Owning or Renting Canoes

[Mandy]

I was wondering how many own their own canoes and how many rent. I am not able to canoe often so we always rent. I have considered buying but am not sure it is worth the investment when I can't be on the water often.

[Barney]

My recommendation for you would be to buy an inflatable canoe. It's not that expensive and it has several upsides when compared to hard-shelled versions. My 2 cents anyway.

[2coastcamper]

Originally Posted by Mandy

I was wondering how many own their own canoes and how many rent. I am not able to canoe often so we always rent. I have considered buying but am not sure it is worth the investment when I can't be on the water often.

I own my kayaks, and will be buying a canoe very soon (when the little one arrives). We bought two kayaks early last spring, and I did the math and figured we'd have to use them only 9 times to have them paid for (actually 8.5 times) with the money we'd save on rental fees. That was with a rental average of $40 per craft, which is on the low side.

Well, we used them seven times last summer, and one time was for an entire day, and the rental fee that day would have been well over $100 per craft.

In doing the math, buying the kayaks (great deal at CostCo) cost us about $700 plus $140 for the roof rack for a total of $840. A (conservative) estimate on the amount of rental fees we did not have to pay totals $680. So that means if we use the kayaks two more times, they will have "paid for" themselves in rental fees saved.

I told you my experience to say that if you plan on using your craft enough to save money on not paying rental fees, then it's simple economics. Buy your craft. Now, we're pretty active on the outdoors scene. I plan for these kayaks (and the canoe I'll soon buy) to have saved me more than $6,000 in rental fees over the next 10 years. When you look at it that way, it's one of the easiest decisions I've ever made.

...

Other advantages to owning your own craft is that you'll always know what you're going to get on any given outing. Plus, the crafts you rent are quite often beat up and well-used. I've never seen rental kayaks that come close to matching the quality of the two that I own.

[2coastcamper]

Originally Posted by Barney

My recommendation for you would be to buy an inflatable canoe. It's not that expensive and it has several upsides when compared to hard-shelled versions. My 2 cents anyway.

And, if you take the above advice and go for the inflatable canoe ... here's a good OBC article that might help you out.

How to pick an inflatable canoe - OutdoorBasecamp.com

[grand]

2coastcamper has offered a good formula for making your decision. If you plan to go out on the water more often in the future it will be a good investment.

[failghe]

Not only is it a good investment but I look at as freedom. Go where I want to go, When I want to. No need to worry, are we going to get back in time? What time does the rental place close? You mean I have to wait until they open? I can't watch the sun come up over the water while listening to the song birds? Catch that first fish? What do you mean there is no rental place on that river? All the canoes are rented today and now we have to rent 2 kayaks? What about the little one that is too small to paddle?
As you can tell I have had my own. Well sort of sold the canoe and kayaks and bought a motorboat. Now I want to sell the boat and get the canoe and kayaks back. O.K. I'm rambling now. Good luck on you choice.

[jason]

Like 2coastcamper and failghe said, it will depend on use, and freedom. I have found a lot of places I could launch a kayak or canoe that have no rental places. Not only that, where I rented this weekend, (while nice place and would rent from again), they do not open until 9am, and they close at 5pm. No sunrise, no sunset. We get some beautiful sunsets here too.

While renting, you do not have to worry about maintenance (which is a lot less compared to a boat, and almost sounds like a good article to write), storing, and the coast of buying. You are limited to the type of kayak and equipment on it too. I wanted to rent a good fishing kayak this past weekend from Malibu Kayaks. They only had one model from Malibu. No one in the area in fact has a place to rent the kayak I want to buy.

For me, who will use it often, buying is the way to go. Too many rivers around here to try out, too much extras I want, like a good high back seat, or a fishing setup.