hou canoes

The All New Hou Canoes Prospector...

Where do you start?

Well, let us begin. We needed a Prospector, lots of customers were asking us for one and we knew they were right, so we started. The first thing we realised was if you want to buy a Prospector then you face a tricky process.

There are many Prospectors out there, some are heavier than others, some paddle better than others, some cost more and some cost less. Its a Prospector mine field out there kids, especially when a significant number of the boats you see online, you then discover are not available in the UK, most annoying!

Anyways, we knew we could over come all those issues so off we went. What shape Prospector is the next question. The most well known and most respected Prospector shape is the Classic Chestnut Prospector, so we will start with that boat as the concept and crack on shaping the 'plug'.

Next big question is, what length do you want? Having spoken to many paddlers and prospective Prospector buyers (see what I did there!) it seems that everybody is faced with a difficult decision. 15 or 16??

The 15 will be great as a solo boat but commonly when you start to load her up a bit she becomes quite wet on the bouncy stuff, try to paddle her tandem with kit in, its not much fun. So maybe the 16? Go for the 16 and unless you are built like the 'Jolly Green Giant' and like to take cans of sweet corn with you on the river, the 16 will be a big old unit to move around both on and off the water. It seemed to us like there was an clear hole in the market here and the answer is simple. We need to make a 15 and 1/2 foot boat that drops straight in the middle. Its obvious!! This boat will paddle well as a solo boat, cope well with tandem and load carrying trips, whilst also not be too heavy for the portage, even if thats only on and off the roof of the car.

After over a year of work the first boats came out of the mould last week. With more than a little trepidation Dave Rossetter, Jules Burnard, Mike Ryder and myself went off to a quiet stretch of water to see how she paddled.

The faces said it all!! Simply put,,,,,,, paddling this boat makes you smile!!!

The boat is 15' 8" long, 36" wide and 14" deep at centre, but maybe more importantly the weight? With our latest version of the continually developed A.R.N.I.3 material the weight could be just 30Kgs after we finish initial moulding tests. Retail price is starting at £919.99 as standard set up but can of course be custom built with kneeling thwart, lacing, buoyancy, sailing seat, etc etc.

We will have of course have full write ups from the guys in the next few days but for now I can't seem to get them to sit in front of a keyboard long enough to write down there experiences thus far!

So if you see any of the above culprits out and about, can you do me a favour and tell them to "get out of the boat and write the article"!!!!

Thanks!