Canoe Trim Calculator

Setting stern paddler weight to 0 lets the calculator model a solo canoe correctly — all the "stern" weight then comes only from whatever gear you've placed toward that end, so trim is computed purely from bow paddler weight plus gear distribution. For solo trim, most paddlers actually sit closer to center or even paddle from a stern-facing position, so treat the bow/stern split more loosely than for a two-paddler tandem setup.

A slight stern bias helps lift the bow so it rides over waves and tracks straighter, at a modest cost to how easily the canoe turns — that tradeoff is why 55% stern is the built-in general-paddling target rather than perfect balance. It's a default, not a law: solo paddling, heavy tripping loads, or rough water often call for a different ideal, so use the trim score as a tuning reference rather than a strict pass/fail.

It compares your current stern weight fraction to the 55% ideal fraction and multiplies the difference by your total load: a positive result means you're more stern-heavy than ideal and should shift that many pounds toward the bow, while a negative result means the opposite. This is calculated independently of the trim score itself, so it stays accurate even at extreme deviations where the score has already bottomed out.

No — capacity used is a completely separate calculation that just compares your total load against the canoe's rated weight limit as a safety check. You could have a perfect 100 trim score while still being dangerously over capacity, or a poor trim score while well under capacity, since the two figures track different risks.