By Jordan Wood Boats
Item No: SR

Swamp Rat is a quickly and easily built canoe that is modeled after the Cajun pirogue, the time-tested utility boat of the Louisiana bayous. She incorporates many of the qualities that have made this type of boat one of the handiest and most popular of small craft for use on sheltered waters, whether for fishing, waterfoul hunting, or just exploring the inexhaustible backwaters that are the last remaining cruising grounds for the solitary paddler.
    As with all of my designs, I like to study the origins of the different craft to try to approximate hull forms that have proven over time to be most efficient for their purpose, keeping in mind that the people who developed these boats had only oar, paddle, pole, or sail for propulsion. 

Their boats therefore simply had to be of efficient form. So I designed a hull that incorporated moderate rocker for maneuverability, narrow beam for easy propulsion, moderate side flair for reserve buoyancy, shallow draft and other features that resulted in an attractive, efficient and easy-to-build boat.
    I was more than pleased with her appearance, and the water trials far exceeded my expectations. Swamp Rat proved to be quite fast and maneuverable both with a single occupant in the comfortable webbed middle seat with a double paddle or with two paddlers in the ends with canoe paddles.