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Prospector 16
Prospector 16 Description
The Prospector 16 is a canoe brought to you by Langford Canoe Company. Read Prospector 16 reviews or submit your own review to share with the paddling community. Check out a few other canoe recommendations below or explore all canoes to find the perfect one for you!
Langford Canoe Company
Prospector 16 Reviews
Read reviews for the Prospector 16 by Langford Canoe Company as submitted by your fellow paddlers. All of the reviews are created and written by paddlers like you, so be sure to submit your own review and be part of the community!
Mediocre canoe, extremely…
Mediocre canoe, extremely bad customer service, shop looks.like a boat junkyard with all the old junker canoes and old boats outside. Avoid at all costs and go get a swift and be happy and covered with great customer service and warranty from people who actually build the boats they sell and not sub it oit to other boat builders..aka a middleman!.
Bought fibreglass/kevlar…
Bought fibreglass/kevlar 16'6" Prospector in 2002 and still going strong. Slightly heavier than claimed but strong, steady, stable and fast enough to beat the ferry at Glenora from shore to shore. Paddled the Atlantic Ocean, salt water marshes, east coast fjords, mountain lakes, streams and rivers from Ontario to Nova Scotia, smooth and rough water from chop to waist high waves and taller. Carried two to four adults comfortably. It does catch the wind when broadside but you learn to control it with practise. The ash gunwales and cherry trim still beautiful but the hull is showing it's age with every shoal unseen leaving their signature. After trying other brands, I'd buy it again.
I've had my boat for a couple…
I purchased my Lanford kevlar…
Recently during a weekend trip the bow seat broke. The bow seat is set up to slide fore and aft. The resulting seat supports are "thin" and have always seemed "spongy". I emailed Langford to find out about a replacement or fix for this. I would prefer to have a fixed front seat, since the current configuration is not robust enough for anything but a cottage boat. Langford responded, indicating that the bow seat failure is rare and that the replacement piece of wood (30 inches long by 3/4 inch square) was $25. I realize this is not a lot, however the canoe was $2,000 and is only 5 years old. I would have expected this to be replaced at no charge. It should not have broke. I will fix the seat myself with something a little more robust.
I'll start with the…
The plus side: It has paddled well over the years. It is a very dynamic boat, highly manoverable, tracks well, seaworthy, and can carry a lot of gear. The bottom held its shape, no flopping up and down. When going over an unseen rock the hull flexed upwards, and returned to its original position, no cracking at all... a strong hull. Got plenty of compliments on the look of the canoe. People often said "that's a nice canoe."
I did have problems dealing with them, too. I actually had made an appointment to pick up a new set of outer gunnels. When I arrived in Dwight (had driven for 3 hours) the guy was nowhere to be found! luckily someone from the store was able to piece together why I was there and found a set of gunnels from me, but they weren't even Langford's own ash gunnels. They were cherry gunnels from Swift Canoe! Nonetheless, I was able to fit them on the canoe, but I would have preferred the thicker ash gunnels. Finally, you may have noticed that their carved yoke is 1/4 inch narrower at one end. I re-orderd a new one, years later (after breaking the original one - my fault)and it too was 1/4 narrower. They need to fix their jig.
So, in summary: a good canoe all in all, but poor workmanship in places, deceiving weights, lousy and disorganized customer service. Although their canoes are beautiful looking, I'd really hesitate to buy one because of poor after sales support, and hidden defects.
I have been canoeing for 35…
I bought a prospector from…
Love the canoe, dealing with their office, not so much.