I'm considering nesting two canoes, an 17 ft inside of an 18ft canoe in order to fit three canoes on a roofrack. (The other canoe would be along side in the traditional position)

Has anyone done this for a long car ride (1000 miles)? Any issues with the nesting canoes rubbing each other? Any other issues? I'm assuming if this can be done for fly in trips than a car ride shouldn't be an issue.

Canoes can't "nest" because the thwarts get in the way, but they can be "stacked" of course. I would be concerned with the rubbing and scraping that would occur, as the car ride is much bumpier than a plane ride. Nctry should chime in on this one, he's the guru of overland canoe movement......

The thwarts, yoke, and seat would be removed, similar to what they do for float plane travel.

They remove thwarts, hokes and seats for float plane travel? I've not travelled by float plane, but I have not seen that in videos. Seems like a high risk way to lose essential parts at the destination.

Cant say much about your car situation, but do wonder how much the thwarts, seats and yokes being removed would affect the structural integrity of the boats? I'm wondering - but dont know - if the lack of cross supports would cause the boat to fluctuate in and out putting stress on the gunwales?

I'm not certain about the canoe model you have, but another consideration is the floatation tanks in the bow and stern. Those would certainly prevent nesting on most models.

I have been on a couple of canoe fly in trips to Clay Lake. The Atikokan float plane pilot nested 2 Wenonah canoes we used on a float. He removed the thwarts and ratcheted the canoes to the float. After we landed we installed the floats and away we went to Kawnipi Lake.

I don’t see why nesting one canoe into another and putting on top of a car wouldn’t work for you for transport?

You will have to make sure that you have 2 canoes there will properly nest. We had a Wenonah Champlain nest with another Wenonah canoe ... but I can’t remember the canoe. I remember that nesting was snug but easy to remove one from inside the other.

SP ... sorry installed the thwarts ...

Well, I stand corrected. I say go for it!

For fly-in trips Voyageur North nests a Wenonah Spirit II into a little longer 18 ft and wider 36.5 inch Wenonah Champlain.

Yeah, nesting can work. I've nested my Placid Rapidfire inside my Bell Northwind a couple times. 1000+ miles each way from Ohio. Took the thwarts and seats out, nested them together, replaced the thwarts. Put foam in between to minimize scratching. Took some time to unnest and replace everything but it worked.

tnvol: "The thwarts, yoke, and seat would be removed, similar to what they do for float plane travel."

Never experienced this on any of our float plane trips. They always just strapped one canoe to each pontoon. Maybe things have changed in 30 years, but that would make me nervous about having parts get lost or not get tightened properly when reassembling.

straighthairedcurly: "

tnvol: "The thwarts, yoke, and seat would be removed, similar to what they do for float plane travel."

Never experienced this on any of our float plane trips. They always just strapped one canoe to each pontoon. Maybe things have changed in 30 years, but that would make me nervous about having parts get lost or not get tightened properly when reassembling.
"

If we're talking Canada, I believe the air operator needs to get the nesting configuration certified by the CAA, and even then they can only fly nesting canoes of the same lengths as they were certified to fly. It's pricey, so very few do it, but some do.

We do this every year for the drive up from Minneapolis. We nest a Spirit II inside a Minnesota II. The MN II is an outfitter model so perhaps that makes it easier to remove the seats, thwarts, and yoke. It take about 5-10 minutes to assemble or disassemble the MN II.

You could also pyramid them, using foam blocks for the top canoe at touch points on the lower boats.

I did it. I put a 15 Ft Rapidfire inside a 16Ft 9 in Polaris. It was tight.

Would you be pushing up against the weight limit of your roof rack?

Easy to check but I doubt it. My rack is rated fir 165 - at in least 2 aluminum or 3 kevlar.

Googling, strapping canoes to floats seems to have become highly regulated in more recent years.