Keewaydin 16

A decade ago for my 60th birthday, I bought a Swift Temagami 17′ canoe in kevlar. It was a great boat for the past 10 years, but now months away from my 70th birthday (and a full hip replacement last fall), I found I needed a lighter boat for portaging. The carbon fusion Keewaydin 16 with carbon trim option is the perfect boat for the decade ahead. The proof was last week where I carried the canoe 1.7 km non-stop without any difficulty at all. In fact, I could have kept going, and this was one of many portages that trip. As the title of my post indicates, it’s a “game changer” for me, as I can now continue to enjoy longer trips with significant portaging, as if I were in my 20’s again carrying the old Peterborough canvas covered canoe (but I’m sure my back would have thanked me if I had been able to paddle and carry this carbon canoe back then!!).

Not only is the canoe light, it paddles beautifully. It’s quick, agile, and handles large rolling waves very well (and that says a lot from a guy who is used to the much larger Temagami). My paddling partner of many many years noticed a significant increase in our speed without any more effort. Gotta love that!

Finally, Bill, Brandon and the rest of the Swift team were a pleasure to deal with while sorting out options and arranging for the final build. Great personal, customer-focused service. Couldn’t be happier!

We purchased the kevlar fusion with the carbon kevlar trim. Use case is quite broad from overnighters to week long trips.

The canoe tracks brilliantly and is very fast. The boat has a lower profile and I find each stroke powerfully connects with the water. Was efficient going into a head wind and didn’t find that we got blown around at all (despite the light weight of the canoe). Also, no major balance issues despite a excited dog in the cockpit!

Portaging is obviously a dream with a 35lb canoe. I am able to easily carry a 75 liter bag and the canoe – two trip portages are now a thing of the past. One complaint (and could be very subjective/personal) is that I didn’t find the yoke comfortable. Minor issue and wouldn’t be a problem if your average portage day is around 1-2km. But for long portage days this yoke really hurt my shoulders. I will look to replace the yoke for something that better fits my shoulders.

We installed skid plates ourselves using the Swift products (skid plates + coloured resin). Installation turned out great (make sure you have a good environment and prep the boat diligently), the colour match was perfect and Swift skid plates are more low-key compared to other big/ugly skid plates you see on some canoes. If you install the skid plates yourself, highly recommend to reach out to the factory and seek clarification on the Swift instruction PDF. There is some ambiguity in the instructions and also additional steps/pointers the factory team informed us of. Ideally, I would just get the factory to do it for you.

Overall, we am super happy with the canoe. Many years of great paddling await!

This is our first canoe, and we were looking for quite a lot from it: a tripping canoe for the family (2 adults and a dog), as well as a solo for longer trips. The Keewaydin 16 Combi fits the bill perfectly, with the bonus we could day trip with a 3rd person if we wanted. Its responsive and quick, and as a solo its great (with some ballast aboard for windy days). The 16 is just the right size for us, we typically pack light and could easily do 4-5 days in it with the dog, or much longer solo. Its a beautiful canoe, couldnt be happier, and looking forward to a lifetime of adventures with it!

Love our keewaydin 16! So easy to carry for us seniors. But it is a solid performer. Got it May 2024 and have had it out on a lake with strong wind and big chop, on a river in high wind and current, and this boat tracked beautifully through all of that. Looking forward to many years of happy paddling (and less wind).

What a beautiful boat! We took it out yesterday and had wind, waves and some flat water, it performed really well.

It is so light compared to our Prospector (which we also love), and it is so quick. It doesn’t turn into the wind either like our older canoe. The badger paddles also made a huge difference to our overall fatigue through the day. We can’t wait to

take it out on some loops!