The first version of my Fox canoe was launched in spring 2007. Over 18 years, she’s proven to be a versatile boat that’s capable of multiday camping trips, yet well suited for short, spontaneous outings. She’s not designed for big waves and the conditions where proper sea kayaks excel, but that might be one of her virtues: She is easy to use at a moment’s notice, easy to enter and exit, easy to load gear into, and stable. She can carry a child or a pet in addition to the paddler. She’s a decked double-paddle canoe, intended for simple and peaceful times on the water.
Fox intentionally has an old-school appearance. When I sat down and put pencil to vellum, my design inspirations were from some of the masters. Norman Skene’s own Fox design, L. Francis Herreshoff’s Double Paddle Canoe, and Harry Bryan’s Fiddlehead are a few of my inspirations. My interpretation of a double-paddle canoe, though, is a bit longer, deeper, and fuller than the boats that inspired me, and she is built stitch-and-glue fashion of marine-grade okoume plywood and epoxy. Even so, the boat’s appearance harks back to designs rooted in simpler times.
Boat design is the art of compromise; no small boat can do or be all things to all paddlers. My goal with Fox was to balance performance, aesthetics, and ease of construction while making sure a first-time builder would enjoy the project.
Each spring on the first paddle of the season, the boat’s performance and good manners surprise me. The length of 14' 7" yields a good turn of speed, despite the hull’s somewhat full ends. The entry, with the bow wave flowing along the sides, seems to lessen the drag. As the wake exits, the slightly hollow stern seems to offer a balance of maneuverability and tracking beyond what I’d hope for. Her flat bottom, full ends, and flared bilge panels add to her stability, and her coaming height and shape offer the paddler a dry ride.