Just have to add my two cents. The biggest consideration: what do you want to do with your canoe. Speed racer, white water, lake curiser, going out with the grandkids or having a good time with a non skilled canoeist. If you want to make someone mad in a canoe just try and constantly tell them the RIGHT way to do it :evil: .
Another consideration: local weather conditions. Can you always wait for the perfect calm day to take your canoe out. If on a lake trip can wait out the weather. When I took young scouts out, the most frustrating part of the trip, was watching them learn how to get the canoe going in straight line even with a keel. You would have the bow person doing all of the work and the guy in the stern being the rudder guy and the guy in the middle sticking their fingers in the water. After about 5 days of working as a team they could finally get the Coleman canoes going straight and work with the lake cross winds. (The Coleman canoes had both "lake" and "white water" keels)
As far as the great drag debate. I think having your Grandkids, kids or significant other put their fingers in the water causes more drag. Talking to your partner and looking around will slow you done more.
It is great to be an Expert but everyone has to start some where. Some are born experts and others just want to have fun.
Keels on all boats are designed to try and make you go straight, and reduce cross wind effects. Even with a keel, a skilled bow and stern paddler can turn a canoe on a dime, go sideways and run white water. You can do that with a rowboat too, if you know what you are doing.
Think about what you want to do with the canoe. Try it without a keel with your primary paddler and then with a temp keel. The idea of using hot glue to tack on the keel is a great idea.
With a properly installed keel, I have never had one hang me up, but they have really saved the bottom on my canoe on the Northern Lakes hidden rocks. Five days into a 10 day trip out in the middle of the lake and the bow person misses a rock, 3 inches below the surface in 50 feet of water.
Have fun with your canoe
Vern
Adding a keel?
My two cents on the drag issue, FWIW... besides increasing the total wetted surface area, a keel can also reduce forward momentum when the canoe sideslips a little to the left or right while paddling forward. Some paddlers might be able to keep the canoe oriented going forward in a perfectly straight line, but IMO, most paddle with the bow driftiing off slightly right and left from the intended straight line forward. When this happens, the momentum of the canoe and contents makes the canoe keep going forward, but the orientation of the hull is a little off to the right or left, until the paddler corrects. The boat sideslips a little, still moving forward, and the keel, instead of being aligned perfectly parallel to the flow of water underneath, now is moving a little sideways, pushing more water out of the way and creating more drag.
With a smooth-bottomed hull, the drag from the ongoing slideslipping back and forth is less, and the paddling should be more efficient, if the canoe is kept on a more or less straight course. I'd use a low keel mainly for abrasion resistance, actually a skid plate glued on at the keel line would be more suitable.
Maybe a minor point, in the overall enjoyment of the canoe, but adding on a keel to make paddling more efficient might be needless work, both in the workshop and on the water.
With a smooth-bottomed hull, the drag from the ongoing slideslipping back and forth is less, and the paddling should be more efficient, if the canoe is kept on a more or less straight course. I'd use a low keel mainly for abrasion resistance, actually a skid plate glued on at the keel line would be more suitable.
Maybe a minor point, in the overall enjoyment of the canoe, but adding on a keel to make paddling more efficient might be needless work, both in the workshop and on the water.