Swift Canoes Prospector 16 & Combi

An Ultra Lightweight Open Canoe For Expeditions & Families

The Swift Canoes Prospector 16 is an ultra lightweight open canoes that is perfectly suited to either family paddling or multi day touring style expeditions. With a design that is well known and loved world wide Swift Canoes version of the Prospector 16 offers everything you could want from a Prospector hull shape and then some. Taking inspiration from the original chestnut design, the designer of this canoe David Yost has slightly lowered the rounded chine to allow waves & chop to dissipate under the hull with out too much of an effect on paddling performance. A moderate tumble starting mid way up the freeboard has a 2 fold effect, firstly to allow wind to roll over the canoe rather than push it towards a bank and secondly to create the fell of the water being easier to reach for both the bow and stern paddlers. 

The interior of the Swift Canoes Prospector 16 is constructed from Cherry wood to give a light and robust feel. A Bow and Stern contoured Cherry Wood webbed seat takes the pressure out of the underside of the paddlers legs giving the most comfortable paddling position. A super comfortable cherry yoke make lifting and loading this ultra lightweight tandem canoe easy if you need to do it solo, but if you have help then some well shaped cherry handles either end of the canoe accommodate this.  Built in buoyancy tanks at the bow and stern are big enough to offer enough buoyancy on flat water paddling to ensure the canoe stays afloat in most worst case scenarios.

Versa Bow Seat: The Prospector 16 can come kitted out with the popular addition of the versa bow seat, this seat is perfect for paddlers looking to take on some solo paddling as well as tandem. The Versa bow seat has been designed with an extra webbing strap making it slightly deeper and both the front and rear of the bow seat are contoured. This allows when solo paddling for the paddler to paddle the Prospector 16 in reverse in a more comfortable position that is slightly closer to the middle of the canoe and its ideal trim point. 

Combi: Swift Canoes offer the Prospector 16 in a Combi model, this model incorporates an additional removable centre seat and removable yoke. The additional centre seat makes the combi into either a 2 or 3 seater canoe which is ideal for family paddling but not limiting as if you are planning to tandem paddle the centre seat can be taken out allowing for more space to store all you kit. If paddling solo the combi can also help trim the canoe perfectly as the centre seat can be use putting you right in the mid of the boat. A removable yoke finishes off the Combi version in style, quick to put on and take off the yoke allows for easier portage but can then be removed to allow either the 3rd paddler to have more room or more room for kit.

The standard UK construction for all Swift Canoes is Kevlar Fusion, this offers the best strength to weight ratio of all Swifts construction types. Featuring a exterior layer of polyester as well as S-Glass and kevlar cloth infused with a urethane resin system these laminate canoes are able to take scratches and scrapes well in their stride. They can have the thin layer of gel coat repaired as a standard gel coat finish would be repaired but this is not a must thanks to the infusion process. A carbon kevlar gunwale keeps the weight to a minimum and is constructed using a unique process enabling Swift Canoes to infuse them to the canoe, this makes the strongest bond between canoe and gunwale.

Swift do offer a huge array of material options, outfitting choices and custom builds. If you would like to design you own a super canoe from Swifts many options, and have a custom-built boat, then we would highly recommend taking a look at the Swift Website. Here you will find a custom boat building tool, and some fantastic videos which clearly explain the many features, outfitting choices and materials available.