Lamoille

I've used my Kevlar Lamoille on Lake Champlain in choppy water, as well as the Quetico on a two-week trip. It's a fast and very light canoe. The major problem is the length of the boat. You can't turn very fast, which makes it hard to manuever in rapids. Be prepared to add extra weight in the bow if you have a skinny paddler up there. Heavy wind pushes the bow all over the place. The Lamoille is best for long trips when you have a lot of gear.

I have used the Kevlar Lamoille on two wilderness expeditions in the Canadien Arctic for a total of over 1,200 miles. Each time we headed out with 5 weeks worth of gear. Paddling the Kazan river, the Elk and the Thelon in the Northwest Territories we encountered many large lakes as well as significant rapids. the Lamoille handled all in great fashion. We even tried paddling broadside to large waves in 30 MPH winds with a 10 mile reach for the wind. Incredible is all I can say for the performance of this boat as well as the strength of the layup. We also encountered and ran most all rapids (we are very experienced WW paddlers) and I only rate the boat a 9 instead of a 10 because it takes a real experienced team to make necessary moves in white water. It doesn't turn real fast but paddles like a dream in most conditions. We paddled 50 miles on 3 different days. I highly recommend this great boat to anyone taking a trip or wanting a quality boat that really moves through the water.

This is the canoe we used as a family with two young children. It could handle the four of us and a week's worth of gear in the BWCAW. We could make this canoe fly into large quartering waves on Jackfish Bay with ease. It was also great for weekend river camping trips. The boat is very fast, dry, and stable. With a little lean, it turns quite easily (for an 18'er). We sold ours when it wasn't getting used very much. The kids are older and now padddle their own solo canoes. It was a fiberglass layup and it was heavy. We hope to be able to buy one of the light Kevlar layups some day.