Just to touch on a factor that no one has brought up yet...windage.
A low to medium volume sea kayak will always have the advantage in a headwind or low wind situation. But turn around for a downwind run and the canoe with it's generous freeboard and paddler(s) sticking up in the high into the moving airmass will leave most kayaks far behind.
The high windage of a canoe is a real tradeoff in windy conditions.

Cheers

Bert

dont understand that last one. That sail effect might work with you if the wind and waves are dead behind. Otherwise you will always have to work to keep the tail from broaching and lose speed.

The kayak doesnt broach so badly especially if you have a skeg to drop.

Broaching and weathercocking which are two different things giving the same results , namely turning sideways ,is a problem to be dealt with in any canoe or kayak in a tailwind.
I wasn't referring to that ,just remembering paddles when I was in my sea kayak paddling into a strong headwind with canoes.in our group.
I would have no problem staying well ahead of the canoes and had to wait for them to catch up quite often.
But when we turned around to head home with the same strong wind at our tails,I would drop skeg and paddle like crazy but the canoes were long gone at that point, I could not keep up anymore.
That's what I mean by boats with a lot of freeboard are a tradeoff in wind conditions.
I personally prefer a low volume kayak which is less affected by wind from any direction.For the type of paddling I do ,primarily on the Great Lakes a sea kayak is always faster ,safer and more efficient in most situations than a canoe.A canoe will always be faster when exploring marshes,small creeks and rivers with beaver dams ,liftovers and deadfalls etc. That being said,I'm not really into speed anyway,I just want to enjoy the experience.

The main advantage of a kayak for marathon racing is the rutter. The kayaker can conentrate fully on the forward stroke and not have to waste energy steering the craft. A double paddle can be more powerful then single bladed stroke but over the long run the single bladed stroke is more efficient and all else equal, will prevail. Evidence of this can be seen from Verlen Kruger, who has paddled more miles then anyone.... His canoe designs use a rutter and he paddled single blade. He has set many records that stand to this day. Steve Landick who joined Verlen on the Ultimate Canoe Challenge, used both a single blade and a double blade. He generally paddled with a single blade but would switch to double blade when more power was required. i.e paddling up the Grand Canyon or paddling through storms on the pacific.

Martin

Hi John,
That is an easy question to answer actually. Which is faster? It just depends on who is in them. Sounds simple but it is true. I''ve routinely beaten many canoes in my kayaks and I've also beaten many kayaks with my canoes. I must add that the same is true the other way around also and I've been soundly beaten by both as well....all comes down to the engine in the end, all else being equal.

But the FASTEST boats? If you look at times from Olympic style sprint races, the kayaks are routinely going to be faster than the canoes.

Cheers....Joe O'
(Heading out to paddle in a solo marathon race canoe later today)