Yes or no? Why?

Background: making windy lake travel safer for a solo, relatively lightweight load.

No. Just more gear to deal with, and if the wind is that bad, stay ashore or close to it. That said, if you choose to get a custom cover, do it with CCS. Simply the best.

I listened to a person tell me all about how it was a "game changer for control in the wind". If the gear is stored flat, I wondered how the cover would help that much. Just wondering what I'm missing or not understanding. Protection from drips from a double blade? Rain protection?

I had a Canak which is basically a decked canoe with some removable covers. The advantage, is you can paddle in rougher water situations .It does help some in windy conditions. It helped a lot when I paddle across Brule one time. The down side is it was a pain in the ass removing and re attaching the covers during portages. My conclusion is there' not worth it in the BW. Wild river areas with big waves is an other story

It can certainly help you if you are in high waves and lower on freeboard then you should be. I know that I've went out on larger lakes in good conditions, and had the wind and waves turn on me before. That said, having a skirt wouldn't tempt me to go out in worse weather then I would without one.

If you are ever going to run whitewater though, a skirt is definitely a game changer.

jillpine: "I listened to a person tell me all about how it was a "game changer for control in the wind". If the gear is stored flat, I wondered how the cover would help that much. Just wondering what I'm missing or not understanding. Protection from drips from a double blade? Rain protection?

"

Depends on how well the canoe handles wind, some are better than others, and with the other it can make a substantial difference.

Wenonah Moccasin, CCS cover. Moccasin is about 31 inches between gunnels and straight sided, picked up good amount of wind and the cover made a 30% improvement.

Wenonah Advantage, CCS. About 21 inches tween gunnels with a lot of tumblehome.
Not so much help here, wind hitting the side just flows over and does not catch the opposite side. 5-10% better in high wind.
Beyond that a cover will ad warmth in cold paddling, keep gear in the canoe if dumped, potential table to work on.


butthead

In my experience, it doesn’t help so much with wind but is very helpful for waves. Wind will push a solo around no matter what. You can adjust weight fore/aft to help with this, which is much more effective than cover/no cover.

However, if waves are big enough to break into the boat, you can take on water and lose stability. In this situation, a cover can be the difference between paddling on or waiting it out.

butthead: "....Beyond that a cover will ad warmth in cold paddling, keep gear in the canoe if dumped, potential table to work on.

butthead"

Just conjecture here as I have no experience with covers, but if dumped wouldn't having the gear - and water - held in place make the boat that much more difficult to right? Seems trying one of those perpendicular rescues with another canoe would be very hard.

Jaywalker: "
Just conjecture here as I have no experience with covers, but if dumped wouldn't having the gear - and water - held in place make the boat that much more difficult to right? Seems trying one of those perpendicular rescues with another canoe would be very hard. "

Dumped twice in the Moccasin, with the cover on. Took very little water about 2-3 inches into the canoe even though each time rolled 360, seemed to just want to go over all the way and upright again. All gear stayed inside except me and my paddle. Only lost my hat.
I did practice dumps empty at beaches, good experience even without a cover. Same behavior could not get it to turtle, kept going to upright. It does snap on quickly and off even faster. I quickly decided as a soloist to not get back into my canoe if dumped, way to tiring and long for the result. As long as it's floating high, it normally winds up that way, I'll tow it to shore swimming in my PFD by the painter line (one on each end).

butthead

In his book, Canoeing Wild Rivers, Cliff Jacobson has a chapter that gives instructions for making your own covers. If you are handy with fabric and a sewing machine it looks like it might not be too difficult. Older versions of the book were titled Expedition Canoeing.