The following is what I was dealing with when I originally posted this article, and it's what some of you have eluded to.
Quote:
In the following pages, you’ll find more than a hundred drool-worthy canoes. Boats for cruising, tripping, fishing, hunting, picnicking, river running, racing and more.
Prepare yourself.
Composite or polyethylene? Vinyl or wood? 15 feet or 17? Bench or bucket? Traditional or modern? An inch of rocker or two? Red or green? These are just some of the choices on the very first page. Schwartz likely believes canoeists would have been happier with their purchases back in the ‘60s, choosing between only wood-canvas and aluminum.
What if you buy a sleek carbon model, only to wonder if you’d perhaps get more use and have less stress with a rugged polyethylene model. Or worse perhaps, buy the rugged poly hull, and then curse the extra 50 pounds on portages and wonder if you’d go tripping farther and more often if you’d chosen a featherlight boat.
Stop that.
A friend of mine was in this quandary. Last year’s Paddling Buyer’s Guide sat on his living room coffee table all winter. Pages were dog-eared and shortlisted canoes circled in black Sharpie. As spring bloomed into summer and then faded into fall, his roof racks ran empty. Paralysis by analysis.
“There’s just too many options. There’s no one best boat,” Dave told me. And he’s right. Perfection is impossible.
Schwartz’s antidote to limitless choice is to get comfortable with imperfection. “Good enough is almost always good enough,” advises Schwartz. “You don’t need to find the best. There’s virtually no difference between the best and any number of alternatives which are almost as good as the best. If you’re looking for good enough, choosing becomes a lot less onerous.”
There’s no single boat boasting the fastest speed, most maneuverability, best stability, lightest weight, greatest durability, prettiest aesthetics and lowest price. There’s no so-called best canoe, yet any canoe is better than no canoe.
So, to all the Daves out there, buy a canoe. You’ll be much happier for it. If you don’t believe the research, just go paddling.
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