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AIBU?

to expect people to use the terms 'kayak' and 'canoe' properly?

92 replies

NotQuiteCockney · 26/07/2007 18:07

I am just thinking about buying a canoe. Canoes are open boats. Kayaks are the closed ones. Yes, really. I'm Canadian. I would know!

But thanks to British confusion, the terms seem to be used randomly on ebay.

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NadineBaggott · 26/07/2007 18:08

when all's said and done it's a boat isn't it?

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FrannyandZooey · 26/07/2007 18:08

pmsl

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NotQuiteCockney · 26/07/2007 18:09

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allgonebellyup · 26/07/2007 18:09

ha ha
what a joke

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TheArmadillo · 26/07/2007 18:09

I think in Britain we often use canoe when we mean kayak.

It would irritate me if I could ever remember which was which.

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heifer · 26/07/2007 18:12

do you know I was just talking about this to my friend the other day..

It really gets my goat....

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MadEyemarthamooDy · 26/07/2007 18:15

Oh, I agree - this happens to me practically every day and it's very annoying. I have had so many 'canoes' delivered that, when they turn up, are actually kayaks.


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NotQuiteCockney · 26/07/2007 18:20

Right, I'm making iced tea now.

And I'm going to call it 'tea'.

Seriously, it's bloody annoying, I've had arguments with brits about it. It's hardly important, but it's irritating, you'd think if you were selling one you'd know the right name!

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NotQuiteCockney · 26/07/2007 18:21

Canoes = open, deeper. Paddles have blade on only one end. Normally has two people in it.

Kayak = closed, shallower. Can do rolls. Double-bladed paddle. Normally has one person in it.

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NotQuiteCockney · 26/07/2007 18:22

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Saturn74 · 26/07/2007 18:22

It's a long time since I went canoodling.

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Troutpout · 26/07/2007 18:23

Surely you mean a dinghy?.
We call them dinghys in our house
Canoes are closed ones aren't they?

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MadEyemarthamooDy · 26/07/2007 18:25

Canoe - hard to see how two people fit, actually

Kayak

Easy peasy lemon squeezy.

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FrannyandZooey · 26/07/2007 18:25

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Twiglett · 26/07/2007 18:27

nope

learnt canoeing when at school

it was closed

I fell in the Mersey and nearly drowned but I died of blood poisoning first

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Twiglett · 26/07/2007 18:27

ROFL at moo .. good ones, like the slight surreality

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Twiglett · 26/07/2007 18:29

NQC, my friendly canadian just send them this link

but really, its canadian .. nobody cares, aye

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aloha · 26/07/2007 18:29

Roffling at moo.

It's a problem isn't it? Once I ordered a tomato and got a tomayto. I nearly called the whole thing off.

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Twiglett · 26/07/2007 18:30

oh good one Aloha

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DontCallMeBaby · 26/07/2007 18:34

It's not terribly unreasonable to expect people selling stuff on Ebay to call it by the right terms, it helps with the selling, after all. However my MAIN reason for wanting to get this one right ALWAYS is that I got corrected on it at Christmas. By a three-year-old. Bah.

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hufflebranpuff · 26/07/2007 18:36

I came to say YABU, but then I saw it was you and I'm forced to admit that you're just being foreign, not unreasonable.

Where are you going to canoe? Not the grim waterways of NE London I hope.

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MadEyemarthamooDy · 26/07/2007 18:37

Roffling back at aloha

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iota · 26/07/2007 18:42

I've found a pedal kayak I think we should just call it a bicycle and be done with it

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NotQuiteCockney · 26/07/2007 18:42

Ahem. Twiglett, it's spelt 'eh'. Not 'aye'. We're not pirates, eh?

I am indeed planning to canoe the grim waterways of NE London. I am going canoeing or kayaking with a group on Sunday morning, in the local grim waterway.

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NotQuiteCockney · 26/07/2007 18:43

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