Swift Canoes Keewaydin 16

An Ultra Lightweight & Tough Open Canoe

The Swift Canoes Keewaydin 16 is a brilliant touring or tripping style open canoe ideally suited for either day paddles, longer weekend trips and even week long treks. The Keewaydin accelerates well through the water and glides with every paddle stroke. With an Asymmetrical hull design allowing for a longer sleeker front entry line and a moderate amount of rocker at the bow of the canoe enabling a more manoeuvrable front. A very rounded chine area makes the Keewaydin handle wind and waves well, this rounded hull allows the waves to roll under the canoe with little affect of them moving the Keewaydin around. The stern of the canoe is very straight which gives great straight line tracking, but also allows the rear of the canoe to follow the more manoeuvrable bow around with ease.

Internally like all Swift Canoes they are stunningly built. With a lovely contoured Cherry Wood bow and stern seat the Keewaydin is comfortable in both a seated and perched kneeling position. The Keewaydin 16 also comes with a matching Cherry wood carrying yoke which is sculpted to contour around your neck and shoulders making it comfortable as in a Swift Canoe you can actually use it for its designed purpose of portaging the canoe. Lovely Cherry wood carry handles on the front and rear mean that if you are tandem paddling both paddlers have a comfortable handle to move the Keewaydin around.

The Keewaydin 16 is also available in a combi version, the combi version of the Keewaydin 16 replaces the carrying yoke with a centre seat. This is ideal if you are a family of 3 looking to take a child out on the water with you. It also give you a more versatile paddling canoe, as the Keewaydin has an asymmetrical hull design, when paddling solo, where some paddlers like to take the bow seat and paddle the canoe backwards to get a better trim. This is not possible in a Keewaydin 16s hull shape however with the Combi version you can solo paddle from the mid seat position forwards to give a better overall canoe trim and a lovely on the water feel.

Constructed from the superbly lightweight Kevlar Fusion material the Keewaydin 16 weighs as little as 17.2kgs. Swifts Kevlar fusion material is one of their most popular laminate canoe constructions due to its fantastic strength to weight ratio. Constructed with a urethane resin system for top durability and longevity along with a thin layer of exterior gel coat. The hull is made up of an exterior layer of polyester as well as S-Glass and kevlar cloth layers sandwiching a durable foam cored ribbing system. The laminate fused together with a high impact and flexible urethane acrylate resin system injected during high pressure infusion process produces an optimal dispersion and laminate consistency. Based on a laminate material construction Kevlar Fusion is a popular material as it offers great abrasion and impact resistance. These canoes can be finished in some wonderful colours giving a real vibrant exterior look. Swift Canoes have developed a superb UV shield that they now use on all their hulls! This adds even better protection and more scratch resistance which all laminate canoe paddlers crave. The UV shield helps to reduce the impact of UV rays on Swift Canoes laminates as well as allowing Swift to reduce the overall boats weight. This adds some scratch resistance to the hull, while scratches will initially still be visible, after applying a light coating of spray on and wipe off 303 aerospace protectant to the hull, scratches are far less visable - if visable at all. Scratches are less of a concern when paddling a Swift Canoe anyway, due to the laminate being impregnated with the urethane acrylate resin, this means the laminate material of a Swift hull is never actually exposed with a need for repair, unlike most other brands using laminates for construction. Don't forget as with any laminate canoe, a single application of 303 aerospace protectant will only last for a few of trips so to keep that shiny look re-application will be required.

When you make a Keewaydin from the brilliant Kevlar Fusion lightweight material it is vital to keep the weight down as not to undo all the great work Swift have done. So coupling up with a super lightweight Carbon Kevlar trim is the ideal solution. Using their unique process enables them to infuse the canoe hull and gunwales together as one part making a bond between the hull and trim. This stunning looking trim is maintenance free meaning gives a super lightweight feel to these canoes and makes it a pleasure to use and portage.

Swift Canoes are one of the leading manufacturers in lightweight laminate canoes and can also offer as massive range of bespoke custom outfitting options, so you really can make your dream canoe. For some of the options in materials, trims and optional extra outfitting's take a look out our ' Materials & Trim' or 'Custom Options' Tabs. We import and advertise the top selling Swift Canoe models, specs and colours based on UK paddling, however we are always more than happy to help if there is a custom model, material, trim, colour or outfitting option you require for your dream canoe.

Please Note: Custom option lightweight Swift Canoes generally have a longer lead time and it is best to Contact Us to enquire about spec, price and current lead times.