Rendezvous

I have put in over 500 miles with my Royalex Rendezvous canoe and I love it. I paddle alot of rivers in Georgia, mainly the small ones that wind through back country often with dead falls at every turn. I go with a group that uses all solo Wenonah canoes, most having zero rockers. For the most part they will fight to turn their canoes at every sharp point while I effortlessly drift the turns avoiding the Eddy's, dead falls and hanging limbs. The tracking in this canoe can somewhat be managed by adding more weight to the back but with it's rocker, will never truly track straight. The only other issue was I wanted to sit lower in the canoe for stability so I had to rig my seat to go roughly three inches lower. This canoe is also stable as long as you pack some weight in it, empty and your gonna struggle but that is with almost all canoes.

Material: Kevlar Ultra light

Reading these reviews, it's like people are reviewing two different animals. It sounds like the Royalex version handles much less well than the Kevlar/Tuf-weave version, as the bad reviews all seem to be about Royalex versions. Fortunately I have a Kevlar Ultra light version, and it's a wonderful boat. It's a little heavier than some of my other Wenonah Kev ultra lights, but I'm guessing it gets a little sturdier construction given it's possible use in whitewater. But it's still under 40 pounds I'd guess. It's very easy to lift from the ground to over head without any special technique.

This was one of my very first solo canoes and was a good boat to learn in. It's very forgiving with excellent final stability, and not too bad primary stability either. As a whitewater boat, it's fun and very dry. I've been pleasantly surprised at how durable its been for me over the years. Sometimes you just can't avoid the rock garden, but the hull doesn't show much wear. Without the experience, I wouldn't have believed it. I've used my tuf-weave Solitude in whitewater too, and while it does well too, it shows the impacts where the Kevlar hasn't.

As a lake and river boat, I wouldn't have expected this one to do as well as it does. It actually turns out to be a decent tracking boat considering the rocker it has. It doesn't have the glide that my Prism does, but does about as well as my Vagabond or Solitude. It will paddle a nice straight line with regular J-strokes from one side without having to switch sides if you don't want to.

It's big enough to carry a load, but handles well empty for simple day trips. I've taken it on week long camping trips over various water conditions. It's a great all around do it all canoe that can handle just about anything you throw at it. Even though it's one of my first solos and I've added to the fleet since, it's still one I go back to again and again.

Cons: very tippy & not very maneuverable considering, can't carry much load considering length and weight, oilpans more than some other Royalex boats (acts more like Royalite but without lightweight characteristics), ugly metal seathangers, ugly battleship gray interior, ugly maroon exterior (if I wanted an ugly boat, I'd buy a kayak), noisy metal gunwales.

Pros: hmmmm... can't think of any right now.

This is strictly an Expert Boat, not because an expert would ever buy one, but because it takes an expert to know how to compensate for its design flaws. Of the boats at our livery-- Bell Northwind and Northshore, Old Town Penobscot, Mohawk 14'-- this is by far the least favorite, and the only boat that has managed to dunk every guide (we don't put clients in it). It fails the stand-up-paddle test and the water-entry test. It wants to roll like a log but doesn't have the agility you'd expect. A Mohawk 14' in Royalite is a much better/lighter small solo boat, or for the Rendevous' weight/length I'd much rather be kneeling solo in a Royalex Bell Northwind or Old Town Penobscot. A nice fellow from Denver told me, "it's tippy when bow heavy. Has to be trim of bow up." Whatever... If you inherit one of these, condolences.

When I was looking to purchase another canoe I found this website as well as the forums very informative. For that, I will do my part to input my own thoughts. My write up involves the purchase of a Royalex Wenonah Rendezvous.

For people trying to figure out if a boat is correct for them is difficult as posters have all different interests, skill levels, etc. I am extremely happy with the handling, speed, and stability of the Rendezvous. Having said that let me explain my interest and background.

I am 41 and have been paddling rocky creeks around SW Mo and NW Ar for many years. I do a lot of camp floating carrying much gear as well as fishing small creeks in the middle of summer in low water levels. In my younger days I paddled the upper Buffalo many times in high water as well as Hailstones. Paddled some WW rivers out east, and many others. With that said, I did my share of swimming and have not paddled WW rivers in some time and don’t intend to anymore. Also I had the opportunity to fish the BWCA four times in Rented Kevlar Wenonah’s. However, a good two or three day camp float on the Buffalo at Ponca with a foot of air space is certainly still in my sights.

