Aurora

My wife and I are experienced paddlers. Our paddling is split between quiet rivers and streams and the more protected areas of Casco Bay (in Maine, USA). We don’t paddle whitewater. For us, the Aurora (Kevlar ultralight) is everything we hoped it would be.

Our primary canoe has been a 16-foot, narrow, fast, round-bottomed Nature Bound Whisper II that has served us well for 25+ years. But it is heavy (68 lbs) and hasn’t enough volume to ever feel comfortable loaded with camping gear or on Casco Bay once the wind comes up a bit. Our other tandem has been a Swift Algonquin 17 which we bought when we were camping with our kids. Also a bit heavy (65 lbs) in the glass layup we could afford at the time, but a nice, big, pleasant canoe. Now that the kids are grown it’s really a bit big for day tripping. We’re small folk, and with just us in it we get blown around more than we like. Neither canoe is exactly a joy to put up on the car.

Enter the Aurora — Super light weight, pleasantly stable, the right amount of volume, faster than the Algonquin 17 and, surprisingly, seems just as fast as our older 16-foot boat. It also turns more easily than our old 16-foot boat and more easily than the Algonquin 17 when it’s properly loaded. In both the twisty little places and the big Casco Bay waves the bit of rocker is nice. We don’t have any trouble keeping it going straight either — both my wife and I know our strokes well enough.

I have not paddled the Aurora solo, but I assume I’ll manage. For me, the skinny, round 16-foot is great for that, and we also have a little Old Town Pack, so solo paddling was never a factor when considering the Aurora.

The Aurora really seems like a perfect canoe for us. We feel safe and comfortable and fast enough. I have no doubt that camping from it will be fine. (Again, we’re small folk.) FYI, the runner-up in our search was the Nova Craft Pal, which was a lovely boat but lacking the volume we were looking for.

A note regarding materials and stability: We test paddled the Aurora in both T-Formex and Kevlar Ultralight, and they had a very different feel. The T-Formex boat (at least the one we tested) had more initial stability. We immediately dubbed the T-Formex Aurora “the SUV” as we test paddled different boats. There was no “oil canning” in the T-Formex boat but I suspect there’s just a little flex in the T-Formex hull that flattens the bottom a bit and reduces the rocker a bit once it’s in the water. In contrast, the Kevlar Ultralight Aurora was noticeably livelier, with less initial stability (though plenty enough for us, even unloaded). We liked both layups but chose the ultralight Kevlar both for the light weight and livelier feel.

A further note about our ocean paddling: Where and when we paddle in Casco Bay, the water is pretty warm, the wind is blowing on shore, the tides aren’t fast, and we’re protected from open ocean swells. We stick close to shorelines as much as possible, for the beauty as well as the security. If we capsize we won’t die from hypothermia, and we (or the boat) won’t be swept into open ocean. We also pay close attention to the weather. Casco Bay a beautiful place to paddle, but, as with any bigger water, you need to be careful and be prepared to extend your picnic as long as necessary until things calm down.

This is an addendum to our review of the Aurora Kevlar Ultralight on 08-28-2014. There are two issues we would like to discuss further, trim and boat speed.

In our previous review, we mentioned that the Aurora is sensitive to trim in wind and waves. We would like to clarify that statement by saying that all canoes are sensitive to trim in wind and waves. The difference is that in many of the asymmetrical hull designs currently popular, it is more difficult to achieve a proper trim than a boat with a symmetrical hull and more rocker.

For example, we are currently paddling the Wenonah Prospector 16 Kevlar Ultralight in the Midcoast region. The Prospector hull is symmetrical and has a lot more rocker. We can, therefore, hold the nose down into the oncoming wind and waves just by shifting the normal gear we carry a little forward of the center thwart. This eliminates the frustration of putting a lot of extra weight in the bow of the boat, as we are forced to do in the Aurora.

