My wife will not take our 14 month old or the soon to come 2nd child out in the canoe in the river. Its not that we are inexperiance canoers. We have many float trips and 600+ mile in the BWCA. She is worryed that if we have a flip (never had one yet) that our daughters would float down the river and get stuck in strainers. Of course being the typical guy I am I said we would not flip, this did not change her mind. The section of river that I want to fish is the Rum River between Princeton and Cambridge. It is a sandy section that has little to no rocks, a lesser gradiant but it as alot of strainers. She said she would fish it from a more stable boat, so I instantly thought of a Jon Boat. So I asked my a friend that as some experiance in rivers and he was concerned about a few things. First, a 14 ft jon boat has a capaity 3 people, I will have four very soon. Second, in his experiacne with the PA Fish and Boat commission they have alot of fatalities with Jon Boats due to the the little free board they have. He indicated that if a Jon boat gets upstream and sidways to a strainer they can and usally do flip very quickly. I told him I have seen small 14 ft semi-v boats on this section of river and he thought that might be a safer route. Since I am on a very tight budget, those 14 ft semi-v are easyer to purchase. I would really apprecaite the advice any of you have, so please post your thoughts and opinions.
Thanks
I think the same would be said for any small boat.