Words: Rolf Kraiker

Photos: Rolf Kraiker
& Ken Hughes

Bio

Rolf is a highly qualified canoe instructor who’s guided many extensive trips in the wilderness and a professional photographer with many years of experience.
https://rolfkraiker.com/
Email: rolfkraiker@gmail.com

Thanks
Rolf is supported by the H2O Canoe Company in Ontario, Canada.
https://h2ocanoe.com

Adjusting your trim

You can randomly toss some gear into a canoe, hop in and go for a thoroughly enjoyable paddle, but there are lots of situations where it makes a canoe much easier to control if you understand how to adjust the trim on the canoe to make controlling it much easier in different situations.

Trim is how the canoe floats in the water. If the canoe is floating empty on the water, the trim will be neutral, but as you add weight to it, the canoe sinks deeper in the water, and if that weight isn’t distributed evenly, one end will sink deeper in the water than the other end. For most situations, having a bit more weight in the back of the canoe (the stern) is preferred, but there will be situations where it is better to shift weight to the front of the canoe (the bow).

A canoe-trimmed bow heavy when out for a typical paddle is hard to steer as the lighter end wants to swing around. That means you must constantly apply steering corrections, which gets very tiring. If the canoe is slightly stern-heavy, the front has less resistance on the water than the back, so it will be much easier to keep the canoe travelling in the direction you want to go.

Canoes fall into two broad categories; trim adjustment varies slightly for each. The traditional shape for canoes was symmetrical in design, the front and back half of the canoe are identical, and many modern canoes are still of traditional design. In recent years manufacturers have been making canoes that are asymmetrical in design, where the front of the canoe is shaped differently than the back, which alters performance and handling.

In a traditional canoe, it’s easier to keep it going in a straight line if trimmed sternly. By doing that, the front end lifts out of the water while the stern end sinks. That lessens the influence your movement through the water has on the bow, but having the stern deeper acts a bit like a rudder, reducing the amount of steering required to keep the canoe on track. Asymmetrical canoes generally have more rocker at the bow (raised a bit above the keel line) than the stern, which creates that rudder effect when the canoe is trimmed neutral, so it’s not as crucial for them to be trimmed stern heavy.

two canoes set up for tracking upstream. Photo Ken Hughes.

Tandem canoe
When paddled tandem, the first consideration for adjusting trim is the weight of the paddlers. If one is significantly heavier than the other, more weight needs to be closest to the lighter paddler. On a canoe trip, that can be done by placing the heaviest packs next to the lighter paddler, but if the outing is just a day paddle, a bit of pre-outing planning can help. Adjusting weight distribution by adding some rocks works, but if there’s a risk of capsizing, a canoe might sink to the bottom if the rocks get stuck. A better option is to use containers filled with water. A collapsible container is one good option, or a dry bag that is filled with water is another good option. Water is neutral in weight if the canoe should capsize, so there’s no risk of it sinking. When the canoe lands and must be carried somewhere, you can dump the water in the containers.

A tandem canoe of the traditional symmetrical design paddled solo is best done with the canoe turned around with the paddler using the other side of the bow seat. That gets the weight closer to the canoe’s centre and makes it much easier to adjust the trim with the weight of a pack or similar. Asymmetrical tandem canoes paddled solo don’t fare as well paddled from the bow seat facing backwards, but it can be done. It’s best to keep the bow facing forwards, and the best way to adjust the trim with the paddler’s weight is to replace the stern thwart with a kneeling thwart.

how the ropes are handled from shore. The angle of the canoe has the upstream end of the canoe faces across the current away from the person holding the ropes, there is a bridle on the upstream end which will roll the canoe away from the current when it is necessary to tug hard on the rope and the rope on the downstream end can be tied to the top deck. Photo Ken Hughes.

Trim is a significant factor in retaining control when paddling in the wind, as the canoe acts like a weather vane. The heavy end stays anchored in the water while the lighter end swings away from the wind. If you paddle in a tailwind, it helps to be stern and heavy, but you want the bow to be a bit heavier in a headwind. Being bow-heavy in a headwind dramatically reduces the effort required to steer the canoe.

Wind and waves usually go together, and changing trim can make a trip across a lake much easier. Every time a wave hits the canoe’s bow, its braking effect slows progress. To reduce that braking effect, paddlers can shift the packs around a bit and use the packs as seats. The bow paddler gets behind the bow seat to sit on a pack, stern paddler moves ahead of the stern seat and sits on the pack. That way, most of the weight is in the canoe’s centre, and the ends can ride over the waves instead of slicing through them. With the weight concentrated in the centre of the canoe, it is much easier to make course corrections as the bow and stern ends aren’t as deep in the water when a wave is under the middle of the canoe.

Quartering
Most often, it’s easier to paddle at an angle into a headwind, referred to as ‘quartering’. The wind against the canoe’s side acts like a sail and helps move the canoe. Quartering might mean the canoe isn’t pointed where you want to go, but you can get there by zig-zagging, alternating sides toward the wind as you move along. The wind will try to tip the canoe opposite to the side it comes from, so it can help shift a bit of weight in the canoe to the windward side to counter that. Adjusting trim side to side in the wind can be tricky, so practising that before heading out is essential. The bow paddler could be shifting weight on the bow seat, and the heaviest pack can be positioned to make it easy to slide from side to side. In some situations, it helps to have both paddlers paddling on the downwind side of the canoe to take full advantage of the wind pushing on the opposite side. In that situation, shifting weight to the other side of the canoe becomes even more critical.

