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Ditto on everything above. I've never seen a canoe oilcan this much. It makes me nervous. Even with a full load, the barrels are bouncing up and down with every paddle stroke.

It carries a large load and has gotten me through some bad whitewater, but it is a pig to paddle, and a cow to carry. At 16'6" it was advertised as 85 pounds, but it feels closer to 90. The carrying thwart was off center, I redrilled to make it balance, and that helped quite a bit on the long ports. I replaced the plastic seats with wooden ones I had made.

It's a pig meant to be abused, that's about all I can say.

I built a cedar strip of this model. Took it on a good trip this summer. Big lakes, lots of rapids, class I and II. The Winisk was great on the lakes, very fast and excellent in big water. It was also excellent in the rapids, much better than I thought a canoe of this size would handle. Left the 16' Kevlar Prospector in the dust on the lakes. A great canoe for two week trips!

I built a cedar strip of this model. I'm in love with it, it's fast, highly manoeuverable and takes some pretty big water. It's not a large volume canoe, but it will carry a fair amount of gear. It's asymetrical design gives it great tracking. A great solo canoe!