Myself as well as all my buddies have owned several boats over time, but at this stage we have sold all of our bathtub rockered WW boats and stick with 16 footers with 36" widths and still have a hoot.

Over the last several years I have found myself paddling my Mowhawk Intrepid 16 by myself more often than not. Great boat, but solo I thought I might look for a smaller boat. I wanted a narrower boat for more efficient paddling strokes, a faster boat, Rocker between 1 to 2 inches, but did not want to sacrifice the ability to run down river and hit big rollers and did not want a shallow boat.

After researching boats it was evident that the canoe builders put slightly rounded bottoms on down river boats. That spooked me as far as stability, and low water fishing and swimming trips. Also, these boats were a great deal narrower than what I have been accustomed to and I did not want a tippy WW boat. I found myself looking at the Wenonah Argosy, Rendezvous, Bell Yellowstone’s, Nova Craft Supernova, Mad River Freedom Solo, and the Mohawk Odysseys. These boats are narrow and I was hesitant due to the stability factor as well as most of these boats have rounded bottoms and people consider them WW boats.

Well I found a nice Wenonah Rendezvous for sale used. Doug in KC had it and I decided to head north with cash in hand and give this northern/Canadian style boat a try. Paddled it the other day and I was pleasantly surprised with stability. Trust me I had my doubts about such a narrow beam width. This boat was great so I started fixing the skid plates as well as installing some anchor tie down points in the hull.

The boat is a typical Wenonah design with pointed and narrow ends for speed, but the bow of this boat is very deep and flares quickly to keep you dry in rollers. The boat had already been modified by increasing the bow width and moving the seat back a few inches per Eric Nyre at canoecolorado.com.

Now having paddled it, I’m glad I did not get a shorter boat such as the argosy or the yellowtone solo. This boats feels small and short when paddling and I need the camping space. Comfortable on the seat, but when technical stuff is coming I plan on dropping down to the knee pads

I still will float my trusty Mohawk Intrepid, but when paddling alone no way. Bring on the camp floats, and a mixture of water conditions and I’m set. I will also try to post my experiences with skid plate installation over the years, Epoxies, do-it-yourself tie mounts, & knee pads in other sections of the forum.

I’m adding this to my last review on this boat. This is a great boat if you want to take a dog with you but only if you put them behind you. The boat is steady enough and actually handles better with the dog placed behind the paddler. In the bow makes the stern way to light and to hard to control the boat. I have also found that it’s easier to keep the boat under control with stern strokes rather than bow.

There is some confusion when people compare Royalex and Kevlar (or Tuffweave) Rendezvous. While the boats may look similar, their performance is different.

The Kevlar Rendezvous is actually fairly fast. It requires one to switch sides frequently, but with good paddling technique it scoots along quite well. My GPS topped it out at 6.2 mph, with a cruising speed of 5mph. The Royalex Rendezvous is not nearly as nice. The blunt entry pushes water, and the fixed seat makes adjusting trim difficult. The Royalex Rendezvous is better suited to moving water, while the composite is more versatile.

We-no-nah removed the Kevlar construction from their catalog. It is still available, with the same prices/ options as a comparable Prism.

If you have a Royalex Rendezvous bought before 2004, you may have noticed some problems with the boat. We have built a site at www.canoecolorado.com/canoeing/wenonah/rendezvous/modification.htm that gives guidelines on how to fix those problems with some simple modifications.

I bought a used expedition layup Kevlar Rendezvous on a whim, before I knew about the rocker. But during a 246 mile river trip, I learned that with the proper paddle, it propelled me for 34 reasonably comfortable miles per day. Purists, you can stop reading now, because it was a long carbon fiber sea kayak paddle that made the difference. I had purchased the paddle just to provide variety during my 10 hours in the boat each day, but after 1.5 days, I realized that the kayak paddle added a full 1 mph to my pace, not to mention being easier to handle in headwinds. My three canoe paddles rested for the remainder of the trip. I'll do the 213 mile Suwannee this fall, carrying one canoe paddle as my backup. (Fortunately, where I paddle close to home, no one really knows what is supposed to be correct anyway, so I get no odd looks.) Seriously, the rocker problem disappears with a light, long kayak paddle.

