Penobscot 17

I have had my Penobscot for about fifteen years. In that time I have paddled it in everything from wilderness lakes (Woodland Caribou PP) to whitewater rivers and everything in between. I find the Penobscot to be a good jack-of-all-trades canoe. Its mild rocker makes it reasonably maneuverable, while preserving reasonable glide. The flared bow deflects waves well to keep the boat dry. It has enough volume to carry all the gear (or children) that most people would want to carry. It has good primary stability and reasonable secondary stability. If you paddle from a kneeling position, as I do, you may find that the front edge of the seats dig into the back of your thighs, but that is easily correctable by putting longer seat drops on the front of the seats. At sixty-five pounds, the Penobscot is pretty heavy for wilderness tripping.

All things considered, if you only have the storage space or the budget for one canoe and you like to paddle in a variety of venues, the Penobscot would be a good choice for most uses.

It is a nice blend of of size 17'1" and weight 65lbs. being able to carry a lot of gear and not being overly heavy. So far the royalex hull has held up well to the beating that it gets from the shallow water that I sometimes use it in. It has a almost 34" hull at the waterline and has a shallow arch bottom which help it glide a long quite nice, but still is very stable.

For an all around canoe this is a great choice. The only thing that I have changed in my canoe is that I have slanted the seats a little to help for when I use it in the white water race that I do once a year.

From my years of cataraft experience I can say that 17 ft. is a lot of arm to swing especially from the far end so if you have problems maneuvering this boat from the rear seat try paddling from the more centered front seat.

Lotsa class 3 rapids. Paddled 4 or 5 times down Section 3 Chattooga. One Christmas we paddled the Buffalo and White in Arkansas with a dog and 250 pounds of gear. (A Kerosun heater will make you very popular with wet boaters in December!) The seats are high enough that you can get your feet under them comfortably if you're kneeling in whitewater. (Another reviewer faulted Old Town for having the seats too high - get off your tush!)

33 years and I still can't get the wife to let me buy another canoe - this Royalex just won't wear out! Although it has gotten fairly ugly...
How can I give it a 12?

As for it's initial stability, I would say it is very poor at best. Any sudden movements or aggressive weight shifting will have you grabbing for the gunwales quick. It can be leaned well for Canadian style paddling but again watch any quick movements. As for secondary stability I would say there is none. Once the boat starts to roll you are going swimming and it rolls really fast. The more load you have in it the quicker you and your gear will be in the water. Forget trying to pole up river in class 2 unless your legs are made of steel as you will spend most of your effort to stay in the boat.

After 2 years of trying to improve my skills to match the performance of the boat I gave up and bought an Old Town Appalachian 16. This boat so far exceeds my expectations I can hardly believe it. I have found the perfect river boat at last. I would never recommend the Penobscott to anyone.

I've also spent several hours with a friend, fly fishing from this boat and were very comfortable. My friend owns a Mad River Explorer and he was impressed with the way this boat handles. Lately my son (13 Yrs.old), takes it out on calm flat water BY HIMSELF and is able to move quite well in whatever direction he desires to go. He'll also pretend he is the Karate Kid and stand on the gunnals and balance himself.

Over the 11 years, our needs and useage of a canoe have changed and the Penobscot has met the challenge every time! It is light enough that I can put it up on a rack on the back of my truck by myself.

While I do miss the molded cup holders of my old mad river, this Old Town Penobscot canoe gets compliments everywhere I go from other Old Town owners including an 80 year old gent who reminisced about his Old Town canoe from years ago. Recommended for folks that want a good, reliable, and graceful water craft.

The Penobscot 17 is at home on rougher lakes, it goes well in class II water but you need to read a river well as mentioned already. We have owned ours for only a few outings and it's winter now, so for now I have to rate this as an 8 because I don't know it well enough yet. Just as with our Old Town Camper (not comparing canoes here as these are two completely different acting boats), I will say the rear seat needs lowering to suit me, but I'm tall and weigh 230 lbs, so I generally like to lower the center of gravity. The Penobscot 17 is great in the wind, I've even soloed it on a lake in the wind (sitting on padding about mid ship where I could lean forward or back to effect track), it quarters to the wind or with the wind and water very well and stays on track very well with power on or off. Also, the Penobscot 17 has volume for loading and paddles well loaded, though we haven't fully tested it out in this way as yet, especially on a river. We intend to use this canoe for down river running and packing in to camp, for a few days at a time. Same for lakes crossing and general touring or packing, so we hope it works out well, if not it will be for sale at the end of next season!