This review of Nova Craft Canoe’s Moisie was originally published in Canoeroots and Family Camping magazine.
Nova Craft has reinvented a boat with an enviable reputation among river trippers. The long-defunct Blue Hole Canoe Company of Sunbright, Tennessee, first released this canoe in the early ‘80s as the Cumberland. Steve Scarborough, creator of the celebrated Mad River Canoe Caption, was responsible for its original design. Evergreen Canoes then reproduced it as the Starburst in the 1990s.
The now legendary, highly rockered hull design has never been bettered as a river running tripping canoe. However, since Evergreen stopped making boats several years ago, a re-sale market hardly exists—why would anyone sell a boat this good? So, a hungry frustrated market for this boat built quickly as time passed.
Enter Nova Craft Canoe of London, Ontario. They created a new mold carefully taken from the dimensions of the Cumberland and Starburst, and in response to paddler demand, began pressing Royalex. The new hull was christened the Moisie in honor of the iconic Quebec white-knuckle river. At first glance, the Moisie is a dead ringer of the Starburst. It is the same 16-foot four-inch hull with aggressive rocker and a very round bottom. It isn’t until you get out the tape measure that you realize the subtle improvements Nova Craft has made.
With each iteration, this boat has become deeper. The Moisie is half an inch deeper than the Starburst, making a dry boat even dryer.
“Hollow vinyl gunwales are prone to collapsing at the points where the seat and yoke bolts pass through,” says Roch Prevost of Nova Craft, “so we inserted a tough vinyl bushing into an oversized hole at these locations to take the pressure, and bingo, we have a simple solution to grossly sunken bolt washers.”
The Starburst hull was prone to a splitting of the interior vinyl just forward of the stern paddler’s knees—most likely from flexing of the floor when running the boat empty. A new Moisie has a hull completely lacking in flex because of the heavier expedition-grade material Nova Craft is calling Royalex Plus. It also comes in stan- dard industry Royalex. The seats are set in an optimum tripping position, maximizing the load carrying space with room for far more than two 60-liter barrels between the bow seat and the yoke and two more to fit snugly between the yoke and the stern thwart.
Any real-world comparison of this hull with other boats highlights its exceptional dryness and maneuverability. It should be mentioned here that the Moisie is a boat that begs for whitewater outfitting—thigh straps, contoured kneepads, flotation bag cages and forward-tilted seats bring it to life. Our demo boat came without outfitting so we set shaped kneepads loosely in the bottom and set out to do some turns.
The Moisie sweetly initiates, turns and carves like a playboat. It feels even better carrying a load as the extra weight sits the boat lower in the water, adding stability. It is so responsive to input from both bow and stern thanks to its heavy rocker and dramatically rounded bottom that new paddlers may find it requires a lot of minding to keep it straight. But advanced paddlers will be left smiling and wondering if they should finally send their scarred and treasured veteran Starbursts out into the resale market.
If you are going to travel a river straight through and just enjoy the scenery, there are many other boats that will float you. But this is the boat for playful three-week river adventures far from the maddening world.
Nova Craft Canoe Moisie specs
- Length: 16’6”
- Width at gunwales: 34”
- Depth at bow: 26”
- Depth at center: 15”
- Depth at stern: 26”
- Weight: Royalex plus, vinyl trim, 77 lbs | Royalex, aluminum trim, 67 lbs
- MSRP: $1,899 CAD
- www.novacraft.com
This article originally appeared in Canoeroots & Family Camping, Spring 2013. Download our free iPad/iPhone/iPod Touch App or Android App or read it here.
