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Gheenoe HistoryGheenoe Home Gheenoe AccessoriesNothing really beats a canoe when it comes to getting into tight spots, but not everyone is comfortable in the confines of the typical canoe's 14- to 18-foot length and 36-inch width. Over the years, anglers and hunters have tried numerous variations on the basic design, adding modifications intended to make the boats paddle or pole just as easily and float just as shallow, but offer more stability. The result, no matter how well engineered, has always been a compromise. There were a lot of people who thought Harley Gheen was going overboard when he started building his Gheenoe. Fact of the matter is, that's the exact reason Harley Gheen did it. As a trout fisherman on the Little Tennessee River outside his native Knoxville, Gheen had to be dunked only three times before he decided he could build something better than a tippy canoe. A designer by trade and now senior designer with Bendix Launch Support Systems at the Kennedy Space Center, it wasn't until 1967 that Gheen got serious about his Gheenoe. He sat down, carved out a one-eighth scale model and used the family bath tub as a testing facility. |
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Four years and as many modified designs later Gheen was satisfied his boat was perfect. At fist glance, you'd think somebody tried to cross a bass boat with a square-ended canoe, the canoe look above the water line and the suggestion of a bass boat below. The bottom suggests a tri-hull, with the accent on flatness but it's the unusual design that grabs your imagination. The Gheenoe's similarity with the canoe also stops when you step in, if for no other reason that the boat doesn't go sliding out from under your feet like a bar of soap or tip under the weight of three 200-pound men leaning over the side. It's the incorporation of the outrigger theory that provides the surprising stability. "I wanted a small boat that had the speed and weight of a canoe but the stability of a bass boat," says Gheen, "and I wanted something that could run in extremely shallow water." Tests have proven the boat will not flip or slide on sharp cornering and as many as three swimmers can board from the same side at one time despite only eight inches of free board. The Gheenoe can be paddled in three-inch depths and if on a full plane, and with an outboard featuring a short shaft, can plane in three and a half inches. For idling motor speed, 10 inches of water is required. "I admit the Gheenoe doesn't have as much speed as a canoe but it's three times faster than a Jon boat and three times more stable," says Gheen.
