UNITED STATES - CIRCA 1957: Canoes turned bottom side up on shore of unidentified lake in Maine. (Photo by Dmitri Kessel/Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images). The location of this image is Minnesota United States. Copyright: Time & Life Pictures

A canoe (North American English ) or Canadian canoe (British English ) is a small narrow boat , typically human-powered, though it may also be powered by sails or small electric or gas motors. Canoes are usually pointed at both bow and stern and are normally open on top, but can be decked over (i.e. covered, similar to a kayak ).
In its human-powered form, the canoe is propelled by the use of paddles , usually by two people. Paddlers face in the direction of travel, either seated on supports in the hull , or kneeling directly upon the hull. Paddling can be contrasted with rowing , where the rowers usually face away from the direction of travel and use mounted oars (though a wide canoe can be fitted with oarlocks and rowed). Paddles may be single-bladed or double-bladed.
The oldest recovered canoe in the world is the Pesse canoe found in the Netherlands. According to C14 dating analysis it was constructed somewhere between 8200 and 7600 BC. This canoe is exhibited in the Drents Museum in Assen , Netherlands.
Sailing canoes (see Canoe sailing ) are propelled by means of a variety of sailing rigs. Common classes of modern sailing canoes include the 5 m² and the International 10 m² Sailing canoes. The latter is otherwise known as the International Canoe, and is one of the fastest and oldest competitively sailed boat classes in the western world. The log canoe of the Chesapeake Bay is in the modern sense not a canoe at all, though it evolved through the enlargement of dugout canoes.

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