Voyager Plans

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Voyager, like her smaller sister Indian Girl, was strongly influenced by the decked canoes from the late 1800’s. Voyager, however, shows more influence from the boats in W. P. Stephen’s 1885 book, Canoe and boat building: A complete manual, and Dixon Kemp’s 1895 Manual of Yacht and Boat Sailing. Many of these boats were larger than the Rushton’s canoes and were suited for more than one person. Voyager was designed for the individual that wanted a voyaging canoe but still wanted a boat that would carry two people on an afternoon paddle, as well.

Voyager, a decked double paddle canoe, is a well tested design and represents a fourth generation refinement of her design concept. She, like all the Lutra family, is stable to more than 70 degrees of heel. Her large fore and aft compartments provide storage and flotation and a deep water re-entry is just a matter of sliding back into the large cockpit.

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Her cockpit, 6 feet 5 ½ inches, provides ample room for a sleeping bag, bivi sack and sleeping pad. It provides a dry, comfortable space to sit out a rain storm on a rocky beach. The cockpit can have an ice chest lashed down behind the seat that will provide an excellent second seat to cast a fly rod from, as well as a cold drink on a hot August afternoon.
At 4 inches of draft Voyager displaces 334 pounds, giving a 200 pound paddler almost a hundred pounds of light weight gear and food. This is more than enough for a long extended adventure in comfort.

She can punch into a nasty chop and handle a quartering breeze without weather cocking with the wind. In rough water her stability will be more than welcome.

And like her smaller sister she can be rigged with a down wind sail that will fit into the forward or aft compartment.

As her name suggests she was designed to voyage. Her light weight makes a long portage almost pleasant. That same light weight means keeping her on top of the car or truck is simple and makes those impulse paddles a reality.

She’s built using glued lap strake construction. This type of construction allows the builder to keep weight down as the fiber glass cloth only covers the bottom and garboards. 4 ounce cloth will also help hold down the weight if the boat will not be used in salt water where oysters shells and barnacles on rocks would be too much for the 4 ounce cloth.

Voyager is an incredible user friendly small boat to carry you on you adventures.

The Lutra family of canoes all share the same lines with slight variations and all are stable to at least 70 degrees of heel.