out of the water .. most people will put a rock or something else heavy in the bow to bring the bow down to resist wind and provide better tracking.  Probably any keeless canoe paddled empty will be more difficult to paddle straight, but keels are problems in many ways.  My Prospector has a semi-V hull which has always seemed an excellent compromise, tracts well, with good rocker it turns well, very stable .. when loaded for tripping I can stand up to stretch my legs in my Prospector, to take a photo, to scout ahead .. all with great safety.  Mine is an Evergreen but the gunwales are dangerous as they have a sharp inside edge which cuts into ropes and skinned my nuckles when I dropped the canoe during a lift to overhead.  I wouldn’t buy another 16 footer though, as even for solo tripping I carry a large load for safety and comfort and nutrition, and because I go for two month trips, and the extra foot would be welcome although what the canoe I have has done me excellent service.  Prospectors aren’t ‘fast’ as they’re not designed for speed, but for safety and load capacity, although they are easy to paddle, not cumbersome, not clunky .. I will never buy any canoe but a Prospector.  Also, anyone having trouble paddling a straight line should work on their stroke style, making sure the blade is 90 degrees to line of travel, and pulled back in a straight line to the line of travel .. this is far more important than shape of hull or style of paddle.  Also, about ‘heeled over Canadian style’ .. I’m a Canadian and I paddle exclusively in Canada mostly on large, popular canoeing waters, and I’ve have never seen anyone paddle in this style as it makes the canoe easy to capsize through wind, waves, or error.  I’ve only heard that paddling ’style’ called ‘Canadian style’ from non-Canadians. 

Becky Mason actually calls it Canadian-style paddling and Omering. It’s also called canoe ballet. A more refined style is called Freestyle. Mason does clinics and has a really good how-to video that teaches Canadian-style paddling. There has been a lot of research and real time experience done in the intervening years since you were born which contradicts old advice. Practice has actually shown that it’s a safe method of travel, which lowers the center of gravity and makes the canoe more stable.

Oh yeah, and about that video of Mason taking a spill in Lake Superior, he was not heeled over in that scene, and was more central to the boat with his body still as low as possible with his knees spread out to the sides of the canoe (a position he often used for whitewater canoeing).  His going over had little to do with any degree of heel, and more to do with the fact he was paddling in very large waves (at least 7 to 8 footers if my memory is correct).  He commented later that he was pushing himself too far trying to get good footage.

More about heeling a canoe.  To respond about my age .. I’m 64 but I started canoe tripping only in 2005.  The following quote comes from Omer’s story .. He would kneel in the center of the canoe and lean far over the side of the canoe when no one was watching.”  Omer was a young man not much more than a boy at that time, employed by professional canoeists who knew proper paddling techniques.  Omer seems to have started a fad, for sure, although I repeat I have never seen heeling used on the water, but fads also are like following lemmings off a cliff.  Also, we notice that in all the photos the heeled canoes are empty .. maybe heeling is a nice playtime thing when you can enjoy a dunking, but on a serious paddle it’s nothing but trouble.  I saw the Mason movie, and the waves were, in my opinion only about two or three feet, and I’ve paddled for two hours in 4 & 5 footers .. if Mason was accustomed to paddling heeled his balance would be affected whether he was heeling or not.   The proof is in the pudding though .. he flipped and almost died, and 60 Canadian paddlers die each year according to Red Cross stats, and most of them on lakes where wind and waves rise quickly .. so utmost stability is utomost surival.  Like the song says, “It’s your life .. you’ll do what you wanna do.”

Anyways…to get the topic back to the Prospector.  I do think its a great “all around canoe” but doesnt perform great in any single category.  I have a Nova Craft Prospector as well- at first I hated- now after several seasons of paddling it I really enjoy it.

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