In our previous review we also forgot to mention boat speed. The Aurora is the slowest boat we have owned. We came to this conclusion after preparing a table comparing the average speed of four canoes we have used for paddling in the Midcoast region of Maine. By average speed, we mean how long it takes to get somewhere under actual conditions of tide, wind and waves. The results in mph are as follows:

1. Wenonah Escape (Polyester-Fiberglass, 17.5'): 3.4
2. Wenonah Prospector 15 (Royalex, 15'): 3.3
3. Old Town Tripper (Royalex, 17'): 3.0
4. Wenonah Aurora (Kevlar Ultralight, 16'): 2.7

We don't have enough data yet to establish the average speed of the Prospector 16 Ultralight.

Average conditions in the Midcoast region include winds in the range of 10 miles per hour, seas of 1 to 1.5 feet and tidal currents averaging about 1 mph. Sometimes these factors are in your favor and other times they are working against you. The average speed in the table, therefore, requires a lot of mileage under varying conditions to produce an accurate picture of a boat's overall performance.

Tested, did not buy. Great canoe though, just lacking in speed and efficiency.

Tested it in Kevlar UltraLite. Very light, ridiculously stable both initial and while moving. Very good maneuverability - the easiest canoe to turn I tested. A little tricky to keep tracking straight though. Definitely lacking in speed.

Overall would be an AWESOME twisty river boat. Super light for portage, cut around trees and switchbacks with ease, and carry a lot of gear. Never feel like you are going to go in the water when you stop.

I was looking for a smaller boat that could handle a variety of condition when I purchased the 16-foot Royalex version of the Aurora and I couldn’t be happier. I did take a hard look at the Spirit II and choose to go with a smaller boat that is a better match to our (wife and myself) smaller frames and a bit easier to move around and load and unload on our vehicle. I also wanted a solid yet maneuverable boat that could take a large wake from a power boat while loaded, but still be small enough to thread up some small water.

We typically paddle a large narrow lake on the Columbia River (Lake Roosevelt) with a modest amount of powerboat traffic, and have some smaller rivers (almost creeks) that feed and out of it that we like to explore. I usually go out with my wife, a 25 lbs dog and a mix of gear depending on what were up to that trip. Typically, our total weight is about 425 lbs.

After a number of paddling trips in a variety of conditions and weight in the Aurora here is my take on this boat. If you’re over 5'8" or so, this is not your boat. I’m 5'8" and weight 160 lbs and the boat is comfortable, but not spacious. We’ve owned a bigger boat and the width and size was a bit large for us to paddle comfortably, especially if paddling solo, but the Aurora is very easy to paddle solo for my size. The Aurora at 64 lbs is no problem for my 5'2" wife and myself to load and unload from the top of my Jeep.

The boat tracks fairly well for a 16-foot boat, but seems to track even better with a bit of weight in it. I’ve read that the boat is trim sensitive. I have found that not to be the case, but we typically load with a slightly weight forward trim while in tandem. I like to sit in the front and weigh the most of both of us, so it trims out just right for most head wind conditions. If you are out solo in this boat, I did notice that weight forward helped the tracking. The boat is as fast as any I’ve tried in the same class. The Old Town Penobscot 16 felt very similar, but had a tad bit more legroom in the bow. The Penobscot did not seem to be as fast and did not seem to track as well with my weight in the front, so we went with the Aurora. Quite honestly, they both seemed almost identical in build, performance and price, but the Aurora seems to have a better fit and finish. Honestly, I don’t think you could go wrong with either boat.

The seaworthiness of the Aurora became evident on one of our trips. We had a large powerboat shoot around a bend in the lake that was pushing a lot of water while turning. The easy maneuvering of the Aurora allowed us to sweep into a quartered position and into the wake easily. The taller bow took the wake like a champ, even with about 500 lbs in it and trimmed a bit weight forward; the boat also road the up and down swell with excellent stability. I don’t know if we would have been able to swing a slower handling boat around as quickly with enough time to develop decent forward momentum as we did.

The bottom line for the Aurora in my opinion: if you’re smaller in stature and aren’t looking for massive payload and like a respectfully swift, seaworthy, responsive boat, you won’t be disappointed. If you’re tall or just have long legs, I’d look at the Spirit II.

