New 2011 Wenonah Canoes

At the summer Outdoor Retailer show, Wenonah introduced two new canoes. The first is called the 17 Wenonah. The company founder, Mike Cichanowski, originally built this model in his parent’s garage when he was 16. The boat sat on display at the company headquarters until they decided to dust it off and build a mold. It’s now available in all Wenonah’s layups.

The second boat is a canoe/kayak hybrid called the Canak. The boat is a decked Prism solo canoe with a kayak seat and a built-in holder for a portage yoke. The large hatches are covered by fabric hatch covers. It’s definately geared towards canoe destinations like the Boundary Waters where boats need to be portaged between lakes to move on. Normal kayak hatches make packing and unpacking so many times in one day a hassle. The thought here is by using large fabric covered hatches, the paddler can drop a pack into the boat and only pack it in the morning and unpack at night. I can’t imagine using it on anything but calm days elsewhere. I actually saw a prototype of something similar being built in wood by a guy in Grand Marais, MN. Interesting that the concept is being produced by Wenonah.

Video from RapidMedia TV below: