Eagle

My dad bought our 17ft Grumman used in the late '50s. It has been in all 5 Great Lakes, the Atlantic, Yellowstone Lake, and hundreds of rivers and lakes along the way. Now mine, and other than the 72lb weight seems to me as good a canoe as any, and is still in great shape. The downside is the noise that can be made and the fact that it tends to hang up on river rocks where Royalex slides right over.

This canoe has handled 5-7ft waves, some pretty good rapids, paddles easily on lakes, with the help of a good polish. This canoe can go many more generations with care. Not affected by UV light, seemingly unaffected by constant stresses, and gets dents and scratches rather than holes when meeting rocks. Just bought a second one so others can join the fun.

Nice thing about any canoe is the low maintenance and easy storage. Not to mention the great places it can take you. Great to explore a marsh in spring....

Found my 1971 17' eagle a couple of years ago. I think it was used as a planter because there were few scratches and no dents on it. The scouts and I solved that problem. It has been used on river trips over 100 mi and has performed great. 2 peoples gear wont even clear the gunwales packed for 5 days. It tracks nice, at first seems a bit unstable but you get used to it. It isn't slow, but it does take a bit to get up to speed. I wouldn't call it nimble, it is 17' long with a keel, however it has been steered by a lot of kids with not a ton of experience over 100's of miles so I assume it turns well enough. It is made to go long and straight, and that is what it does real well.

Downsides - The inside of alum canoes is like a reflector oven. 2 cans of flat tan camo paint cured that. Seats are alum canoe seats. For long trips you need a backrest. Alum sticks on rocks, period. It will hang up where a plastic boat will bump over.

Nothing is a 10 but if you are looking for a tripping boat that you can bang up some and still plan on owning for a long time, you will have a hard time finding a much better, almost maintenance free, canoe that works this well.

I just bought a 15' Eagle Square Stern, lightweight (63 lbs) and love it. I check with the Grumman people and, based on the hull #, it was built in 1988. I can get it on and off my truck by myself. I am going to fabricate a seat in the center so I can paddle from the middle when alone.

I have an older Grumman Eagle that is really a nice canoe. It is very stable so I was able to take very young children without fear of tipping. I found very little flex in the bottom, which is not always the case with fiberglass canoes. I even used it for sailing with success on Forked Lake in New York. Attaching pontoon flotation was a breeze when my little ones wanted to try and paddle from the seat as well as young kids out alone.

It's not terribly light but easy enough for two people to carry it. It has been dragged over rocks, hit by rocks and all manner of other abuse but none of that shows. I would buy another Grumman Eagle if I had to, but this one is doing very well. My parents still own their Grumman canoes and they are more than 40 years old (the canoe's) and still in use with no problems.

We had a Grumman Eagle from 1987 until 2004. The boat is totally aluminum and totally sunproof and showed only mild surface pitting after being used exclusively in salt water. After we got kayaks, we never used the canoe and therefore sold it. It is a pig to paddle compared the the yaks!

I picked up my Grumman Eagle in 1995 and have used it well over the years. Done a fair amount of camping out of it and I have never had any trouble with weight capacity or reduction in speed. It's been on the Delaware River between PA and NJ, Moraine Lake in the Canadian Rockies, under the railroad tunnel in Whiteshell, Manitoba and down the OSO River in Corpus Christi, Texas. It has seen the Peace, Wekiva, Kelly Run, Econlockhatchee, Withalacoochee and many others her in Florida. Right now it sits off Lake Holden in the heart of Orlando. Should be taking another trip on the Santa Fe or Econ before this summer is out. Overall this is a great canoe camper, it's like an RV. Might even carry my MTB one day.

I got my Grumman Eagle as a graduation gift in 1982. Since that time, we have traveled more than 2500 mile together. In many ways, it is a very likable canoe. It is light at 66 lbs. Unlike other Gruman models, it has a slightly arched bottom and a whole lot of flare, so it can handle waves and boat wakes without any problem. It is easy to turn, yet tracks quite well. And it can hold a fair amount of people and gear. And, being aluminum, it doesn't ave to be babied at all. One washing a year just about does it! On the flip side, it isn't all that fast, the falred hull shape makes it a bit hard to paddle at times, and the keel on the bottom makes it a bit hard to handle on white water (although she has run a lot of class III rapids over the years without any problems).

I've got other, more advanced canoes, but the Grumman is the one I always hang on to. She's been the Atlantic, on the Chesapeake, and on rivers from the St. Lawrence to the backwaters of the the Everglades, and she's been able to handle it all. Not too many other boarts could say the same!