Trim can be an essential factor in moving water. A stern heavy trim can put the canoe in a situation you don’t want to be in, so it’s best to have the canoe trimmed neutral before you start going down rapids. If the canoe is stern heavy as you start your run, it can cause a problem if you need to avoid a rock ahead. As you aim the canoe away from the obstacle, the current will gain force against the heavy end of the canoe and push it closer to the thing you’re trying to avoid. When that happens, the tendency is to paddle harder to gain steering, which adds to the speed on impact if you can’t get around the obstacle.

There are two ways to deal with rapids, faster than current or slower than current technique. For faster than current, the canoe should be trimmed neutral, but you want to be bow-heavy if you plan to do any slower than current moves. That technique is called ‘back ferries’ and uses the canoe’s stern to move side to side on the river in the rapids. By slowing down and pointing the stern in the direction you want to go, the current moving past will slide the canoe to the side where the stern is pointed. This technique can be very disconcerting at first for the bow paddler as that end of the canoe will be pointed to the wrong side of the thing you want to avoid, but as long as the canoe is going slower than the current, it will be pushed past the obstacle and the canoe can be swung to point downstream again. As long as the trim is bow heavy, it’s easy to change angles in the canoe and move around obstacles in the river, but if it’s stern heavy, the current can grab the stern and swing the canoe around broadside to the current, and that’s not the kind of thing you want happening in rapids.

Getting in and out
It is crucial to think about trim when getting in and out of a canoe that is in a current. The person paddling the downstream end of the canoe should be the first one to get in and the last to get out. You always want the end of the canoe that’s downstream to be heavy. Often paddlers get in the habit of having the bow person get out first, as they are usually closest to shore. If the canoe is pointed downstream when it comes to shore, and the bow person gets out first, the stern sinks deeper, and the force of the current can swing the canoe around, often with very unpleasant results. If the person upstream gets out first, it’s easy to hold the canoe in place while the downstream person gets out.

Bridle pull

Ropes
Trimming becomes important when moving a canoe up or down a section of rapids from shore with ropes. You always want to trim the canoe to be downstream heavy. Lining is moving the canoe downstream; tracking is moving the canoe upstream.

Lining a canoe is easier than tracking and has less chance of swamping it. For short sections of rapids with a reasonably clear line, You can get away with attaching a rope to the stern deck long enough to clear the rapid. Just push the canoe into the current, let it drift down and then pull it to shore with the rope once it’s in calm water. Leaving a pack at the front of the canoe or moving the pack in the stern to the bow ensures the upstream end of the canoe is less affected by current, while the downstream end can act like a rudder and keep the canoe in line.

Upstream rope
Moving a canoe up a section of rapids is more challenging and can have disastrous outcomes if not handled properly. The safest way to do this involves tying a bridle to the upstream end of the canoe. You can get away with simply tying another rope to the deck of the downstream end. If the upstream rope is tied to the deck of the canoe, there is a high probability it could swamp and get pinned if the canoe goes out of line, and you have to tug hard to bring it back in line. The upstream gunnel will roll into the current, which has the same effect as grabbing gunnels when a canoe tips. The gunnel goes underwater, the canoe fills with water, and the weight of that water, combined with the force of the current, is more than you can hang on to. You have to let go of the rope, and if you are unlucky, the canoe will get wedged onto rocks, and the canoe will fold in half from the force of the current.

Deck pull

When tracking, I like to bring canoes up rapids stern first. That way, I can tie the bridle to the stern seat of the canoe, which puts it closer to the canoe’s end, making it easier to control. The bridle winds up becoming a Y-shaped rope. The long portion (bottom) of the Y is the end you’ll use onshore, and the shorter ends of the Y are just long enough to be tied to one end on each of the opposite sides of the seat. The goal is to have the intersection of all three ropes land firmly on the keel line under the canoe; that would be the point where all three lines of the Y meet. If you have to pull on the rope from shore, the canoe will roll away from the current. Pulling on the bridle makes downstream leans, and pulling on a rope tied to the deck makes upstream leans. You’ll want to put one pack ahead of the bow seat to ensure the canoe is trimmed to be downstream heavy.

With this setup, you can move the canoe around in the rapids to avoid obstacles. Keep the upstream end of the canoe angled away from you so the current keeps some pressure on the hull, and adjust the position with the rope attached to the downstream end. Most of the movement upstream is done with the rope at the back, and the front rope is used to change angles to get sideways movement on the river. You lose control if the upstream end crosses the current to your side.

Bridle seat

Towed
Another great application of the bridle is any time a canoe needs to be towed behind a motorboat. The same principles apply, tie the bridle on the stern seat and put a pack at the other end near the bow seat.

Adjusting the trim on a canoe to suit different situations gives you a lot more control, and it lessens the effort required. Proper trim in the wind and white water dramatically increases safety.

Y-knot