MN III Reviews?

[Trout Lane]

TTC,

Thanks for that very nice post about the MN 4. Yes we are headed each passing month toward a family of 4 so I guess it might be in the future. Wow 23' of canoe. Our thought was that we would get a MN 3 while one kid is big enough to sit in the third seat and the baby has to be with mom for a few years in front of her in the bow. Mrs TL has no interest in paddling the stern so a MN III or IV seems like good options. Then, down the road we will trade in the MN 3 for a MN 4. Thats the plan anyway. Thanks for the real life/real tripping type of info.

TL

TL

[TimA]

Troutlane,

First off nice to see ya posting again and congrats on your growing family.

I really like the souris river Quetico 18.5 with the three seats, more than the MN III. I think the MN III is faster, but I found the Qeutico 18.5 more stable (good for fishing with kids), and I personally like the seat placement a little better. You could put a kid right in front of you (you being in the stern) to help fish and the third seat is far enough back that you can still paddle from it---when we had the Wenonah our third person complained about having to reach to paddle.

Also the Quetico 18.5 is shorter which helps on those narrow Quetico portages for manuevering around trees (This would not be an issue on the Lake1 to Alice/Insula portages, but comes in handy in Quetico). I think the MN III is like 20' long that extra 1.5'-2' will be noticable on the Quetico portages. I believe the !8.5 also has a higher hauling capacity. I can't remeber which canoe manuevered better in the water, but I liked the Souris River 18.5 enough to buy one.

I would test both when your in Ely this summer before you make a final choice. Others may disagree with my review, but I would at least give the Quetico 18.5 a chance. You can stop by Red Rock usually any day for a test.

Tim

[TTC]

In July I helped another buddy test drive canoes up in Ely. We day tripped Fall Lake to Pipestone Bay with a SR Quetico 18.5, both full and empty. Like TimA sez, it is stable...so stable we couldn't swamp it without leaning so far over the gunwale that we actually fell out of the canoe. Only then did it swamp. On Fall lake we encouraged motorboats to swamp us with their wake and, well, they just couldn't.

At a portage we set the canoe in the water and I stepped into it by the middle and walked (fully upright, no hands on the gunwales) to the front, stepped over the seat and sat down, all without my buddy holding the canoe or even being in it. I weigh about 240 lbs. just to give you an idea of just how stable it's got to have been. The folks at the portage were quite impressed too.

He ended up buying the SR (this one was a rare two-seater), it's only competition being a Champlain (steady too, just too narrow in the bow for my size 13 feet).

[Trout Lane]

Tim,

Its nice to see you here too and thanks for the greeting. Hope the Holiday season is a good one for you and your family. My back? Just thought I'd give an update. It was doing great and I tried running on the treadmill and had a flare up - minor but still noticable. Its amazing how I can walk all I want but running is too much for that injured area and the remnance of the sciatic tingling down my leg returned for about 6 wks. I thought of it as a learning experience knowing what I can do and can't do.....

Thanks for the info about the Souris River canoe; I did not know that they made a 3 seater or forgot it. Ummm, I'm a fan of the tractor style seat for my back; it makes a big difference. I'm not a fan of the tractor seat for running rapids like we do here in WI. on river trips. Does the 3-seat SR have the tractor style seat? Again thanks for the greeting in your post; I've had a few nice emails since I decided not to return to that other site.

TL

[TimA]

TL,

I do not beleive the Souris River canoes come in tractor style seats that I can remember---you could email Joe at Redrock to find out for sure----I really like their Quetico line, I got the 18.5 in case our family expanded from the wife, dog, and I, but without the tractor seats I see how you might want to rule them out for yourself.

I am glad your back flare up has subsided---keep working hard, watch your posture, keep up the walking and as always feel free to email me if ya ever have a question. Sounds like you are managing things well on your own.

Happy holidays!

Tim

[Sauvage]

I've paddled most the larger Wenonah hulls: owned and put several thousand Quetico miles on my 18' Sundowner for 14 years, paddled the MN II, Itacsa, Champlain, and MN III on longer trips (15 days plus) thru Quetico in the Fall when winds and waves can be aggressive. I've also paddled the Souris Quetico 17 and 18.5 on trips. My personal opinion based on this experience: the MN III is flat-out the fastest of these hulls, it'll scream by any Souris hull with three paddlers, BUT the MN III doesn't have enough freeboard to handle the winds and waves of the Autumn in Canoe Country--period. Admittedly, I'm talking about three men 175-210 lbs plus six #3 1/2 Duluth packs on a two-week plus trip in the fall. But check the freeboard on the MN III--pretty shallow if you're paddling really rough water. Now let me tell you a little about the 19 ft Wenonah Itasca--absolutely the finest flatwater tripping canoe made. I've paddled the Itasca with two 200-lb paddlers and 300 lbs of gear on 2-3 week trips in the Fall in the worst conditions I've seen and the Itasca has more than met the challenge, and many times. I've run Basswood and Moose when the motor tows wouldn't leave their docks because the conditions were too rough. I will also tell you that this past October, I paddled a Souris Quetico 17 down thru Bayley Bay and Basswood when two 18.5 canoes swamped, four other canoes beached, and the motorboats pulled-off Basswood because of the conditions. Yes, I had a great partner, but the Souris handles and performs much differently than the Wenonah. The Wenonah is much faster than the Souris because it tracks straight and knifes thru the waves. However, the Souris rides up and over the waves and simply floats thru situations that would swamp a Wenonah. For good conditions, the Wenonah hulls will blow-away the Souris, but for really rough conditions, the Souris is the best choice unless you have Wenonah Itasca 19 ft Wilderness Tripper. If you have a young child, I'd very definitely pick the Wenonah Itasca 19 ft Wilderness Tripper over the Souris 18.5 or the MN III--you'll be much happier and safer. The MNIII simply does not have the freeboard you need for rougher weather situations.
Best,
Sauvage

[Trout Lane]

Thanks for your opinion J. Sauvage. I do value it over the years. I will add the Itasca 19' to my short test paddle list. So then I drop a seat in for my little guy - 3yr old? I could try the idea. I guess I have never been one to venture out in excessive wind and waves especially now that we have kids but I tossed caution aside this summer in a terrible east wind and almost paid for it. Bad decision. The itasca model sounds like it has the carrying capacity of the Bell Northwoods 18.5"? it would be hard to depart from Wenonah products because I have liked them so much.

Thanks again,

TL

[Sauvage]

TL,
Compare the specs on the two hulls and you'll find the 19 ft Itasca has more volume and weight capacity than the 18.5 ft Bell, more freeboard, and a paddler-engineered asymetrical design that makes it very fast and straight-tracking. This is an extraordinarily stable canoe and has been the first choice for several of my very experienced outfitting friends in Ely for their personal after-the-outfitting-season Fall trips since it first came out, and they can paddle whatever they want. The discussion about longer hulls being difficult to portage is pretty much bushwah--I'm confident I've portaged the MN III and the 19 ft Itasca on much longer and likely considerably more challenging trips (in terms of number of longer, less well-maintained portages) than most folks who post here and to the CCBB, and the increased canoe length has never been a significant problem on the portage (as long as you pay attention and adjust before you get to obstacles). You could permanently mount a third seat or simply use the drop-in combination seat and portage yoke made by Spring Creek, which I've seen used with very good results--that's what I'd do.
Regards,
Sauvage