Stabilize a Tippy Solo Canoe

It’s spring in the northern hemisphere and paddlers are itching to get out on the water. Recently, I heard a comment that someone found their solo canoe a bit tippy this spring. While that’s likely normal, there are a few steps that you can take to make your tippy solo canoe feel more stable.

First of all, if the boat felt good at the end of the season last year, it’s likely going to feel fine again. You just need a little seat time. Go out and paddle it.

Lower and Upper Body Separation

If that doesn’t work to solve your tippy solo canoe problems, the main tip is to make sure that you are separating your upper body from your lower body. The upper body should move independently from the lower at your waist. Try to keep your nose over your belly button and let your hips and legs sway with the boat. The boat should roll with the waves and your legs and hips with it. Then your upper body should move separately.

A good practice exercise is to kneel in the canoe. Then wiggle the canoe from side to side with your hips while keeping your nose above your belly button. I do this with almost every boat that I get into almost immediately after I get into it unless I’ve been paddling it lately.

Try Kneeling to Increase Stability

If that doesn’t work, try kneeling. Kneeling with your knees wide and far apart will also increase the feeling of stability as long as you keep the upper and lower body separation. Low seats can impact the ability to kneel. Make sure you have enough room below your seat to get your legs in and out quickly.

I like kneeling in some canoes and sitting in others. I do find that if I kneel for a long time that my knees cramp up. To help avoid this, I’ll kneel with one leg and stretch out the other in front of me.

Brace Your Knees

On some canoes if the inwales stick out far enough, you can brace your knees under them. I find that in my Northstar Canoes that have aluminum gunwales, I can easily brace my knees under the gunwales. It’s a little harder in a canoe with wood gunwales. To do this just sit as you would normally sit and put your knees under the gunwales. That’ll give you a little more control over the boat. Keep your waist loose and let your knees control the boat and rock with the boat. One thing that I’ll do is sitting on the edge of the seat with my legs crossed in the bilge. I find it comfortable, and it allows me to brace with my knees under the gunwales to control the canoe.

While I’ve never heard of a canoeist adding foam braces to brace like this, I’m sure it could be done.

Lower the Seat

If none of that helps, change the kneeling seat drops to sitting drops until you get more comfortable with the canoe. By lowering the seat, you lower your center of gravity and that makes it more stable.

Hopefully, if you have what feels like a tippy solo canoe that using some of these techniques makes it feel more stable for you. If you have any advice to give to someone feeling like their canoe is too tippy, please, leave them in the comments.