Some folks have given this boat some pretty scathing reviews and for the life of me I can't figure out why.
I bought the royalex version of this boat used at the end of the summer of 2007 and got several trips in this boat before the season ended.

Now keep in mind that this boat is intended to be versatile. It's meant to handle both light rapids and some open water stretches as well as haul some gear. As such, it cannot excel at anything in particular, although if I had to say what this boat's strength is, it would be river tripping.

I outfitted mine with some bow/stern flotation, a thwart bag for the stern and an under-seat bag for the bow. I plan on adding some gear lashing points for amidships this winter. So far, most of my paddling in this boat has been on flatwater since most rivers were too low by late summer.

This boat has very deep ends that catch the wind easily, so you have to work harder to keep it going straight. With practice, though, it's not so bad. It does glide pretty well for what it is and my wife (who is rather small) and I can actually pick up a fair bit of speed in it.

On the limited moving water use this boat has received, the deep ends helped to keep spray in the river where it belonged. A well used paddle can nearly turn this boat on a dime, so it's nicely maneuverable, at least when lightly loaded. It's a little lively at first, but put this boat on a lean and you find a nice sweet, solid spot. I'm very confident in the boat's stability, although my wife might beg to differ when I'm testing the boat's limits.

I've not yet loaded this boat with its limit of gear or people yet. I've only paddled it with a limited amount of equipment (less than 300lb worth of paddlers plus some food and drinks for lunch). I would suspect that the boat will settle down when loaded. I'm not concerned with pushing the limits on a camping trip. I'm a backpacker with a lot of lightweight gear. I can pack gear and food for two people plus a dog for a week for less than 80lb, so even when I go cushy for a canoe trip, I won't be pushing the capacity limits of this boat.

As long as you keep in mind that this boat is intended to be a versatile canoe and as such will be full of compromises, this canoe performs its intended purpose very well. Nothing is perfect, so I can't in good conscience give it a 10, but I'm more than satisfied with this boat. And if I had the money, I might actually have paid full price for a new one even.

I have owned the Aurora for a year now and I'm severely dissappointed. I've paddled many different styles of canoes and spend a considerable amount of time in them each year so I feel I have enough experience to give the Aurora a valid rating. For starters the canoe is cramped not only in the front but also the rear making it uncomfortable if your long legged. Second, the Aurora is extremely trim sensitive, if it is not loaded just right it becomes extremely difficult to manage in windy conditions. I just finished testing its trim charachteristics by comparing it over the past two days with a competitors canoe of similiar specs and design on the same piece of water, with the same gear, and in moderately widy conditions. The Aurora was the claer loser. I've had this canoe on both multi-day river and lake trips and have never been impressed. On one outing we brought several youth on a lake trip and had a variety of canoes with us. One day the lake was particularly rough and I was paddling with an average size 16 year old in the front, adjacent to us was an Old Town Discovey 169 with one adult equal in stature to myself and two youth about equal in size to my passenger. The Discovery rode higher and was providing them with a much drier ride (at almost half the price). The only good things I can say about the Aurora is that it is well constructed, fairly light, and paddles rather quickly. If you are looking for a seaworthy canoe for large lakes like we have here in northern Maine, don't buy the Aurora there are much better options. If you want a fairly light canoe that your not going to load heavy or take in hard conditions the Aurora might be ok for you. I could go on about this canoes short comings but I won't, I just hope I can save someone from buying this canoe for something it is not.

Just received our 16' Aurora Kevlar ultra-lite (37 lbs!). Took it out solo - windy and somewhat unstable. I went to shore, added weight to the front and the canoe performed beautifully. What a pleasure to paddle. The best part? Putting it on top of the truck - light and easy. My second trip was to a fly-fishing only pond in NH. With all the casting, the stability was superb. It was pricey but I'm older and weight was THE consideration. I am very pleased. Thanks, We-no-nah, for a great boat.

