What is the difference between a kayak and a canoe?

Question

What is the difference between a kayak and a canoe?

Answer 1

The number of people who can fit in the boat has nothing to do with it.  Also, not all kayaks are completely enclosed, some you actually sit on top.  The main difference is that a canoe has high sides and you sit on a bench-type seat or kneel on the floor and paddle with a single paddle on one side.  In a kayak, which sits lower in the water, you sit down inside it on the floor, either in a hole in the top in a closed boat or tucked down between the sides in an open boat, and you paddle with a 7 or 8 foot long double-ended paddle on alternate sides of the boat.  Kayaks tend to be longer and much narrower (and, in my opinion, easier to paddle.)

There are kayak models that can take 1, 2 or even 3 people but most commonly they are for one person.  There are different models for white water rapids (short, fat boats) and for flatwater touring on oceans, lakes and rivers (long and thin boats).  

However, there are some canoes, like C-1's, that are very similar to open kayaks so it is not always clear-cut.

Answer 2

A cannoe, I beleive, has a much more rounded bow and stern

Answer 3

Canoes have open tops, kayaks are enclosed, with a hole for the paddler. They are also shaped somewhat differently and paddled differently.

Answer 4

A kayak is one person and a canoe can fit up to 3 people in it.

Answer 5

a kayak is a one persone boat and a conoe fits a whole family and the paddles are differant

Answer 6

A kayak is typically covered with a hole to sit in. Today, we hve sit on sea kayaks and semi open 2 person kayaks. They are paddled with a 2 headed paddle. The seats are on the bottom.

Canoes are open, they have seats, but you should kneel on the bottom. The paddles have only one head. You paddle on one side. Size is not a factor in defining kayak or canoe, each may be from 6 to 18 feet(not counting the war canoes in the islands,)The shape is similar, bow stern and width.

Answer 7

A kayak is enclosed and typically for one person only, although they do make 2 person kayaks. A canoe is open. Also, in a kayak you sit on the bottom so they aren't as easy to tip since your center of gravity is low, unlike a canoe where you're perched on a seat.