Old Town Canoe Comparison

[Gavin]

Hard to go wrong with an Old Town Disco 169...There stable enough to stand & fly cast out of and walk end to end. The only thing I dont like about the Disco 169 is the weight and the crummy plastic seats. If your going that route...you might look at the Wenonah Northfork...Similar boat, same price, better factory seats. The 16' Buffalo's are good paddling boats too. Cheers.

[Smalliebigs]

Thanks for the reply, SmallieBigs... Now what would you do if you only had a budget of x dollars and the two canoes listed in this comparison were readily available at around that price range...?

:face_palm:

Cricket, there isn't much difference between the two unless you get the Penobscot 17x, which is made of Royalex and about 30 pounds lighter than it's heavier sister the Penobscot 174.The Penob has the typical gay bench seat, the Disco has the stupid molded plastic seats. The Disco is slightly more stable yet the Penob will track a little better. Pick your poison

I would go with the Disco and modify the seating area.........actually I would buy two Discovery 119's or two Packs, do your research and search far and wide because you can find them cheap @ Dick's Sporting goods sometimes or other places as well.Then modify the seating area on both and tell your beautiful wife she now has her own canoe. You can find two cheaper than one 17 foot canoe if you go to the right places.Just kidding about the last part here.....not really................................DISCO...modify the seating area, 83 pounds aint sh*t.DO IT......

[FishinCricket]

Then modify the seating area on both and tell your beautiful wife she now has her own canoe

My wife doesn't canoe.. She floats.. lol

[Justin Spencer]

Discovery has gone to crap material wise, I no longer buy them for the canoe rental even though they are the least expensive boat I can find. The layers tend to separate on some of the boats, leaving a thin bubble in the bottom that is easy to put a hole in. Not all the boats do this but quite a few do. Great design but Johnson outdoors who bought them has let quality go way down hill in the last 5 years. If you can find a 10 year old old town in good shape I'd buy it before a new one.

[Smalliebigs]

Discovery has gone to crap material wise, I no longer buy them for the canoe rental even though they are the least expensive boat I can find. The layers tend to separate on some of the boats, leaving a thin bubble in the bottom that is easy to put a hole in. Not all the boats do this but quite a few do. Great design but Johnson outdoors who bought them has let quality go way down hill in the last 5 years. If you can find a 10 year old old town in good shape I'd buy it before a new one.

Justin,

What brand of canoe do you guys use now for the rentals???? I'm always in the market for a tough canoe.Your judgement on this I would trust over just about anybody with your profession.

Scott

[FishinCricket]

Discovery has gone to crap material wise, I no longer buy them for the canoe rental even though they are the least expensive boat I can find. The layers tend to separate on some of the boats, leaving a thin bubble in the bottom that is easy to put a hole in. Not all the boats do this but quite a few do. Great design but Johnson outdoors who bought them has let quality go way down hill in the last 5 years. If you can find a 10 year old old town in good shape I'd buy it before a new one.

Thanks for the heads up, Justin... Don't suppose you or ROL has one laying around that might interest me?

[grizwilson]

I have a disco 16 9 that has been a staple for 15 years, ran solo and loaded best boat I own. The only other canoe I would consider would be a 17 4 tripper, wt. is about the same but stable and a pack horse. But Justin makes me wonder.

[Al Agnew]

I'd be concerned too about Justin's experience with the Discos. Nice thing about Royalex is that the material is produced by a single company, and although there may be slightly different grades of it, there shouldn't be any quality control issues.

Having said that, my "newest" Royalex canoe, from Wenonah, has had some delamination of the outer vinyl layer from the second, ABS layer. I fixed it with flexible epoxy, but it ticked me off a bit.

About skid plates...no big deal on the usual general recreation canoes, which are vanilla designs. But skid plates on the Royalex Penobscot, which is a little more of a performance canoe, will affect speed considerably. I never put skid plates on my canoes until the wear and tear gets so bad that I have to.

[Justin Spencer]

I use Wenonah Southfork canoes now exclusively, the Northfork is comparible to the size and weight of the disco 169. I like the seats, have had no delamination problems and they are a good Minnesotan company. I also like the Novacraft for a personal boat, but they are a little tough to handle all day for rental boats due to the rocker built in the boat. Makes them very easily handled on the water by one person, but initial stability suffers because of the rocker. That being said you fall out of the boat before it can tip over. I have a few Novas I would part with for $300, but good old towns are hard to find from outfitters because we run them till they are pretty rough. If you don't care about looks and don't mind a few cracks in the outside of the canoe (which doesn't make the canoe leak), old towns can be found for $100 bucks and up around my place.

I think the variation in plastics and how they are molded leads to "bad batches" from time to time with all companies, the old towns have just had problems that many outfitters have experienced.

[Brian Sloss]

I have to agree with what Justin has said about the Old Towns. They have one of the best designs out there, but the quality of construction has gone down the drain. The materials are cheaper and thinner than they used to be and they do separate. I have around 80+ Old Town 169s and the older ones that still run, are awesome, but the new ones suck to be honest. Half of the new ones we got a couple of years ago, split on the interior layer of plastic within the first 2 months. I have resealed them on the interior and they run fine, but they won't last nearly as long as the Old Towns of the past. We have been moving to the Wenonah Northforks like Justin is simply because of the quality of construction and materials is much superior. I wish Old Town would sell to someone besides Johnson Outdoors...someone who would once again like to provide the best canoe on the market.

Cricket,

I've got some older canoes for sale for a cheap price$150-200.