I have had my Aurora for 2 months now and put in 20 days with it. I've paddled the Kananaskis, Bow, and several lakes. Just got back from the Churchhill River system (Saskatchewan) and had it tripping with 8 days of gear. Unbelievably the boat maintained sufficient freeboard with tonnes of gear (and beer), tracked reasonably well, and handled the larger waters of some of the Lakes we crossed. I soloed the canoe with the ash yoke across a few portages, including one which was 300 Meters. My royalex hull wieghs in at 64 pounds, but I found it a reasonable solo. We did run some class 3+ water, Otter rapids in extremly high water level. Since we were tripping we had no airbags, just canoe and my big cousin. We took the first half of the rapids fine but we took on a boat load of water when we struck a multidirectional wave (didn't have a clue which angle to approach the crazy waves). My boat then got swollowed by "the man eater" and got pounded into several rocks. Only one small dent in my polycarb gunnels and a few scrathes! I love the durability of royalex! Honestly I was very impressed with the canoe in the rapids until the inevidible intrusion of the water once we entered the technical 4 foot waves; most other canoes that would be appropriate for tripping would have been swollowed up much earlier.

I am so far very impressed with the versatility of the boat; good tripper good for small whitewater. A very good compromise. I am going to buy a solo play boat soon and my aurora will do everything else I need to do.

We were anxious to try out our newly purchased 16-foot, 37 pound tandem Aurora canoe (made by We-no-nah) a Kevlar ultra-lite, without the added gel coat. This is the lightest weight material We-no-nah uses and it made car-topping it a lot easier on our backs than our venerable 30-year-old Grumman aluminum 70 pound 15-footer. Once we loaded it onto our car roof and packed the car, we drove 1200 miles to Florida's west coast to begin our winter vacation and paddle. Despite high winds and driving speeds, the boat handled everything well and seemed aerodynamic.

Our first few excursions were on lakes and slow-moving streams to allow us to get a feel for the Aurora's handling, and also to get used to the alligators that were on the river banks as well as in the water! Stability was excellent; the canoe could be tilted quite a bit to the side without capsizing. The most stringent test of maneuverability came on Juniper Run, which is arguably the best half-day canoe trip in all of Florida. This water is supplied by Juniper Springs, located in the recreation area of the same name in Ocala National Forest. At the beginning, the stream is shallow and so narrow that there isn't room to turn the boat around. The creek twists and turns, widening slightly and gradually becoming deeper as springs along the way contribute to the water flow. The surroundings are absolutely pristine, The only sounds to be heard come from the birds and water droplets falling from the paddle as it is brought forward for the next stroke. The current is fast enough to do most of the work until the last section of the run is reached. Here, the stream is wide, shallow and slow. The Aurora performed beautifully on this 4-hour trip. We were able to pivot quickly to negotiate the fast turns. When we reached the slow portion of the stream, the Aurora had sufficient glide to make our progress easier, even though grasses brushed the underside of the canoe in some places. What was really a surprise, as well as fun to see, was looking through the boat and seeing the shadows of these grasses.

The Estero River, near Fort Myers, provided a different challenge. Canoes and kayaks share the river with powerboats, most of whom were considerate, slowing down to minimize their wake as they approached us. A few pretended that we weren't there, and went tearing through at top speed. We turned into their wake as they went by and bounced quite a bit, but did not take on any water. When we reached Estero Bay, we felt confident enough to venture into the open water to explore some of the small islands.

One of our last canoe trips was on the Myakka River, a meandering, slow-moving stream whose banks are favorite resting spots for alligators. Admittance to this section of Myakka River State Park (near Sarasota) is limited, and a permit is needed. We took advantage of the stability of the Aurora to shoot video clips of alligators and wading birds. We were also thankful that we could load the canoe with all our equipment and still have room for ourselves!

In summary, we feel the Aurora is an excellent all-around boat, and perfect for the kind of canoeing we like to do, particularly in Florida's beautiful, exciting rivers and our own New Jersey winding, prestine rivers. Besides, the uncoated Kevlar material looks really cool with the sun shining through it, and we loved all the compliments we kept receiving from other canoeists. It was also great not to suffer any pain while loading the boat onto our car roof because it's so light and easy to lift.