Of my current three canoes, the Rendezvous remains the ugly stepchild --very hard to love. Plus side: extremely tough, quite stable, fairly maneuverable, vast cargo room. A great boat -- theoretically -- for wilderness whitewater river expeditions. However, in the real world of weekend trips on the pokier home rivers, this is not a happy choice. On quieter water (including some Class I rapids) this boat is a barge. Extremely slow, especially with head winds of any consequence. Problem persists even while kneeling and using strong forward strokes with proper vertical shaft placement. Frequent corrective strokes can't be avoided, which, of course, cuts the speed while doubling the effort. Weight of boat is also problematic; difficult for smaller folks (I'm 5'5", 150#) to heft on/off car top racks without assist. Ditto for carrying to/from put-in/take-outs. All 'round: a disappointment from We-no-nah.

More on the Rendevous: the first thing I do to any Wenonah that I'm going to use in difficult whitewater is to replace their wimpy thwarts. I've been substituting 3/4 inch red oak flooring which is strong, easy to grip for re-entry and allows you to mount a rod holder for fishing. I also add contoured knee pads and triangular foam wedges under the gunnel as thigh braces. I don't use knee straps. You can remove the bench seat (provided you beef up the thwarts)and install a pedastal. If you do this though, you should coat the inside of the hull where you are going to mount the D-rings with some epoxy. Otherwise, the inside of the hull will develop stress fractures ... at least that is what happened on my Wenonah Sandpiper.

With respect to the seat placement, I've experienced all the problems that other reviewers noted. However, I believe it's due to the asymetrical shape of the hull and the specific water conditions in which you are paddling. I've found that when the Rendevous is acting squirrely ...and this tends to happen on flat, moving water ... the key is to weight the "off side" (not the paddle side) of the canoe and use good technique (near-verticle paddle, minimum of correction etc.). So, I think that Wenonah puts the seat in exactly the right position for this craft. If you move the seat back, it's harder to get fore/aft trim right (you need to add weight in front of you to balance the craft. Also, you must increase the amount of correction you apply on each and every stroke, no matter the water conditions. To me, these are unacceptable prices to pay for avoiding the problems which other reviewers mentioned.

Finally, I replaced the bench seat with a pedastal, didn't like it and went back to the bench. The only modification I've made to the seat is to raise the back and angle it downward so that it's set up for kneeling and makes for an easier exit/re-entry. This is especially important for running steep, rocky stuff at low water when you want the ability to eject yourself from the boat ... like bull riders at the rodeo.

I own a Royalex Rendezvous. I totally agree with Tom's statement about the stock seat position being much too far forward. The boat has an unusual tendency to fight my attempts to control it. Once it begins turning even strong sweeps will barely bring it back the other way. Only a strong rudder stroke stops the turn, at the expense of the loss of speed. It has on occasion spun completely around 180 degrees with no eddy in sight! This phenomenon is worse in flat water than in riffles or rapids. No other boat I have ever paddled has exhibited this tendency. Some of the people I paddle with have mentioned that the boat appears bow heavy in the water. I have noticed that when I carry the boat to the river the seat rests on my head. With my other boats the seat is behind me when carrying. My temporary solution is to put all of my gear behind me to help trim the boat. I will eventually remove the seat and re-position it several inches back from the original location. In it's defense it is reasonably fast for a Royalex boat and looks like it will haul a lot of gear. Once I move the seat it should be a pretty good wilderness river tripper, which is why I bought it in the first place.

An awesome river boat. This boat excels in current. This boat will handle almost any runnable whitewater out there but will also get you down river to the next drops quickly. If your focus is strictly whitewater look at Dagger's lineup but if you want to do rivers this is the boat. Mine is 10yrs. old, center rib kevlar that I just can't destroy. I've also used mine on about a dozen solo trips to the pro-facto wilds of NW Ontario covering lakes and rivers loaded and under extreme conditions. There's not a better solo for extremely rough conditions. My Bell Magic is a better lake boat by far but if I could have only 1 solo this is it.

I have a rendevous with the kevlar center rib design with a foot brace. The boat tracks excellent in a river with a current. It is rated for class III whitewater, and I have taken it out in the open ocean in 4-5 foot waves (lots of fun). It is an excellent play boat for rivers; it will catch an eddy as fast as you can heel it over. Very stable and agile. It tracks OK in still water, but it is not a good lake boat. With 2.5" rocker, it is affected by wind a lot. The bow has 14" of rise, so it is a sail in a head wind. For any kind of river running up to 4 foot waves, I would recommend it for the most versatile boat for one person to own. It runs, it camps, it tracks, it catches eddies, It's the most fun you can have by yourself (in a canoe).