Hey Helpful folks,

Prowling for a canoe for my son and I to do the Border Route Challenge. I've got a Sundowner I recently snagged for a very reasonable price. However, I can't help but think a racing style shape would be fun and fast. I found someone who may want to trade the old Sundowner for what appears to be a 2002 Bell Hassel with Aramid layup? Any advice on boat choice or does anyone happen to know anything about this boat? Racing boats I've seen have been around 34lbs - and I know I'd have to figure out a yoke situation...but 34 and faster seems better than 46lbs and slower...I've just never paddled one.
Thanks much,
Scott

I think that was the only tandem racing canoe Bell built around early 2000s. My brother did a canoe race with his friend who was a Bell canoe dealer. His friend ordered I believe the same canoe (it is the same length and shape shown in your pics). They used it once in a race and practiced with it a few times before the race. It sustained a little cosmetic damage in a brush with either another canoe or tree in the water. Don't think there is a lot of material in the canoe. It was tippy and didn't perform very well. His friend hung it in my brother's building and it hasn't been used in 20 years. The canoe was a bust. The guy who bought the canoe and my brother have no interest in ever using this canoe again. Don't think it would hold up in Boundary Waters travel. My brother has a Sundowner too. That is much better canoe for Boundary Waters.

I am no expert so take this for a grain of salt but I thought the Hassel design had a flat bottom. Very stable on flat water but not particularly fast and didn’t handle waves well. Any way to test it? I hope someone that knows more than me will chime in.

If you've got any amount of gear or weight, racing boats can lose there speed advantage. Racing boats are also fairly unstable at lower speeds and can lose momentum when tipped slightly to the side.

Additionally, I would want to understand if this particular model is fish form or swede form. One will be faster at a more relaxed to moderate paddle and the other significantly faster, but only at sustained high effort.

If I were not already practiced at canoe racing a racing model canoe and understood the advantages and disadvantages, how weight impacts the particular hull model, I would stick with the sundowner. In which case you would likely be overall faster in. The sundowner is already a relatively fast hull and a little more forgiving than a racing model.

Looks like a fun event regardless of boat! Good Luck!